Nooooooooo...

Age 2 is known as the NO Years as I am told.

My personal experience is that even the best intentioned baby or even the most co-operative baby starts to say NO alot by age two.

Who could blame them since from one years old onwards when they start to get REALLY active, this must be the NUMBER ONE WORD they hear MOST OFTEN.

"NO, dun touch this!"
"NO! Dun eat that!"
"NO! Cannot do that!"

The list goes on...

Recently, Ace picked up this word and he LOVES it.

And being the cute baby he is, he says it in a really cute way... (just like popo often says it). Like most words he learns like byeeeeee... he likes to make the last vowel very very looooooooooong.

So he goes, "Noooooooooooooooo" And his intonation goes up as he drags the word on.. so it is really cute to hear him say that and mostly I am amused.

But I am also a little fearful and worried of the NO YEARS.

For a start, when he does not like something or does not want something, he goes, "Nooooooooooo...."

To counter attack that, I have taken to tell him "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees" whenever he says No....

The other day while we were at yeye and nainai's place, he wanted to do something but we wouldnt let him and so he went, "Noooooooooooooooooooooo..."

Us: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees...
Ace: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo...
Us: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees....
Ace: Noooooooooooooooooooooo....
Us: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees...
Ace: Noooooooooo... Nooooooooo.... Nooooo.......
Us: Yeeeeeeeeeess... Yeeeeeeeesss... Yeeesss....

And Ace thought it was really funny and started to giggle.


Anyway, on my part, I have tried my best to eliminate this word from my normal conversation with Ace.

Instead of saying, "No, dun stand in front of the TV." We say, "Ace, come over here..."
Instead of saying, "No, dun eat this...", we say, "Do you want to drink water?"
Instead of saying, "No, dun touch this...", we say, "Come over here and let's play a game"
Instead of saying, "No, dun do that...", we say, "Ace, it is not right to do that..." (and explain to him why)

I assume that all hard work now will make the next 12-18 months a breeze! Hehehe.... It really is hard work ok, it is not that easy NOT TO SAY NO... you dun believe? You try!!