I have written several posts now about Kenny’s speaking ability; he has a great ear to hear and retain words, and has quickly learned to speak in simple sentences, ask questions, and tell me, in detail, what he wants. It’s pretty remarkable, and I am constantly surprised by what comes out of his mouth.
It’s facinating that Kenny has discovered delight in speaking with us. Not only does it expedite things he likes (like when he makes a lunch request and I make it for him), but it has avoided frustrations and meltdowns, because he is understanding how to explain how he feels and what he wants to do. We don’t always do it, but it helps that we can acknowledge what he’s saying, and then explain a yes or no to his demands.
My favorite are the words that he says with a slight toddler-accent: bulldozer becomes “bowl-dosher,” lotion is “low-shin,” open sounds more like “Omp!” and stroller is “stwow-ler”.” But one caught us by surprise a week or so ago. I had been telling Casey a story about our day and after recounting a clever solution I had for one of Kenny’s issues, Casey said, “Mommy’s smart!” To which Kenny replied, with gusto, “Mommy FARTS!” You can only imagine how long that went on. We had “Mommy really farts!” and “Mommy farts all day!” and still Casey and Kenny went back and forth with seemingly endless alterations.
Within a week, though, Kenny caught on that he was saying something that made Daddy cackle and Mommy roll her eyes, and he now tries very hard to pronounce the “s” in the word “smart.”
In other news, my Mom left this morning after staying with us for the past week to help me out with Kenny, since I am still restricted in lifting him, and in doing certain activities. We had a blast together, and my Mom was a great sport in changing diapers, taking out the trash and most of all in loving Kenny so that I could get some rest. My ab muscles are nearly recovered, so I should be back to normal next week, if not yet able to really work out for a little while longer. It’s amazing what several weeks of not using your abdominal muscles at all does to your stomach. Mine was a little out of shape to begin with, but now it is way too wiggly. All in good time, right? That, or time to get pregnant again…
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2 responses to “Lost in Translation”
Isn’t it fun to be privy to his secret language? I’ve always loved understnading my kids better than anyone else!!
I love the toddler speak! Now that my kids are older, I really miss it. Princess used to ask me to read “The Little Mermaid” (the Disney board book) by plopping it in my lap and saying, “Weed Aweeow!” My favorite from Buddy is that “something” equals “yogurt”. Apparently the first time I gave him yogurt I asked, “Do you want something?” and then put the yogurt in front of him. After that he would routinely ask for “sumping” and I had no idea what he was talking about. Many days of tears and frustration. I finally figured it out when he was banging on the refrigerator yelling, “Want sumping! Want sumping!” and I opened the refrigerator and he laughed, touched the yogurt container and very lovingly said, “Sumping!” That was when he was about 2 years old. He’ll be four soon and we all still call yogurt “something”!