Girl’s Life

I’ve been amazed for awhile watching this little person in my house learn about language. It’s a fascinating progression — to learn grunts and cries and moans, to learn how to express what you want with different sounds and different emphases, to then learn vowels and consonants, to move on to actual words (!), to finally learn sentences and then singing and humor and trickery (Some might say lies. Hrmph.)

It’s also fun to watch as Sophia works out her vocabulary. This is a kid who has deep and profound thoughts. Don’t all toddlers though? (You know, “Who should get more cuddles tonight, bear or puppy?” or “Perhaps I will resist the urge to drink bath water tonight. Hmm…probably not.”) So it’s been fun to watch and listen as she figures out how to vocalize these profound thoughts with the limited vocabulary that she has.

The girl knows grammar and sentence structure. I think that is the cutest part of all. She knows how the sentence is supposed to sound, she just doesn’t know all the words yet to make it sound that way. She’s so close, but for now she improvises. Instead, she has made up a sort of filler language of sorts.

“Mommy, wee-oh wee-oh wee-oh water,” she says when she would like me to pass her the cup that is out of her reach. She knows there are other words that are supposed to be in that sentence besides mommy and water. She just doesn’t know them yet. Make them up, she decides!

“Daddy, lay-ol lay-ol lay-ol naked!” she says when she is wants him to get her ready for her bath. Brilliant!

I love this temporary language, and I will definitely miss it when it’s gone. Every day I hear it less, as more and more new words are being filled in the “wee-oh, lay-ol” blanks. But it’s also amazing to look down at this non-baby and realize I am beginning to have regular ol’ interesting conversations*. And that is so refreshing.

* Please note: regular and/or interesting conversations are quite relative terms when you are a parent to a toddler. Just sayin’.