November 2, 2009

NaNo Day Two and Speaking Baby Talk

I’m ahead of schedule on my NaNo word count. Yay! Right now I’m spending a lot of time on back-story but that’s okay. In the beginning it’s mostly about getting words on paper or computer in this case.

When kids are little they talk cute. They say things funny and use different words. They are like tiny foreigners learning a new language. Actually, it is you learning a new language… theirs. And as a parent you find yourself saying these words the way they do and if another adult is in the vicinity you can get some pretty strange looks unless they have had visitors from the land of toddler. Other moms just smile because they completely understand where you are coming from.

There have been some experts that said, “Don’t talk baby talk to your kids, it hampers their speech.” This is malarkey. My kids all spoke very good English and in fact had a larger vocabulary than most of the other students by the time they started school and we spoke fluent baby talk at my house. Heck we still do it sometimes just for fun. lol

A little girl came to my door Halloween night dressed as a princess… of course. I couldn’t tell you how many princesses I had visit me. Sadly, not one knight in shining armor came by. I gave Miss Princess a few pieces of candy and she said, “Oh, you have Noods! May I pwease have two Noods?” Holding up two fingers. She was talking about Nerds candy. Of course I gave her two Noods. I’m a sucker for adorable little kids.

I woke up yesterday morning with my right nostril partially stopped up. I’ve had a sniffle for a few days, nothing major just enough to be an annoyance. It reminded me of when my kids were young and instead of nostrils would say noses. “Mom, this nose isn’t wooking.” Or “This nose is stopped up.”

They didn’t know the word “throat” so they would say their neck hurt. If a child ever tells you their neck hurts they are more than likely talking about what’s beyond skin and tissue. I’ve had kids with tonsillitis or strep complaining about a sore neck.

My oldest son didn’t say a whole lot until he was three, waiting until he could say things properly; he’s always been a perfectionist. However, my second son talked young and said some funny things. When you have an older brother you have to be able to communicate, for instance telling Mom Brother is trying to kill you or just tell Brother to give you back your twuck.

He said fidgiader for refrigerator, skeddy for spaghetti, and kinnygawden for kindergarten. When Nicholas went to school Matthew was certain if I just explained to the teacher that he wanted to be with his brother the school would understand and let him start kinnygawden early. The fact that he wasn’t potty trained shouldn’t be a problem.

I think I will cook skeddy for dinner tonight.