My middle name is Catherine, and in university my friend Dave used to call me a Chatty Cathy. A seriously accurate nickname. I can be quiet sometimes in a large group of strangers…but that’s pretty much the only time. I talk a lot, I talk loud, I make a lot of noise.
Little Miss Sunshine totally gets this from me. I guess we should have anticipated that, when we gave her the same middle name. We brought it on ourselves!
Today we were walking to the bookstore and the whole way, she did not shut up once. It was all, “Look! A girl! What girl doing? Girl have blue coat! Girl walking! Look! A doggie! Doggie sooooo cute. Doggie walking! Doggie brown. Look! A car! Car red. Car go fast! Ha ha, car funny!”
She’s seriously adorable. Two is awesome.
Here are some other things she says a lot of lately, that I can’t get enough of.
After we speak to her sternly about something:
“You not mad anymore! You happy!”
When we’ve been busy with something, and she wants to check in:
“Knock knock!”
Followed by us saying, “Who’s there?”, and her smiling enigmatically and dancing away.
When one of her older siblings is crying about something:
“Gal Smiley sad! Me not sad. Me happy!
Every single morning:
“Me alreaaaaaaaady brushed my teeth! Me no waaaaaana brush!”
She’s seriously halfway to 16 with this stuff. She also has this amazingly adorable/frustrating pout when she doesn’t want to do something — she crosses her arms, looks down at the floor, and puts on a frowny face. It’s rude sometimes but so cute I can’t bring myself to scold her. And more than half the time, she’s doing it just to try on the emotion — she’s not even really cranky or upset.
As shown in this conversation, which happens pretty much every day:
Me: Time to go pick up Gal Smiley from school.
Her: Me don’t waaaaaaant to wear my coat!
Me: You have to.
Her: Okay. Me no waaaaaaant to wear my mittens!
Me: You have to.
Her: Okay. Me no waaaaaaant to wear my hat!
Me: You have to.
Her: Okay. Let’s go!
And she dances away.
And just today, she had to interrupt our naptime story to have this conversation:
Her: You’re funny.
Me: You’re funny.
Her: Oh, me funny! Right.
Continue story.
Don’t ever change, Funny Girl.
TurtleHead 
Sounds a lot like Eve. When I was kind of losing it with her, she would take my face in her hands, smile a big goofy smile at me and say “you haaaapy?” Angus taught her ‘no fair’, so I have this clear memory of her wearing nothing but a diaper, arms crossed and frowning, saying ‘oh fair!’. She’s six now, and funnier (and louder and more voluble) than ever. It really lights up a room. Or gives people a headache. One or the other 🙂
You forgot the typical finale of the pout: she plunks herself down on her butt. She does The Pout about 70% of the time when she first sees Mr. Chatty. We marvel at the effect he has on her with his entrance. And the fact that a half hour later she won’t let him out of her sight!
You should have elaborated on your chattiness more. This was the perfect opportunity to retell Mom’s favourite story of you always being last at the dinner table because you spent the whole meal talking to your “captive audience” instead of eating. 🙂
Love the getting dressed bit. Have you got it on video?
I’m the same way…quiet with strangers but super chatty with friends.
Gal Smiley sounds sooooo cute!