The things that pass...
There are things that pass slowly, sadnesses that linger, seemingly buried memories that resurface at the least convenient moments...
That's not what I want to talk about today. Rather, I'd like to simultaneously celebrate and mourn some of the wonderful iterations of language that the kid shares with us. There are already sayings that have passed into nearly-too-distant memory - I don't want to let more of those fade before finding a way to record them.
So.
There is Zjahpepp-her. This is often followed by an emphatic "Know it!" It took us an entire evening to figure out what Zjahpepp-her meant - we knew it was a specific word, because L. said it so similarly each time, and we new it had to be for a specific object, because he kept trying to show us something. It wasn't until he was making "soup" the next day, when he told Aaron "Zjahpepp-her soups!" that we actually got it.
Zjahpepp-her = vegetables. Though he can say "veggies" in a completely intelligible way, the "v" for vegetables has thus far undergone some sort of lovely linguistic alchemy, and our baby sounds nearly French. "Mashrooms!" is another one of my particular favorites of his lexicon (he's much more excited to say the word and to play with them than he is to actually eat them.)
More easily decipherable is shawinch. Here, sandwich (even though we eat them rarely, he loves pretending to eat sandwiches and regularly makes them with his wooden food). He also calls kombucha "boooooch" or "boooozah" and happily drinks it.
He loves Chubby Checker, and will request - daily, for the time being - "Twist" and "Twist Again," to which he will happily practice his own dance, which currently doesn't involve much hip movement, but does have some fancy footwork. A few nights ago we were out to dinner, and there was a photograph of B.B. King on the wall. L. insisted at first that this was Chubby Checker (we have to expose him to more black musicians and their images, I think...), but was happy to learn B.B. King's name. Then, yesterday, a cousin was born into the family, whose first name is Kane. We showed L. pictures, telling him that this was "Baby Kane." L. morphed the two, gleefully singing out both "Baby King" and "B.B. Kane."
And tontohn is guitar. He loves guitars (his dad plays them with/for him often), and though he's mastered all of the syllables necessary to say this word, still, "tontohn" remains.
Apropos of the music, L. and his dad spend a lot of time listening to cool stuff. The other day, A. introduced the kid to David Bowie and Mott the Hoople. L. can't stop talking about "Boogaloo Dudes" ("All the Young Dudes") and it is fantastic.
We rarely see the "crrreeeeeeeepy" creature anymore.
That's not what I want to talk about today. Rather, I'd like to simultaneously celebrate and mourn some of the wonderful iterations of language that the kid shares with us. There are already sayings that have passed into nearly-too-distant memory - I don't want to let more of those fade before finding a way to record them.
So.
There is Zjahpepp-her. This is often followed by an emphatic "Know it!" It took us an entire evening to figure out what Zjahpepp-her meant - we knew it was a specific word, because L. said it so similarly each time, and we new it had to be for a specific object, because he kept trying to show us something. It wasn't until he was making "soup" the next day, when he told Aaron "Zjahpepp-her soups!" that we actually got it.
Zjahpepp-her = vegetables. Though he can say "veggies" in a completely intelligible way, the "v" for vegetables has thus far undergone some sort of lovely linguistic alchemy, and our baby sounds nearly French. "Mashrooms!" is another one of my particular favorites of his lexicon (he's much more excited to say the word and to play with them than he is to actually eat them.)
More easily decipherable is shawinch. Here, sandwich (even though we eat them rarely, he loves pretending to eat sandwiches and regularly makes them with his wooden food). He also calls kombucha "boooooch" or "boooozah" and happily drinks it.
He loves Chubby Checker, and will request - daily, for the time being - "Twist" and "Twist Again," to which he will happily practice his own dance, which currently doesn't involve much hip movement, but does have some fancy footwork. A few nights ago we were out to dinner, and there was a photograph of B.B. King on the wall. L. insisted at first that this was Chubby Checker (we have to expose him to more black musicians and their images, I think...), but was happy to learn B.B. King's name. Then, yesterday, a cousin was born into the family, whose first name is Kane. We showed L. pictures, telling him that this was "Baby Kane." L. morphed the two, gleefully singing out both "Baby King" and "B.B. Kane."
And tontohn is guitar. He loves guitars (his dad plays them with/for him often), and though he's mastered all of the syllables necessary to say this word, still, "tontohn" remains.
Apropos of the music, L. and his dad spend a lot of time listening to cool stuff. The other day, A. introduced the kid to David Bowie and Mott the Hoople. L. can't stop talking about "Boogaloo Dudes" ("All the Young Dudes") and it is fantastic.
We rarely see the "crrreeeeeeeepy" creature anymore.
Comments
Post a Comment