Gobbledegook

Have you ever listened to a child speak complete gobbledegook and been absolutely clueless as to what they had uttered, only to see the child's mother understand instantly? I have always loved the funny little words my kids would use when they were only beginning to get a grasp on language. I wish I had kept a record of them, rather than relying on my exceptionally dodgy memory. Like most kids, Jack had some very cute first words, like gog (dog), gink (drink), gilk (milk) and narna (any food of any description!!). When Phoebe was born, Jack called her Fifi, which stuck until she named herself Beebee and wouldn't answer to anything else! Phoebe was obsessed with our beautiful ginger cat, Ernie, and subsequently one of her first words was 'Nernie', which she would repeat in a breathy little mantra. While she now speaks quite well, Phoebe still mangles some words magnificently so that only those around her on a daily basis have any hope of understanding. For example, a singlet in Phoebe-speak is a 'jinglick'. Why? Because it is! Sudocrem (the nappy-rash cream) is called ice-cream (no I'm not kidding). All breakfast foods are 'seer-we-woll' (you have to say it out loud!), and she won't eat it if you say Corn Flakes or Weetbix, it has to be cereal! Dora the Explorer is 'Splora', Play School is 'Circle', and she will often hand me the "mote" to turn on the Wiggles so she can watch Ant-ney, Wuwwy, Tham and Jepp. If you are ever babysitting my kidlets, be warned: if Phoebs asks for munch (lunch), wubbing tea (morning tea - yes, I'm serious!) or sumpin else (something else), don't stress if she wants 'Megemite' or 'thorth' on everything...it's normal! Oh, and if Phoebe ever tells you with great glee that Lucy has 'blut' on her, don't dial 000 - it simply means that her beloved dolly is recreating the scene when Phoebe broke her nose jumping on the bed, when there was so much blood everywhere that Mummy had a hard time finding it's source. Yep, Phoebe is pretty much the expert on 'blut'!!

Cute lisping and mispronounciations aside, the king of nonsense words has to be Jack. In the past six months he has realised the value of the ridiculous, and delights in making up insane words and phrases. One of his most versatile words is 'toonkynunk', meaning a silly person. Our entire family now use this word extensively (which is probably quite scary to outsiders!!). Another favourite is 'sliggen', which means to slip on worms or ice. (Yes, you read that right!). Jack's vocabulary also includes 'sneeze cabinet', 'shooting skatchel' and 'scone flyer', all of which have amazingly strange meanings associated with them. Only last night Jack asked if we could watch "Wallace and Gromit", however he asked for "Horses and Vomit" instead!

There are so many more words and phrases I've forgotten, neglectful mother that I am. Luckily, in a few months Maisie will start creating a whole new vocabulary for our amusement!! I'm going to leave you with a hearty rendition of an O'Toole family favourite (oh yes, we strangulate the lyrics of songs, too!), the alphabet song (sing along everyone!): abcdefg, hijk, elanema p, due r s, tee vue eeeee, w, wex, wye and zed, now I know my abc, next time won't you sing wis me!