[Yet another in a series of posts I started long before I finished...]
There’s been an awful lot here lately about the girls, especially in the QOTD category. When I’m at home and the girls are around (as they usually are), Rique doesn’t get a word in edgewise very often. This may contribute to his default volume setting, which is very high.
The words he does say are often a little sloppy in the consonants; this means that, while our first two children were on the advanced side of the curve with their vocabulary and pronunciation, we are now getting to know what it’s like when a child has certain tonal grunts that are instantly intelligible to the immediate family but completely opaque to everyone else.
In any case, it’ll be some time before he gets a real QOTD entry on here. But he is making great progress in the area of self-expression (and also in the area of fork usage, but that’s another story for another post). And after an action-packed three-day weekend, I’ve got a bunch of his words fresh in my head, so I’d like to try to publish some of his current pronunciation accomplishments here…
Emily will probably laugh at me when she sees that I’ve missed this one or that one, since she gets a lot more alone time with him than I do, but I’m going to publish this anyway. I can always do another installment later. In the mean time, here’s a partial list of words Rique says (not counting things he will repeat in order to receive food, or if he happens to be in performance mode) in his first 9 months or so in the U.S.:
Na-na-na = Narnia (This was his first intelligible word in English, sorta)
Ah-boo = Up, please
Mah = Más/More
Ley-ley = Leche (milk)
Car = Car (There isn’t a really clear word for ‘train’, but he’s trying. Also, there is definitely some “ch-ch-ch-oo-oo”-ing going on once in a while.)
Car = Dar
Cargo = Margo
DADDY! = Daddy (Or Mommy, or other adult…but usually Daddy. Volume and repetition increase if I’m walking in the door after work.)
Eee = Eat
Re-ey? = Ready? (This may also mean, “Are you going to ask me if I’m ready?”)
Ya-yaii? = You all right? (Often accompanied by head-tilt and attempted eye contact. To be repeated, at a comically high volume, after each and every cough, sneeze, throat-clearing, etc. by anyone within earshot.)
Dallat = Chocolate
Bye-bye = Bye-bye (Also, “I notice someone is putting on shoes or a coat, opening a door, etc.; you may take your leave of me.”)
Beagle = Beagle (This is what we call Moxie when we’re shouting at her. cf Bill Cosby)
Pee-pee = Pee-pee (This may refer to anything having to do with pottying, be it past, present, future, or imagined.)
Oh, and there’s one more:
