Talking points

One of the joys (and pitfalls) of living with a toddler is watching their speech and language unfold.  Ellie is a late talker, so my husband has often asked me, "Are you worried about her speech?  Is it okay that she isn't really talking yet?"  She has shown many signs that her language abilities are progressing, so my usual response is something like, "No.  One day we're going to wish that she would shut up, so let's just enjoy the peace and quiet for now."  Well, she's talking more and more each day now, much to our delight and occasional chagrin.

Ellie's articulation of sounds is still poor, so her talking is often hilarious.  For most two-syllable words, she turns the last part to "hmm".  So "pasta" is "pa-hmm", Daddy's coffee is "co-hmm", and "happy" is "hap-hmm".  Even "up" is "up-hmm" for some reason.  Her current favorite words are "car" (because she loves to go places in the car), "park" (ditto), "more" and "no".  "No", of course, is every two-year-old's favorite word.  Ellie can deliver it with all sorts of inflections and a variety of attitudes.  She can do the long-drawn-out sing-song "noOOOooo" when she's teasing Daddy, the staccato "no-no-no" with the accompanying finger-wag when she's lecturing the dog, and the straightforward and curt little "no" when she's mad. 

The best thing about her speech being unclear is that it saves us when she mimics our naughty words.  For instance, she arrived home from a car ride having added the "f-word" to her vocabulary.  Luckily, it sounds exactly like the way she says "foot", so that's all right.  In the same way, the "s-word" sounds just like the way she says "shoe".  We can just keep telling grandma that Ellie is obsessed with her feet and footwear!