Tag / Language

by Kelsey

Language Games

One regret I have is our busy-ness. In my eyes, we are go-go-go and there is little time for idle activities and chatter. So, it’s somewhat rare to just talk with the kids while having no other input or distractions.

Tonight, I laid down with Cam while Joe was reading with Demi, and Cam’s curiousness was in hyper-mode. I don’t even know how it started, but for me, I couldn’t help but keep the conversation going beyond our usual school night bedtime because I love to talk about words and language. And, while I know he has a high aptitude to learn…. well, most things…. our focus hasn’t really been on language.

I believe our meandering conversation went something like this:

  • I said something about dictation and asked if he knew what that meant. He said it had to do with words. So, I said YES, but how did he know? He said because of the word dictionary which led to the next point…
  • How the English language often has Latin roots… Cam: Pig Latin? Me: No, just Latin. (Side note: Joe and I have resorted to pig latin on occasion and refuse to teach them because they can both spell and Pig Latin is all we have left for secret communication).
    • While he looks for context clues and does that in a savvy way, he also is good at making associations that I think are unbeknownst to himself… for example, a couple weeks ago I asked him if he knew what fallow meant and he said “something to do with farming.” I was blown away.
  • We talked about tonal languages because he told me he heard Chinese was difficult to learn. I gave a terrible attempted example of tones of ‘o’, but I hope he got the message.
  • He said he wanted to learn another language and then we talked about how to choose a language based on his goals. If it’s just for fun, he could choose based on difficulty level or interest in an area of the world. Or, if it’s because he wants to communicate with more people, he could consider the more popular languages. He concluded: Spanish. We will see if anything comes of this, but pairing his interest of learning Spanish with the advancements apps have had (specifically: gamification), I am hopeful he could have some success with this over the summer!
  • He asked me to teach him some new words (preferably long words) and I turned to Merriam Webster’s Instagram because I am a dork and love their account and thought that would be a great place to start.
    • First word: Triskaidekaphobia… we had fun with this one, partially because of his love of numbers. It’s the fear of the number 13! We dissected Tris (tri=three), kai (and), deka (ten), and phobia (fear) and he tried to remember all the prefixes pertaining to numbers. I explained why in American culture 13 is thought to be unlucky. Then he asked why the Padres’ Manny Machado would want that number, which is hilarious because we hardly watch baseball, but with Cam, numbers seem to stick.
    • Second word: Etiquette. He struggled at a guess with this but he remembered it from our book The Mysterious Benedict Society and related it to utensils. Close!
    • Third: Fruition. His guesses included “healthy diet” (no), and “full of fruit” which was so right on. I explained why this guess made sense and how to remember it going forward.
    • Fourth was a word I didn’t know either and told him we’d learn together: Saturnine. Neither of us had good guesses, but now know it is “gloomy and grumpy”.

I told him I’d be impressed if he could teach someone at school about triskaidekaphobia and he said he was sad the school year was ending because he loves school and his brain loves school. I know he enjoys learning (yayyyy!) and I know he especially enjoys learning in a familiar environment (aka: knows the teacher, classroom and routine), so the end of year is genuinely bittersweet for him. While the beginnings of the school year are SO tough (tears, resistance, reluctance), I know he’ll return to his love of learning with some time.

These conversations fill me with joy. Of course, language lights my fire, but excitement for growth and interest in diverse subjects is everything–it means the world is so wide open for his taking, both in the short-term and in the future when he eventually chooses what he wants to spend his time doing.

by Kelsey

The Unfortunate End of “Brudder”

Demi has referred to Cam as “brudder” for as long as she could make reference to him. It’s been at least a year and a half. And it is SO charming and sweet.

“Where’s brudder?”

“Brudder, what are you doing?”

“Goodnight, brudder.”

Well, about a month ago, I was feeling silly and teased her lightly. She said something about “brudder” and I responded with “Huh? You want butter?”

We went back and forth and she got (playfully) frustrated and exclaimed “NO! I mean CAM-DEN!”

And that was it. That was the end of “brudder.” Cold. Turkey!

I never intended on squashing that darling little pet name. I regret my teasing immensely.

At this point, she has gone as far as to correct us as well. If we ask her about brudder, she says, “You mean CAM-DEN!!!”

I will certainly be more thoughtful about my teasing henceforth. And may I never forget her little voice exclaiming “brudder!”

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by Kelsey

Demi Says

A while back I started the series “Cam Says” because so many things out of his mouth inspired laughter or surprise or even amazement.

Demi is now a hilarious little chatterbox herself with her own clever ways of communicating. I feel like she’s picked up language and communication so quickly that I’ve already missed recapping stages of her language development including the cute way words come out before they start sounding like the real word.

So, to pause time right now at 22 months, these are some of her words, phrases, sounds, etc.

  • Santa Claus gave her a new baby doll for Christmas. We asked her what her baby’s name was and without hesitation she said, “Coco.” And since Christmas, most days she recaps to us: “Baby Coco, Santa Claus, sweet boy.” If it isn’t obvious, that means she got her baby Coco from Santa and he is a sweet boy for giving it to her.
  • Also during the holidays, we had a blowup helicopter on the roof with Santa waving out the front window, frosty waving out the back and a spinning propeller. Every day at least twice she asked to go outside and see the “calculare”. That was helicopter. Sounded more like calculator. But we knew what she meant.
  • Other holiday related conversations: “Elfie gone,” “Santa, roof,” “Dee-ah (deer), Bumble?” “Broken, batteries.” “Mickey Mouse!” (neighbors had a 8′ tall blow-up Mickey), “tree sad” (ours got extra crispy).
  • Lollipops = Popalops … OMG this is a cute one to hear.
  • She has many different books featuring animals, one of which has a donkey that says “Hee-haw” and she “hee-haws” with the best of ’em.
  • It is no secret our children like milk. A lot. And because they ask for it so much, sometimes we water it down. Demi now thinks milk always gets water. So as you’re prepping her milk, she coaches you through the process: “Bottle. Milk. Water in it.”
  • A month or two ago, she said I love you for the first time. It sounded like, “Allo you” and now, after a little practice, she says it clearly and frequently, “I love you.” It is often proceeded by “Hi mama.” And she’ll repeat the two phrases a few times just melting me right into a puddle.
  • Typical phone conversation when I’m leaving work to drive for an hour and want to check in on the family: Demi: “Hi mama! I love you!” Me: “Hi baby, how are you?” Demi: “Almost home?”
  • When Joe had a pretty bad cold a couple weeks ago, Demi asked if she could check on him. She’d say “check daddy” and then she’d go to the doorway and holler for him, “daddy okay!?” quite loudly. She now does that regularly, checking in on brother or daddy and yelling into a room “brother okay?” or “daddy okay?”
  • When you tell her something is broken or sick or not feeling well, she’ll give a sad face and say “huggie?” How can you resist a huggie request? You can’t.
  • On work days when I come into the house from my office she asks “work done?”
  • She knows when I want “more coffee”.
  • She sits on the counter in the morning while I make breakfast and reaches over and opens the blinds and asks, “betta’ mommy?” Yes Demi, betta. For Joe, she likes retrieving hats for him and demanding he put them on and then she asks in a sugary sweet voice, “betta daddy? Cozy?”
  • Same for when she’s seated next to our water dispenser. She first asks “water, mommy?” And I’ll say “okay”. And then she prompts me to say please by saying “please?” So I say please. Then she fills up a cup and hands it over. When I finish she asks, “more water?” And repeat until I’m overly hydrated.
  • She says “bless you” when people sneeze.
  • She says “thank you” when you do her a favor.
  • She says “excuse me” when she needs you to move.
  • She says “sorry” even when it’s Cam’s turn to say sorry. “Sawee brudder.”
  • If anyone is climbing on anything, most particularly an adult on a ladder she demands they be careful, “careful daddy!”
  • When we play our kid-friendly regular music, she requests the “meow meow” song and then shortly after she requests Cam’s favorite song, which he’s always referred to as the “Beat Boys” so she asks for “Bee Boys mommy?” It’s actually Drift Away by Uncle Cracker and I’ve heard it no fewer than 200 times in the last 5 months.
  • As of the last several days she has gone into “myself” and “own” mode much more aggressively than Cam ever did, so far as I can remember. She wants to get her “own diapa” and do things “Demi self” and if you get too close to what she’s doing she gets mad quickly.
  • Most frequent phrases include:
    • “See mommy?” or “see daddy?” or “see brudder?”
    • “Brudder funny”
    • “Brudder anything”
    • “Hungy” which already is turning into “Hungry”
  • She talks about going to “Monkey house” and “Gina house” frequently.
  • When I ask what she did today, she says “Inny house. Poppy. Lawson.”
  • When she talks on her phone she says “Hi Poppy!” then pauses and says “no” and then says “bye Poppy.”
  • During Halloween, most everything was “‘pooky!” said in a low voice with a serious face.
  • All food is described as “picy” (spicy) or “hot”. Oddly enough she likes spicy and can tolerate hot pretty well too. Cam can’t handle either.
  • She started sort of counting, “two! three! two! three!” for a few weeks and just the other day she said “one! two! three!” as well as “three! two! one!” Every time she asks for something and you say “just one, okay?” she negotiates with “two?” again in a sugary sweet voice and both hands in front of her face indicating two, followed by a “please?” More often than not, she gets two.