Over the past 8 months or so, it has been really fun and interesting listening to Mackenzie develop her vocabulary. While some words are very clear, the vast majority of what she says is either barely close to a word, a word she subsititutes for another word or absolute gibberish. Of course, after listening to her talk for as long as we have, Emily and I have gotten pretty good at translating what she is trying to say.

Mackenzie also is a creature of habit. We have routines for most of the everyday things that we do, and she knows all of the little details by heart. For instance, whenever Matty comes inside from going to the bathroom, she runs to meet him at the door shouting, "Tsit, Tsit, Tsit." She continues to say it until I give her a dog biscuit so that she can tell Matty to sit.

Mackenzie even has her own little routine for when we drive somewhere. For example, here is a rundown of the EXACT script of what Mackenzie says on a drive from our house to Fairview Heights:

"A-Moo, A-Moo, A-Moo. Baby?"
Across from our subdivision is a field that often has cows (moos) in it. One time, Emily's mom pointed out a baby cow, so now she asks every time if the baby is there.

"Waddie. Waddie. Waddie."
Mackenzie calls horses "waddies." Not sure why....just happens. There is a field about a half mile south that occasionally has horses in a pen next to the road.

"A-Boat, A-Boat."
A couple miles further south, there is a decent sized boat up on its trailer next to a house. Nothing incredibly interesting about this boat....it's just a boat. But for some reason, Mackenzie finds it fascinating.

"Diddy. Water. Diddy. Water."
Just past the boat, there is a floating fountain in a small pond next to a office park. The water that shoots out of the fountain is a little murky. Maybe a little dirty. Diddy water.

"Y. Y. Y."
A little further south of the fountain, the O'Fallon branch of the Southwestern Illinois YMCA. Or for short....The "Y."

"Yah-a-way."
At the intersection of Seven Hills Road and State Street, she tells you the direction that she wants to go. She waits until AFTER you commit to your direction, and then she says she wants to go a different way. After she points and says something that barely sounds like "that a way," she expects someone to say, "no, that a way." She responds again, and it goes on like the whole Miller Lite "Tastes Great, Less Filling" ad.

"Oh no. Oh no."
There is a large snowman in a window of a florist in downtown O'Fallon that apparently scares Mackenzie to death. She hates it.

"Waddies. Waddies."
Not horses this time. It's Hardee's.

"Mah-mar. Mah-mar. Bwoo. Yeh-wo."
I can thank my mom for this one. Mackenzie knows the Wal-Mart logo and can spot it from a mile away. Of course, the building is mainly blue. The word "Supercenter" is written in yellow.

"Mah-dah-no. Mah-dah-no."
Mackenzie also knows the golden arches. And we wonder why we fight weight problems....My 22 month old daughter already knows McDonald's.

Well, that's what it's like to ride along with our daughter for the 7 miles from our house to Fairview Heights. This happens EVERY TIME. Annoying, but still cute as can be.

From the Peanut Gallery...

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