The Lexicon

It's been lovely to hold newborn babies again. Silas and Abby are both super cute, and their parents are justifiably glowing. James, who often looks small compared to my 4th grade trumpet students, suddenly looks enormous while standing next to the new cousins. He also feels very heavy. I remember when he was little and helpless like them, and I even remember some of the quirks that made him uniquely James. But already he's walking and talking, and no longer a little baby. Soon he'll be able to pronounce his "r"s and "l"s...which is why I am writing down his lexicon for posterity.

AH DO
(emphasis on DO) This sometimes means "I do" but can also mean "yes." For example, when we read in Curious George and the Birthday Surprise "There were hats, games, decorations, and a cake. George wondered if the surprise was a party. Was it a party?" James will respond with an enthusiastic "Ah DO!"

HA DADDY
Apparently he is from the South. I get this greeting mostly when I come home from work, but occasionally it's the first thing he says in the morning when I go to get him up from his crib.

OH
Not just oh, but "OH!" with the circumflex accent. Again, this is mostly a roundabout way of saying yes. You'll be asking him whether he wants green car (no) or red car (no) or white car (OH!) and he takes up a full minor third swooping up and down.

oKAY
This is from Alexa, and another way of saying "yes." The o is barely present, just a soft launching point for a very enthusiastic KAY!

WHAT THAT BE?
His very elegant way of asking what something is. This is also how he determines where we left the car. "Mommy, where car be?" He can't say this unless he makes a questioning gesture with both hands at the same time.

WHAT IS (x) DOING?
This started out mostly as What is Mommy doing? or What is Daddy doing? Now he asks about all kinds people, things, and abstract ideas. It sort of became his version of the passive aggressive toddler "why" tactic for a while. For example, we'd put Wii sports on with O&K, and he'd ask "What is archery doing?"

SPISH SPISH
Spish-spish is car wash. More specifically it's the first and last of five car-washing noises, according to Curious George and the Car Wash. But mostly it's the car wash down the hill from us. The meaning of life is to visit spish-spish. "Daddy, I wanna go spish-spish. What is spish-spish doing?"

I WANT SPISH SPISH UP
We are fascinated by automatic garage doors. O&K have one, and there is one on each entrance to car wash. At O&Ks he will stand in the garage, point at the open door, and repeat endlessly "I want dat down. I want dat down. I want dat down." When we finally get our shoes off and set down whatever we're carrying, someone will attempt to mollify him by hitting the door button. He will watch in rapt silence, and as soon as the door is all the way down he immediately starts in on a chorus of "I want dat up. I want dat up." We've accepted it as a fact of life that whenever we drive out of our apartment he will watch out the backseat window to see whether the car wash exit door is open or closed, and then immediately plead for the opposite.

MOMMY'S CAR/DADDY'S CAR/NEW CAR
Mommy's car (the PT Cruiser) is no longer with us, replaced by a 2009 Toyota Corolla. But the Cruiser is not forgotten to James. He regularly asks to ride in it, and to take it through the car wash. We are awfully fond of new car--he's been including it in night time prayers ever since we bought it--but if he's put in his car seat in New Car, he immediately asks to ride in Daddy's Car.

OO-AH/DEE-DEE/NOTHER ONE DEE-DEE
One of our babysitters greeted Julie on the front porch the other day asking her whether she knew what an "oo-ah-dee-dee" was. (Another babysitter also told her that she couldn't figure out what "pish-pish" meant.) Oo-Ah is his stuffed Curious George, and Dee-Dee is the much beloved Steven Bear. He is perfectly capable of pronouncing both real names, but I think that Oo-Ah will only be George when we're reading about him. He does have a back up Steven Bear in considerably whiter condition who is called 'Nother One Dee-Dee. (Other Steven.)

WOOF-WOOF/MOW-MOW
Dogs and cats, of course. Since we love the Curious George TV series so much we've gotten to calling all black terriers Sharie (Charki) all weiner-looking dogs Hunny (Hundley) and any gray kittens Noogie. (Gnocchi.) For a while we thought that Grandma Davis would also be called Mow-Mow, but he's gotten better at saying Grandma.

GOOKIE
Strong accent on the first part of the word. We know we get gookies whenever we go to Wegmans, and whenever cookies are even mentioned James immediately exclaims that he wants a Gookie TOO! It didn't take him long to figure out that this phrase can be improved by reordering the words and saying "I want TWO Gookies!"

WIFE
James always asks for his wife in the morning. Not his spouse, of course, but a bowl of Life cereal. (Sometimes this comes out as "yife.") Even when he is actually in the mood for shredded wheat, he asks for wife first.

WAWER/WADUH
He's been getting much closer to the actual pronunciation of water, but prefers in all instances to drink juice. Still, even waduh is preferable to having milk in one's sippy cup. (For a long time just pronounced "mmm")

YEKYA
Sweet Alexa Hamway, his lady fair. James is always ready to play Yekya. On extra special days he gets to visit "Yekya's house" (And play TOYS) It's always interesting to see "whose" house he considers it to be. Hilltop, for example, is Aunt Kyee's house. My parents' place is Nama's house, and Julie's childhood home is Grandma's house. James' room, however is "me-yoom"

YOU
This is James. If James wants to be held he asks "Daddy hold YOU." And if you correct him and say "me," he will tell correct you back and say "no, YOU." It can be kind of confusing. I recently gave him the red engine number 5, who is also named James. This train is only referred to as "You."

DO ADAIN
Do again. Usually accompanied by vigorous chest rubbing, recalling the sign for "please" he used to make when he was little, and sometimes further specification about what he'd like to repeat. ("Do adain SPISH-SPISH.")

REED OOH-AH/REE-AH
This means that James would like you to read him a Curious George book out loud. Since this happens about 40-50 times a day (not exaggerating) he will often shorten "reed ooh-ah" to "ree-ah, ree-ah!"

DEEP FISH
Still not sure what this one means or where it came from, but he has a projector feature on his noise machine that shows an image of colorful fish on the ceiling at bedtime. Even when it's already on he'll ask for "deep fish" once we finish prayers. I don't know what he thinks about them, but it's a sweet final request before he goes down for the night.