Hot Diggety Dog

Miss Olive's new favorite word(s) would have to be hot dog.

She has a play grill with a bunch of grill-type food -- hamburgers, corn on the cob, fried chicken -- and her favorite parts by far are the toy hot dogs. In the past few days she's taken to carrying one of them around for chunks of the day, proudly declaring "Hot Dog" as she holds it up to show it to anyone who will listen then takes a big "bite," followed by a drawn out "MMMMmmmmmmmm ... ".

It is, in a word, hilarious.

Yesterday, the Ladybug decided that it would be fun and incredibly silly to dip said plastic hot dog in this Mama's water cup and then "eat" the water off the hot dog - cracking herself up with each and every dip.

She does really, really love to eat actual hot dogs, too. On a bun. No bun. Wrapped in a crescent roll. With cheese. Dipped in ketchup. Whole. Cut into pieces. She's not picky. The girl just loves hot dogs.

As hot dog has become an ever more prominent part of her recent vocabulary, I've started noticing how many things she has decided to be hot dogs ...

Earlier this week we went out to lunch at a Perkins with The Hubby and some of his co-workers. Most people ordered breakfast, and The Hubby's breakfast included sausage links (which Miss Olive has loved since the first time she tasted them).

That day, however, she started pointing to The Hubby's plate and repeating "Hot dog, hot dog, hot dog, hot dog ..." until he gave her a bite and then in between every bite. As with the toy hot dog at home, each bite was followed by a good ol' "MMMmmmm."

Tonight, we went to dinner at Red Lobster. The Hubby ordered a meal that included snowcrab legs, to which The Ladybug again began declaring "Hot dog" over and over.

Apparently anything shaped remotely like a hot dog is now, for sure, nothing other than a hot dog. After explaining it was crab, Miss Olive tried to say crab, tasted it, loved it, and then again reverted to declaring the crab to be hot dog. Oh well.

In addition to noticing all things now labeled hot dog, I've also started realizing that kid shows seem to talk -- or rather, sing -- an awful lot about hot dogs.

Here are just two examples, both of which we've seen in the last couple days ...

1) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse "Hot Dog Dance," which is played at the end of every show:

2) Sesame Street clip of a song about "getting the rhythm of the hot dog" ... sadly I remember watching and dancing to this when I was little:

So, basically, my 15-month-old knows more about and has more of an affinity for hot dogs than most people probably should over a lifetime. Nice.