Pl'ou

Helping Papa inventory books to return to the library.

I am obsessed with language acquisition.  I could spend hours just listening to the way my daughters, especially the 2-year old, decide to use and try out words.

Recently, Jillson has been saying "ta-ta!" instead of goodbye.  She also has been saying "That's not what I expected!" when something unexpected happens.  For some reason, that really tickles me.

Madelyn has some interesting consonant inversions going on.  She says "let's dough!" instead of "let's go!"  as well as "grink" and "gress" for drink and dress.  But she says "gatorade" and "driveway" clear as a bell.  She says cat and cracker perfectly, but says "tum" instead of come and "be-tuzz" instead of because.

Just this morning I watched her stop mid-word to say "I don't have one, t-- either!" instead of "I don't have one, too!"  I could see the little wheels cranking in her brain, could see the flash of exhilaration in her eyes when she tried out a new word and it worked.  The fact that I wanted to stop and kiss her and praise her for correctly using "either" instead of "too" just shows you how much of a geek I am.

But my absolute favorite is the invention of "ploo."  This is not a mispronunciation.  It is a homemade contraction.  I suppose that, correctly spelled, it should be "pl'ou."  It stands for "Please, can you..." or "Please, will you..." and is applied a million times a day:

"Pl'ou change my diaper?"
"Pl'ou hand me a crayon?"
"Pl'ou open this?"

Now, pl'ou tell me, what is more adorable than that?

Yours in nerdiness,
The GM