Up until this point, the Toddler has not talked much beyond her basic set of essential words. Of course, with the amount of talking her sisters do, there’s hardly any available airtime. But, recently, she has started verbally expressing herself more often with words and the occasional phrase. This is great, except that she speaks what sounds like a combination of Southern twang and formal German, and she can be very difficult to understand… and our confusion, in turn, makes her furious.
It took me close to twenty minutes last week to realize that “chew” means chair. “Wah-ree” is still water. Then, “hah-bow” is hair bow. Her food category can be especially tricky… “hah-dah” is hot dog. And, “aw-bee” is strawberry. There is one food word that she says very emphatically: “shock-lot.” That’s, of course, chocolate. But it actually sounds much closer to “schokolade” as they say in her native Germany.
The most important new word in her vocabulary, though, is her version of no pronounced “gnaw.” As in…
Me: Is it time to change your diaper?
Her: “Gnaw!”
Me: It’s nap time!
Her: “Gnaw!”
Me: OK. That’s enough water.
Her: “Gnaw. Gnaw. Gnaw!”
And, then she makes this sort of face to spite me.
I think she’s just warming up for the terrible two’s during which “gnaw” is the only word she’ll really need to know.
And, speaking of vocabulary troubles… the 1st Grader announced today, in her own words, “It’s always been my dream to play the mandelo.”
Yes, the beautiful mandelo. Part mandolin, part banjo, I assume. I’m sure it’s a lovely combination.
I hate to be the one to shatter her dream of playing the mandelo, but, for now my answer to her learning any instrument in the bluegrass family is… gnaw.
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