Over the course of almost six years of child development experience, it has been interesting, fun, hilarious, and at times, alarming, to witness the process of language development.
The first real example James and I noted was probably when Jake was two, nearing three. He started peppering each conversation with a well-placed, “Ac-shoe-a-lly.” As in, “Ac-shoe-a-lly, I want two tweats, not one.”
Then a combo of playground lingo and Marty the zebra from the movie Madagascar prompted an overly healthy use of the exclamation, “What the?!” Nate is currently right there in the “What The” Zone. Jake experimented with “What the heck” but I brought the hammer down.
And speaking of the hammer, there was also the short life of “Oh my god” which was beat back to “Oh my gosh” and ultimately became “Oh my heaven.” We’ll come back to this one in a moment. I still remember my dad’s angry face the first time he heard me say “Oh my god.” He was vehemently opposed to this phrase and black tennis shoes. I was clearly on the precipice of becoming a real hoodlum in those LA Gears.
Last year Jakey started ending a sentence mid-way and then looking at me with his head tilted to the side and his eyebrows up. He would kind of wave his little hand like a traffic cop, expecting me to read his mind and finish the sentence. This was a really funny phase…
There was also a long stretch of “No Nate’s.” Exclamations really. I heard it hundreds of times and it made me wish there was a lifetime counter that would tally the number of times Jake will utter “Noooo Nate!”
And the “blah blah blah” phase that happened during stories involving conversations between two people.
And I almost forgot the phase where he would prompt agreement to his every suggestion by ending his proposals with “Yeah?” and an influential yes nodding of the head to try and get you to nod along with him. “I get two tweats instead of one today, yeah? Yeah?” (lots of nodding). You can easily find yourself mimicking the head nodding and agreeing with something if you are only half-listening.
Going back to our Yosemite holiday trip, our four-year-old-friend Eleanor introduced us to a new phrase. Everything she said usually had something to do with “her thithter” Eve. It was darling. And just like that, Nate lost his name and is now referenced almost entirely as “my brother.” Lately it’s: “My brother slapped me with his towel in the tummy. My brother ripped his Valentimes Day dragon mask. My brother got the walls wet with the squirt gun in the bathtub.”
And then two weekends ago, Jacob and I were weeding in the new backyard so he could earn back his movie privilege. Unfortunately it appears that when you buy bark chip mulch, you are also purchasing the added benefit of thousands of baby clover. So Jake and I are picking clover and we find, get this: two four-leaf clovers and… wait for it… a five-leaf clover. I have been searching for this my entire life and here it all happens in one crazy moment of bliss.
And Jake exclaims, ” OMG, Lady!
O.
M.
G.”
