Baby talk

So my friend Lauren said on her daughter Ella's website (http://www.babyhomepages.net/babythompson/stories.php) that now that the 14-month-old charmer has started to talk, it must be frustrating for her to have grownups simply repeating what she says, especially since the words she is using obviously have meaning for her. She gives the example that perhaps for Ella, "doo-doo" means "Please tell me what that is?" So when she says "doo-doo!" and her parents say "Hmm, really? Yes? Please tell me what that is? Please tell me what that is?" she says she can just imagine much eye rolling and the kid thinking, "these big people are nice, but they are sort of stupid."

We have run into an early version of this with Davis...as he has recently discovered the wild world of consonants, his new words are "nnnnGEH" and "aynay" (or perhaps "aenae?" A five-month-old's dictionary skills leave something to be desired) . In order to avoid the aforementioned problem of simply repeating his words back to him, we have decided to simply use the new words in much the same way that the word smurf was used on the 80s cartoon of the same name, as in "It would be really smurfy if you could smurf me a glass of water." So this is what we are attempting to do with Davis's new words in an effort to show him that we are at least trying to figure out the correct uses of his new vocab. As such, I found myself saying this sentence--out loud, mind you-- today: "So are you feeling nnnGEH or is it just me? I think I'd like a little decaf aynay if you're having some, but don't nnnGEH out of your way or anything. I can always aynay some later."

All of which left me with this realization: Shoo, I need to get a hobby.

Oh well. Perhaps I'll take up nnnGEH. Unless, of course, you need an aynay for that.