HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY BEAR!!!

from an email exchange with the aforementioned Rachel - she had described some lovely little baby language from her small granddaughter:


"Seeeoup. Nooolllas. Bik. (soup. noodles. biscuit.)" Oooh, I just melted into a big puddle of 'when am I gonna be a grandma?' moosh. I LOVE babytalk. When The Child was born, it was not fashionable to indulge in babytalk. You were to speak sensibly to your infant, so as to encourage word recognition. Not us. We babbled and cooed and repeated her own baby vocabulary right back at her - so much so that some of the 'words' are still family sayings. We all three are 'pop-pop' at the end of a meal, rather than full (Mr. Kim actually told a table full of executives that he was pop-pop at the end of a business dinner), when we drive around to view Christmas lights, we enjoin each other to "yook, yook" and Momma remembers that the Child used not to "yike mayoyaisse". I can just hear 'nooolllas' and I think 'Bik' is positively universal! I would very much like to meet the mannerly geese that you describe. The ones that used to be at the park that we went to when The Child was a little girl would wrest the bags of Wonderbread outlet bread from us, then when that ran out, chase us back to the car and honk their ire. We eventually just drove on by when we spotted them among the more peaceable and easily intimidated ducks at the pond.

I do adore babytalk. I indulge in it to a shameful degree - with babies, with Mr. Kim, with any and all animals that I meet - including cows on the side of the road that I haven't been formally introduced to. I do NOT, however, speak babytalk to the old folks that I deal with at the doctor's office. That kind of stuff burns my butt. When I hear some tiresome twit patronizingly refer to a VERY OLD woman as a "young lady", I just want to slap them.


Sorry, small rant.

Momma took the Child to NC to visit my grandparents when she was about 18 months old and Mr. Kim wrote down a toddler glossary:

Moe - more to drink
Binky or Banky - pacifier
Tee - please
No - "I don't want to do this" - also the response to any question you ask
Tay - ok
Tie or Sigh - I want to go outside
Shit - sit down
Goo-Guh - good girl
Ah-wah - I love you (we think)
The-the-the-the-the - (Part of a game) means "You're not gonna get me" - (finger will be shaken at you). She wants you to chase her. The proper response is, "I'm gonna get you"
Ba - bottle
Tek-oo - thank you
Beh or Bay - I want my bear
Uh-oh - I dropped something (probably on purpose)
Caw - telephone or "I want to call someone"

When I read these, I can see her sweet little bow of a mouth saying the words, the frown of concentration as she tried to remember and form the words. Sometimes that little mouth looked so sweet in it's efforts that I'd kiss it right in the middle of a word, drawing an irritated glance for interrupting her.


Oh, how I miss that babygirl. The Child is a solo (I don't like the word 'only' - it sounds forlorn to me; solo sounds brave - MUCH more like her personality!) and when some people heard me say that, they'd say, "You should have another". They didn't get it - I didn't want another baby - I wanted THAT baby back for just a few minutes. To hold and kiss and smell and just BEHOLD before letting her grow up into the gorgeous, heart stoppingly smart and funny woman that she is now. Her birthday is today - she's 26 years old and I worship her smartypants self. I have been blessed with good family and friends and I love LOTS of people. But she is the only soul on earth that I can instantly reference the look, the sound and even the fragrance of at any stage of my knowing her.

Happy Birthday, Baby Bear! Hope I've embarrassed you sufficiently (still fun after all these years)!


Mutt, Momma