Have you ever seen that episode of The Simpsons where Homer's brother Herb invents a machine that translates baby noises to English? I never thought much about it, but it really would be the best thing since sliced bread.
As an aside, what did we say was the best thing before sliced bread? And was sliced bread really so revolutionary that it became the gold standard by which we measure all other inventions? We really need to consider changing this to something that is more, you know, revolutionary and awesome. Although I do love me some sandwiches.
Anyway back to my original thought.
Now that my girls are making all sorts of noises and saying indecipherable "words" to us, I've grown to appreciate this fake invention even more and wish it actually existed.
You see Erin and I were either too lazy or too busy to really dive headlong into the whole teach the girls to sign thing to allow better communication. I'm going to go with a combination of lazy and busy and just leave it at that. Either way we haven't really mastered the ability to communicate back and forth with our children beyond the intuitive stuff like hungry, sleepy, dirty diaper, etc. So we don't understand their needs 100% of the time.
This has also led to some hilarious and adorable misunderstandings and them learning words that aren't necessarily accurate. For example, every animal is a "doggy" to them. After being told how pretty the Christmas tree lights were for the entire month of December, they now refer to every light they see as "pretty." They've started calling every man they see "daddy" which makes me feel a little less special. Although I would like to go up to a guy they call daddy and yell "You sonofabitch! You slept with my wife!" because that would be high comedy.
But there are still things they say or try to say that I don't understand. There is one recent example that has led to more questions than anything else. Ana is now saying "bubby" about nothing in particular.
Part of me wonders how she learned a Yiddish word. I wonder if she plans on becoming a power agent in Hollywood when she grows up and she's just getting the lingo down. Maybe she is trying to say "buddy" although that really isn't a word we use too often. So many questions because of this one little word.
I just want to know what is going on those little heads of theirs. If anyone out there has a Baby-to-English translator, let me know.
4 comments:
Like I commented on Erin's FB post earlier, "bubby" obviously means champagne.
1. She does not call every man "daddy" just the good looking ones and the rich ones.
2. You make it sound like I don't know what my kids need. False. I am actually amazed at how easily I understand their needs without language. To some extent, I would have written a completely different blog post. I can go days without feeling any communication frustration because I feel that in tune with their needs.
3. Obviously I am just better.
We do know what our kids need more often than not. I think we're both intuitively connected to their needs in that regard.
My point was that they say these things that we have no idea how to translate. Like the aformentioned 'bubby' and some of the other noises.
Georgia points at everything and says "Gawk."
For awhile we thought that meant "look," but it doesn't, because "ook" means "look." So that's weird.
She calls all animals "gog." (Dog - huh, since your kids and my kid does it, it must be a thing among brilliant toddlers).
When I read her this one book she points to every page and says "wah-wah" as in "water".
There's only water on one page.
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