Words, Words: A Field Guide to E-Speak

This afternoon, Eloïse handed me a book and said, "Here you go." It was plain as day—a full sentence (though perhaps not the most impressive grammatically). It almost made up for the fact that she still can't quite figure out how to put the books back on the shelf by herself.  Phil and I are curious to see what manifests from Eloïse's love for books. Is she interested in the pictures on each page? Will she fall in love with novels, histories, plays? Or does she merely enjoy the excuse to sit quietly, unbothered, and relish in doing something for herself? At least one thing seems clear: our daughter is fascinated by words. She delights in spotting any object that she can name and shouting its identity from the rooftops. "Hat!" "Dog!" "Shoe!" Some of her favorite books are ones where she can basically read them to us, pointing out each object on the page and announcing its name gleefully.

She has mastered quite a few words at this point: bike, hi, bye, pants, shoe, sock, hat, nose, eye, ears, car, milk, mug, flower, glasses, no*, water, bath, pasta, bar (this means a fruit bar, not a liquor establishment), Papa, Mama, and brother.

(*The other day, after answering a string of questions with "No," I asked her, "Do you know how to say yes?" To which she responded a clear and resounding, "Yes." So the word is in her vocabulary, even if she doesn't use it very often.)

And though they may not really count, Eloïse also really enjoys animals and their sounds. She has a set of alphabet blocks that have an animal painted on one side of each cube. She likes to bring them to us one by one, barking, mooing, or quacking, as appropriate. I think my favorites are the bear ("Rawr!"), the wolf ("Aaaooooo!"), and the kangaroo ("Boing! Boing! Boing!").

Of course there are a couple of animals that are still making rather unconventional sounds. The skunk says "Pee-you," and thanks to Sandra Boynton, pigs say "La la la." We'll work on it, even though I secretly don't want to. Her animal sounds aren't the only thing I'm reticent to correct.

For all the words she says well, there is also plenty of babbling and nonsense, and of course a few words that we understand, though they be indecipherable to another's ear. "Choo-bay" for either Cheerios or cherries and "pooht" which can mean spoon or fork. Please comes out "peas" and is always accompanied by squinty eyes, a head tilt or shoulder scrunch, and a huge cheesy smile. It won't be long before she outgrows this precious baby speak, I'm sure. Like good parents, we correct her pronunciation. Like millennials, we try to catch it on video. And I write this all down so some day we can laugh together about these early years and the wonderful way we discover the world around us.