With Great Vocab Comes Great Responsibility.

Pontification Part the First: I used to take such pride in being the one person on the planet who could completely understand every word that came out of my children's mouth. Sometimes it would take a minute of pondering but I'd always eventually figure it out. But as their vocabulary is expanding faster than their ability to ennunciate, I often find myself at a loss.

Currently, "nee noo" is a complete mystery. As far as I can tell, they use it when they want something really bad. But the translation I have no idea.

Sometimes words are so similar, I have to run through a mental list before I hit upon the winner.

"Bah!" You found a ball? You see a bus? Oh, there's a bug!

"Tah tow!" You want a toy tractor? There's potatoes on your tray? Ah, you'd like more tomatoes!

Don't get me wrong, they're able to communicate so much more now and we're all happier for it. But I can no longer claim to be the end-all be-all translator for the boys. I scratch my head with everyone else.

Pontification Part the Second: Most of the things they first learned as a sound ("moo" for a cow) or learned to sign are slow to translate verbally. They still say more animal noises than their names. Many vehicles are still "ptttttt." Flowers are still a waving hand.

Sometimes we'll have them repeat things we read, word by word. We'll go like this, "The... dog... is... in... the... plane." And they interject,"... ta... dah... iss... in... ta... PTTTTTT!" The sound effect just takes over!

Bit by bit, though, they're coming around. Recently they've actually starting saying "car" (well, "caw"). It all just takes time.

Pontification Part the Third: All this talking shows us what they really care about by way of repetition. Things I most often hear each day is, "dada work," "dada home," and "dada PTTT [spinning hand around]." The latter sentence refers to when their dad flew a propeller airplane over a month ago. So it's not only obvious they're obsessed with their dad but it shows me what sticks with them. They often do the giraffe sign followed by "zoo. eat," talking about when we fed the giraffes at the zoo. TWO months ago. Whenever we hear a lawn mower going, they exclaim, "gampa!" since Grandpa Z cut our grass while they watched during their last visit, which was ages ago.

It's neat to see what's important to them, what sticks with them. I like this talking thing.