January 27, 2005

Caroline's Viewing Habits

So Kathleen was reading Caroline a book yesterday, and on one page a beach scene was pictured. Seagulls were depicted fluttering around.

One of the things you do with picture books is, naturally, see if the child can name the things pictured. So Kathleen pointed at the seagulls and said, "What are these?"

"Birds," Caroline said.

"Very good."

Then Caroline took another look at the seagulls. Her eyes widened, and suddenly she started saying, "Mine? Mine? Mine mine mine?"

So now I'm wondering if letting her watch "Finding Nemo," like, eighty seven times, wasn't the world's best idea.

PAD

Posted by Peter David at January 27, 2005 11:06 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commenting
Comments
Posted by: MasonK at January 27, 2005 11:39 AM

Well, at least she knows what a seagull sounds like...

Posted by: kingbobb at January 27, 2005 11:50 AM

Have you played the clip showing them saying "mine" in about 8 different languages?

At least she doesn't look at crabs and go "heyyyy, hey! Hey hey!"

Posted by: Ryuukuro at January 27, 2005 11:50 AM

But it wasn't the seagull that said "mine mine mine." It was some other kind of bird but I don't know what they are. It's probably accurate though. Birds (parrots excluded) aren't known for being smart.

Posted by: Paul J. Taylor at January 27, 2005 11:52 AM

My fifteen-month-old calls every illustrated character in any picture book "Dora."

Posted by: Bill Mulligan at January 27, 2005 12:26 PM

"Birds (parrots excluded) aren't known for being smart."

Well, they have to be at least smarter than fish.

Posted by: Fred Chamberlain at January 27, 2005 12:32 PM

Has she seen the Empire Strikes Back? That line was used by Yoda as he is introduced to us and remains one of my favorites from the entire series.

Fred

Posted by: Tim Lynch at January 27, 2005 12:56 PM

Oh, that's hilarious.

We've been using a book called "Where's Spot?" as occasional pre-nap reading for Katherine. It's got a mother dog looking for her puppy, and lots of "is he under the stairs?" sort of questions where you pull a tab and find that no, something else is under the stairs steering you to the next place.

One animal that appears in the book is a penguin (or rather, a flock of them). Since the gulls in Nemo were modeled after Feathers McGraw (the penguin from "Wallace & Gromit"), whenever I'm voicing the penguins I can never avoid bringing up the occasional "mine? mine? mine?" as part of the response.

Now I'm wondering whether that's a good thing. :-)

(And since I missed the good window in the other thread, let me just say SUPER-cute snow pictures.)

TWL

Posted by: darrell at January 27, 2005 02:45 PM

Slightly off topic story a co-worker told me. One day he was leaving the house with his young daughter and upon stepping outside she waved her arms around gesturing to all that she saw and exclaimed "Mine!"

I think that's how the Donald started out.

Posted by: Jennifer at January 27, 2005 03:16 PM

For Caroline and all the other seagull fans out there... ~_^;;

http://heyhowdeyhey.com/mine/

Posted by: Bob Ingersoll at January 27, 2005 03:32 PM

Peter,

Speaking of FINDING NEMO, I'm glad the official name of the ice show is DISNEY ON ICE: FINDING NEMO. At first I thought it was FINDING NEMO ON ICE, which conjured up images of the Fulton Fish Market.

Bob

Posted by: Paul F. P. Pogue at January 27, 2005 04:08 PM

Alarmingly, I know several adults who still do this regularly. It's like a Pixar meme; the same people are quote Edna Mode with disturbing frequency as well, daahh-link.

Posted by: Jess Willey at January 27, 2005 05:15 PM

My mom loves to tell this story. When I first learned to talk, I always called flowers waddies. She could never figure it out. She say, "No, flowers!" a million times and I kept saying waddies.

Years later, my mom was telling this story to some friends of ours and my sister said. "It's because you kept saying, 'Jesse, what are these'."

And everyone in the room burst out laughing.

Posted by: joelfinkle at January 27, 2005 06:30 PM

It doesn't take a toddler -- it takes significant restraint not to say "Mine! Mine!" upon viewing live seagulls (or, here in flyover country, lake gulls, bay-gulls (sorry) or parkinglot gulls)

Posted by: Jess O'Donnell at January 27, 2005 08:32 PM

The Faeries at the Renaissance Festival I work at used to do the exact same thing while stealing our food.

Posted by: Mitch at January 27, 2005 08:48 PM


I suggest "Belles of St. Trinian's," a classic movie with Alistair Sim, as an antidote.

Or an encouragement.

Posted by: JamesLynch at January 27, 2005 11:59 PM

Kids NEVER get tired of repetition of their favorite movie/book -- until they find a new favorite, to be repeated ad nauseum.

So get 'em interested in Neil Gaiman's THE DAY I SWAPPED MY DAD FOR TWO GOLDFISH.

Posted by: Karen at January 28, 2005 12:19 AM

I wanted something I could listen to in the car, as well as something for Mattie. The usual childrens CD's really get on your nerves after awhile. What was my solution? Musicals! She knows all the words to Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady. (Of course when she found out they are on DVD she had to watch them, too.) She even sings and speaks the lines with a really adorable British accent.

Posted by: mary ellen wofford at January 28, 2005 07:27 AM

My entire family does the gulls "mine, mine, mine." We live in Florida near the St. Johns River and the Atlantic so we see lots of gulls. What I found more disturbing was my 5-yer-old grandon waving to me as I went out the door Wednesday and saying "see ya later, sucker."
?!?!?!?!
Too much Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, I think.

Posted by: Pete the Otter at January 28, 2005 08:56 AM

"So now I'm wondering if letting her watch "Finding Nemo," like, eighty seven times, wasn't the world's best idea."

Well, guess you'll know for certain the first time you take her to the dentist... :)

Posted by: nekouken at January 28, 2005 10:44 AM

"Too much Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, I think."

No such thing.

As for the "mine, mine" stuff, you should probably keep her away from real seagulls, since they're really that obnoxious but also extremely disgusting.

Posted by: Martin Hall at January 28, 2005 11:03 AM

Hmm. My son, Tom, has a pixar thing. He's just over two, and we've taken him to see The Incredibles a fair bit (it's eerie - he just sits quietly through it), and he's already seen every other Pixar film many times. He also assumes seagulls say "Mine" repeatedly.

Posted by: jkc918 at January 28, 2005 04:29 PM

I was recently on vacation with my 3 1/2 year old. When my great Aunt asked her what her favorite movie was she said, "Toy Story". She then proceeded to recite the documentary at the end of Toy Story 2. I wanted to crawl into a hole!

Posted by: Robert Jung at January 28, 2005 08:46 PM

"So now I'm wondering if letting her watch 'Finding Nemo,' like, eighty seven times, wasn't the world's best idea."

You can never have too much Pixar in your life. :-)

--R.J.,
who'd love to see The Incredibles for the fourth time...

Posted by: AdamYJ at January 28, 2005 08:59 PM

This actually reminds me of something about one of my cousin's kids. My cousin Jeff and his family, including his daughter Miranda, used to live with his mother. In the mornings when they'd get up to go out, she would see her grandmother and one of her parents would say "Miranda, say good morning". So, for the longest time (Miranda's about 7 or 8 now) she would call grandmother "Good Morning". I think she may still do it, on the basis of being a cute family tradition.

Of course, she also used to call me "Big Guy" because she would always forget my name. So, who knows.

Posted by: UX-Gal at January 31, 2005 02:33 PM

That IS a very good thing. In fact, it is great.

Has anyone catched one of the DVD's special features were they show "mine mine" like in 30 languages? It's awesome.

What you really need to do is buy THE INCREDIBLES when it comes out. That merits at least a few hundred more viewings. Then she can go "Honey, where's mah supahsuit?"