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
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Well, at least she knows what a seagull sounds like…
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!”
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.
My fifteen-month-old calls every illustrated character in any picture book “Dora.”
“Birds (parrots excluded) aren’t known for being smart.”
Well, they have to be at least smarter than fish.
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
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
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.
For Caroline and all the other seagull fans out there… ~_^;;
http://heyhowdeyhey.com/mine/
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
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.
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.
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)
The Faeries at the Renaissance Festival I work at used to do the exact same thing while stealing our food.
The Faeries at the Renaissance Festival I work at used to do the exact same thing while stealing our food.
I suggest “Belles of St. Trinian’s,” a classic movie with Alistair Sim, as an antidote.
Or an encouragement.
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.
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.
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.
“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… 🙂
“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.
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.
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!
“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…
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.
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?”