Matthew has under six months now to work on his big-brother skills. so far, I think he is doing great!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
A New Vocabulary
I never realized how easy it is to create an entirely new vocabulary that really is particular to each home....well, maybe other families aren't as weird as ours, but there are times when I wonder if people who come to visit would be able to understand most of what the kids are trying to say.
Michael isn't such a big culprit of it, with the exception of the immovable "Gak" which is "Hot Chocolate." This has been going on since he was a very young fellow...pretty close to just after he turned 1 and he started drinking milk. We would make him hot chocolate which he just consistently kept referring to as "gak." It was cute in its own way, and it just stuck around and I never really thought twice about it until we've had a recent string of babysitters come and feed the kids dinner and I realized I would have to reveal our family secret since Michael would probably ask for this Gak and there is no clue as to what that is in actual English.
Matthew, on the other hand, is really pretty bad about inventing his own language. Granted, he is not even two so we shouldn't expect too much of his pronunciation, but sometimes, his new words go well beyond just babytalk. He can say the words, but he just obstinately refuses to.
"Gak" for him, for instance, is "Da." I keep trying to "correct" him ("No, Matthew, you are saying this made-up word wrong!), but he refuses. His drink is "Da."
Matthew also coined the aforementioned "Stee" which is so much of the family vocabulary that we don't even realize that's it's not a real word and sometimes forget that I have to explain it to people not in the family.
But there are many other words that he comes up with these ridiculous variations for:
"Tahdee"=Car Wash.
"Sahdee"=Syrup, Sausage, Salad, Siren (aka police car or fire truck)
"Dahnee"=Daddy. Can Matthew say "Daddy"? Yes, he can. Does he just decide he wants to give him his own name? Yes. Now, Michael frequently calls his dad, "Donny" and I myself sometimes fall into it and refer to him as "Donny" instead of Daddy. It's like, he just wants to give things his own pet name.
We correct him when we think about it, and I know advice givers are usually not a fan of the parents adopting their children's language rather than vice versa, but, it just sort of happens, and it is endearing, at least to us anyway.
I suppose I can hardly blame Matthew, who himself is rarely called by his given name. Throughout his almost two years of life, Matthew has more frequently been referrred to as
Moo
Moose
Moo-da-Moo
Moosey-Moo
Moo-Moos
Poops (this one I've been scolded about by my husband so I only use it when I'm the only parent around)
Matt-tah-tee (this is what he calls himself)
This list is by no means exhaustive, but just what I might use throughout the day. I guess it's no wonder he thinks the name of something is up for re-invention. Oops.
Despite Matthew's baby talk, he can be surprisingly articulate. He speaks in full (albeit short) sentences from time to time, with proper verb conjugation too, such as:
"I want to sit down."
"I'm thirsty, Mama."
"Ooohh, thank you, Mama!"
"Is it dirty? Eww....dirty!"
"Mama! I want to go potty!"
"I want more pasta, please."
Matthew's language development is certainly different from Michael's. Michael learned words, Matthew learned phrases. But he has a pretty thick layer of baby talk to get through that I don't recall Michael having. Matthew, however, is reaching the stage where he is determined that he is making sense and he gets easily frustrated when he is not perfectly understood. Many times, lately he just repeats the same thing over and over, each time more insistently until I just give up and say, "I'm sorry! I don't understand." Sometimes, I really don't understand...sometimes, it takes a few minutes of searching through my memory databanks to recall what he thinks he is saying. Poor kid. He gets so mad.
But the learning process is exciting to see and I look forward to hearing more of what's going on in that little Moosey-brain!
Michael isn't such a big culprit of it, with the exception of the immovable "Gak" which is "Hot Chocolate." This has been going on since he was a very young fellow...pretty close to just after he turned 1 and he started drinking milk. We would make him hot chocolate which he just consistently kept referring to as "gak." It was cute in its own way, and it just stuck around and I never really thought twice about it until we've had a recent string of babysitters come and feed the kids dinner and I realized I would have to reveal our family secret since Michael would probably ask for this Gak and there is no clue as to what that is in actual English.
Matthew, on the other hand, is really pretty bad about inventing his own language. Granted, he is not even two so we shouldn't expect too much of his pronunciation, but sometimes, his new words go well beyond just babytalk. He can say the words, but he just obstinately refuses to.
"Gak" for him, for instance, is "Da." I keep trying to "correct" him ("No, Matthew, you are saying this made-up word wrong!), but he refuses. His drink is "Da."
Matthew also coined the aforementioned "Stee" which is so much of the family vocabulary that we don't even realize that's it's not a real word and sometimes forget that I have to explain it to people not in the family.
But there are many other words that he comes up with these ridiculous variations for:
"Tahdee"=Car Wash.
"Sahdee"=Syrup, Sausage, Salad, Siren (aka police car or fire truck)
"Dahnee"=Daddy. Can Matthew say "Daddy"? Yes, he can. Does he just decide he wants to give him his own name? Yes. Now, Michael frequently calls his dad, "Donny" and I myself sometimes fall into it and refer to him as "Donny" instead of Daddy. It's like, he just wants to give things his own pet name.
We correct him when we think about it, and I know advice givers are usually not a fan of the parents adopting their children's language rather than vice versa, but, it just sort of happens, and it is endearing, at least to us anyway.
I suppose I can hardly blame Matthew, who himself is rarely called by his given name. Throughout his almost two years of life, Matthew has more frequently been referrred to as
Moo
Moose
Moo-da-Moo
Moosey-Moo
Moo-Moos
Poops (this one I've been scolded about by my husband so I only use it when I'm the only parent around)
Matt-tah-tee (this is what he calls himself)
This list is by no means exhaustive, but just what I might use throughout the day. I guess it's no wonder he thinks the name of something is up for re-invention. Oops.
Despite Matthew's baby talk, he can be surprisingly articulate. He speaks in full (albeit short) sentences from time to time, with proper verb conjugation too, such as:
"I want to sit down."
"I'm thirsty, Mama."
"Ooohh, thank you, Mama!"
"Is it dirty? Eww....dirty!"
"Mama! I want to go potty!"
"I want more pasta, please."
Matthew's language development is certainly different from Michael's. Michael learned words, Matthew learned phrases. But he has a pretty thick layer of baby talk to get through that I don't recall Michael having. Matthew, however, is reaching the stage where he is determined that he is making sense and he gets easily frustrated when he is not perfectly understood. Many times, lately he just repeats the same thing over and over, each time more insistently until I just give up and say, "I'm sorry! I don't understand." Sometimes, I really don't understand...sometimes, it takes a few minutes of searching through my memory databanks to recall what he thinks he is saying. Poor kid. He gets so mad.
But the learning process is exciting to see and I look forward to hearing more of what's going on in that little Moosey-brain!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
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