Toddler Speak

I've been meaning/wanting to take note of some of the things the boys say and how they say them before they perfect their pronunciations. They are so cute in their efforts to communicate. Alex in particular has a lot to say, and LOVES to chat away in long sentences and animated paragraphs. We generally don't know what he is talking about, but it's great to listen to. They both love to repeat the things we say, and Connor even likes to "help" discipline and tell Alex what to do.

Although, many of their words are easily understood by the average person (agua, hola, bye-bye, apple, daddy, mommy, ball, up, down, on, off, etc.), and others seem to be pronounced similarly by most children (nana (banana), lellow (yellow), etc.), there are those others...well, that you either need to be their parent or have a special code book to know the meaning. Luckily, they can sign (use sign language (SL)) for many words, so that often helps us understand exactly what they are trying to tell us.

Here are some of the words we have been able to decipher by hanging out with them:

• "doh-dee" = yogurt (Connor)
• "mo-mo" = moco (boogers in Spanish) (Alex & Connor)
  
• "beir" or "beer" = bear (Alex & Connor)
• "bee!!" = bread, bed OR bird (Alex & Connor) (SL helps)
• "eyee-thhhh" = ice (Alex & Connor)
  
• "bop-eee" = diaper (Connor)
• "die-poo" = diaper (Alex)
  
• "cockle" or "cackle" = cracker OR helicopter (Connor)
• "pee" = plane (Alex & Connor)
• "pier" = pear (Alex & Connor)
• "ca-ca" = apricot (Connor)
  
• "oh" = orange (Alex & Connor)
• "oh-boo" = open (Alex & Connor)
• "dee" = stick (Alex & Connor)
• "pay-poo" = paper
• "dawh" = draw (Alex & Connor)
• "lelo" = Lego OR later (or Lelo which is short for Abuelo)
  
• "ear" = here OR ear (Alex & Connor)
• "oh-eee" = ocean (which they also just refer to as agua)
  
• "no-ee" = noise OR music (Connor)
• "bee-bah" = seat belt (Alex & Connor)
• "pop-eee" = potty (Alex & Connor)
  
• "teet-daahwnn" = sit down (Alex & Connor)
• "peace" = peach
• "neigh-new" = thank you (Connor & Alex)
  

We took a video, but it was too long to upload... so, I will either have to cut it down or take another one for a future post.

Like most toddlers, they get frustrated and whiny when they are expressing themselves and no one seems to understand. It's great to watch their face light up when we figure it out and repeat things back to them (this doesn't happen often, btw).

I know that soon all these cute pronunciations will fade and they will be chatting away like little people at 100mph, and, no doubt, asking monster amounts of questions about everything. I have a feeling that, in this house, it will be difficult for anyone to get a word in edgewise.

Calvin: "Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we think
faster than we speak?"
Hobbes: "Probably so we can think twice."
~Bill Watterson