The Library Story

The thing about sixteen month old children is that they are just learning to talk, and they have no volume control. So when they try to say words, they sometimes come up with something that sounds vaguely like the word they were going for, usually involving the first syllable. And if they're excited, happy or proud of themselves they say it at the top of their lungs. Every parent can attest to this, and they all have a story. This is mine.

Yesterday I had the day off, and took Tessa to the library. She loves the library, she gets to look at books, explore the aisles and play with the toys in the kids section. There are some plush toys that are just about as tall as she is, mostly of PBS and Disney characters. This is, of course, her favorite part.

When we entered the kids section she made a b-line for the dolls, and since she's under 5 she thinks Elmo is the greatest thing ever. So she ran to the toys yelling "Memmo! Melmmo! Memmo!" Which was cute. And then she saw another toy, a giant plush Cookie Monster. Tessa's eyes lit up, she looked at me with the cutest little smile on her face and said, at the top of her lungs...

"COCK! COCK!"

"Um, no honey," I explained, "you mean Cookie. That's Cookie Monster. Cooookieee."

"COCK!"

Daddy's little angel.

She then proceeded to make things worse by running through the library yelling "cock" as loud as possible. And I had to chase her. Being sixteen months old, Tessa is small, and speedier than she looks, which she used to her advantage. And all I could think of was the casual observer who only saw a grown man chasing after a small girl who is screaming something about cock.

All in all, not my proudest moment.