Baby Speak

I love language. Any kind, really. I'm pretty partial to Spanish (well, and English, since that's the only one I speak fluently anymore). But lately, I've been tickled pink by my baby's language. It's so cute. The emergent baby-speak that only a mother can translate.

Baby Boots has a fairly small vocabulary, still, though he is quite the copycat, so you can get him to repeat things. Or, I should say, Daddy can get him to repeat things. (Why is it that boys learn better from their dads?) Like "nose." I worked for months with him on "nose." King Kong spends about 5 stinkin' minutes with him and wham-o! Nose! I tried working on "eye" today. I decided maybe I should wait a bit on that one since he just kept poking himself in the eye. It was kinda funny, though. grin.

Here's a list of things he can say. You have to know that all vowel sounds are drawn out, which is part of the cuteness. So cakoo (cracker) sounds like caaaakooooo. Also, the first sylable is more emphasized and higher pitched.

• Dooowww - down (only without the 'n' sound)
• coookeeee - cookie (and boy do they learn fast about which grocery stores give out cookies. We walked into Cub Foods last week and guess what I heard him say when we were walking in the door? Jeepers, he's not even 17 months old yet.)
• mommmmm - (self explanitory)
• ahhh-booo - apple
• baahh-boooo - bottle (And as a side note, apple, bottle and popcorn sound essentially indistinguishable from one another)
• guckie - (like duckie, only with a 'g') nukie (pacifier) (and this one we hear about 1,000 times a day as he has developed a recent attachement to the thing. I have tried to keep it in his crib, but he cries so long for it, and will go fish it out himself. Or find another one that was lost somewhere else. Oh well. At least he's not sucking his fingers.)
• ah-eeeee - light
• noooo - nose. Surprisingly, he doesn't say "no" too much. knock on wood. I'm sure I just jinxed myself on that one.

And that's all I can think of for now. Granted he can also say dada, the mutilated names of his siblings, hi, bye-bye, 'nana (banana), and some jumbled up way of saying grandma/grandpa that I haven't quite figured out. It's so fun when they learn a new word. Even if I'm one of only 2 people who can understand it. But, then it's like our little secret.