He Says She Says

Even at this early stage in Lola and Locke's language development, I could already write a post a day on funny things they say. But I realize that many of the posts would be funny only to me so I'm trying to be selective.

Being the outdoorsboy that he is, Locke got a little too friendly with some 6-legged friend and wound up with a few nasty bug bites on his ankles a while back. After determining that they were not life-threatening spider bites (which, as any appropriately paranoid parent will tell you, is the first concern), I started applying hydrocortisone cream a few times a day to them to keep the itching under control so Locke could sleep. After a few days of that, Locke evidently realized that the hydrocortisone made him feel better, so he learned to say "hy-dro-cor-tee-sone" so he could request a dose when the itching got to him. I couldn't determine whether he was a language prodigy or hypochondriac.

Then, yesterday, I picked up a zucchini muffin for their afternoon snack. I broke it into chunks and offered them pieces every so often as we strolled. Once, when I was asking Locke if he wanted a bite, I mistakenly called it a "pumpkin" muffin. He turned down the offer but couldn't resist correcting me, "zuKEEnee" muffin." Of course. That's what I meant to say.

Lola talks a lot more than Locke. A LOT more. But she's not as concerned about accuracy as he is. She figures that it's quantity that counts, not quality. But luckily she talks so much that, through much repetition, I've learned what she's trying to say. In most cases. And sometimes her mangled words are so darned cute that I can't bring myself to correct her. When she's getting really tired and loopy, she often adds syllables to words. For example, if you offer her an alphabet cookie, she might respond, "a-fa-be-ba-ta-coo-ca-kee?." And, although she can say "water" with some accuracy, she still prefers "wa-was," which I think is adorable.

One of these days I'll become technologically competent and put up a video or two. I have a hilarious one of Lola singing the ABC song. She's been able to recognize all the letters for some time now, and she can recite them in order. But when she sings them in the song, it's as if she's just singing the sounds she remembers from hearing it, not necessarily reciting letters in a melody. So the result is barely recognizable but extremely entertaining. It reminds me of reading translations of what children are actually saying when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance ("... and to the republic, for witches stand, one nation, uninvited...").

When they first started talking, Locke and Lola created versions of their names that they were able to say: her name is "Ya-ya" and his is "Yockie." They still call each other that. Kelly and I usually use their correct names when addressing them but I catch myself calling her Ya-ya from time to time. And I've heard Locke call her Lo-lo before (a nickname Kelly started soon after she was born) and I was both excited and disappointed. I realized that soon he's going to outgrow "Ya-ya" and start calling her by her real name. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. I'm fairly ashamed to admit that once when he called her Lo-lo, I acted like I didn't understand him and responded "Ya-ya?"