My son, he is great
Sep. 16th, 2006 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radegund1. The language of horticulture
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niallm's mother and I are completely gutting the back garden. (Oh, oh, it's so much fun! Loppers and axes and saws, oh my! Mountains of earth, mountains of tree. Hauling great big bushes out of the ground by main strength. The loan of a five-foot crowbar (raaah!). And it's going to be SO GORGEOUS when it's done! Yay!) Unny has been most helpful, with the digging and the pouring of water and the moving of small stones and half-bricks (sometimes even to useful places). Phrases he has learnt include "robust structure" (referring to our doomed garage, which isn't one), "that tree is coming DOWN!", "find it a new home" (referring to worms, which we rescue from the rubbish pile), and "happy mucky grandmother".
2. Poor wasp
A wasp flies close to Oisín. Niall's ma and I shoo it away. I explain to Oisín that a wasp can sting you, and it hurts. He leans forward with a concerned look and kisses the air. "Kiss wasp," he says. Because the wasp hurts! I am slain.
3. Wonderla!
I said to Oisín, "I think you're wonderful, you know that?"
He smiled and said, "Niall?" (which he now pronounces complete with terminal consonant).
"Yes, Niall thinks you're wonderful too."
"Niall denk Unny wonderla."
"That's right."
"K?" [Niall's ma]
"Yes, K thinks you're wonderful too."
"K denk Unny wonderla."
"Yes."
Pause.
"Unny denk Unny wonderla."
"Great! So you should!"
Pause.
"Unny denk Mama wonderla."
(To which I didn't say anything, because I was busy melting.)
3. Green Oyster
We finished a carton of milk. Oisín laid it down and started trying to squash it flat. "'Cycle it! 'Cycle it!" he exclaimed. So I did. (Yes, our green bin takes tetra-pak. Yes, it's unremarkable that a two-year-old is familiar with his household's waste disposal procedures, but it still gives me the warm fuzzies.)
4. Docky dibah
I never did find out what "docky dibah" meant. A few weeks ago he said it constantly. It's a type of vehicle - literally, it means "taxi driver", but it got misapplied. My best guess is that it means "hatchback", but I'm not certain. And now he seems to have stopped using it.
5. Superfluous bilabial fricative
He pronounces words like "boat", "out", "mouth" with an extra sound, half way between "wh" and "f" - boa(wh)t, ou(wh)t, mou(wh)th. At first I thought that it was a sound in Hiberno-English that he was hearing, but recently I've decided it's more likely to be a strategy for achieving a devoiced stop. He seems to find devoicing tricky, and much of the time doesn't bother.
6. Computer
Currently pronounced "goo-ban-boo-dah", which I think is horrifically cute. (Unny's goobanboodah is his table-top Crayola easel.)
7. Sentences
Talking in full sentences is the new black. Recent examples I've noted (not all words enunciated clearly, but at least a schwa for each one):
"Unny looking out the window at the road."
"Unny get out of bed and go downstairs."
"[E] bring Unny to the playground AGAIN!"
"Little dog going down the blue hill." (Unny is the little dog; the blue hill is a slope on a playground structure.)
"[K] brought that bag."
"Take your apron off and hang it on the handle." (This when a simple "take it off" didn't work.)
"Unny and Mama go a meeting all about mama-milk AGAIN!" (La Leche League meeting last week - very popular.)
ETA: And then today, Niall tells me, he said, "Nially told a bluebottle to go away while getting the muesli." (The "while" was a schwa, but the sense was clear.)
8. Eating tables is BLEAHHH!
We have a Hilarious Game about what's good and bad to eat. ("Eating [bananas] is MMMMM!" versus "Eating [coats] is BLEAHHH!") Oisín consistently comes up with new examples, and chuckles like a loon whenever we play.
9. He's great.
niallm's mother and I are completely gutting the back garden. (Oh, oh, it's so much fun! Loppers and axes and saws, oh my! Mountains of earth, mountains of tree. Hauling great big bushes out of the ground by main strength. The loan of a five-foot crowbar (raaah!). And it's going to be SO GORGEOUS when it's done! Yay!) Unny has been most helpful, with the digging and the pouring of water and the moving of small stones and half-bricks (sometimes even to useful places). Phrases he has learnt include "robust structure" (referring to our doomed garage, which isn't one), "that tree is coming DOWN!", "find it a new home" (referring to worms, which we rescue from the rubbish pile), and "happy mucky grandmother".2. Poor wasp
A wasp flies close to Oisín. Niall's ma and I shoo it away. I explain to Oisín that a wasp can sting you, and it hurts. He leans forward with a concerned look and kisses the air. "Kiss wasp," he says. Because the wasp hurts! I am slain.
3. Wonderla!
I said to Oisín, "I think you're wonderful, you know that?"
He smiled and said, "Niall?" (which he now pronounces complete with terminal consonant).
"Yes, Niall thinks you're wonderful too."
"Niall denk Unny wonderla."
"That's right."
"K?" [Niall's ma]
"Yes, K thinks you're wonderful too."
"K denk Unny wonderla."
"Yes."
Pause.
"Unny denk Unny wonderla."
"Great! So you should!"
Pause.
"Unny denk Mama wonderla."
(To which I didn't say anything, because I was busy melting.)
3. Green Oyster
We finished a carton of milk. Oisín laid it down and started trying to squash it flat. "'Cycle it! 'Cycle it!" he exclaimed. So I did. (Yes, our green bin takes tetra-pak. Yes, it's unremarkable that a two-year-old is familiar with his household's waste disposal procedures, but it still gives me the warm fuzzies.)
4. Docky dibah
I never did find out what "docky dibah" meant. A few weeks ago he said it constantly. It's a type of vehicle - literally, it means "taxi driver", but it got misapplied. My best guess is that it means "hatchback", but I'm not certain. And now he seems to have stopped using it.
5. Superfluous bilabial fricative
He pronounces words like "boat", "out", "mouth" with an extra sound, half way between "wh" and "f" - boa(wh)t, ou(wh)t, mou(wh)th. At first I thought that it was a sound in Hiberno-English that he was hearing, but recently I've decided it's more likely to be a strategy for achieving a devoiced stop. He seems to find devoicing tricky, and much of the time doesn't bother.
6. Computer
Currently pronounced "goo-ban-boo-dah", which I think is horrifically cute. (Unny's goobanboodah is his table-top Crayola easel.)
7. Sentences
Talking in full sentences is the new black. Recent examples I've noted (not all words enunciated clearly, but at least a schwa for each one):
"Unny looking out the window at the road."
"Unny get out of bed and go downstairs."
"[E] bring Unny to the playground AGAIN!"
"Little dog going down the blue hill." (Unny is the little dog; the blue hill is a slope on a playground structure.)
"[K] brought that bag."
"Take your apron off and hang it on the handle." (This when a simple "take it off" didn't work.)
"Unny and Mama go a meeting all about mama-milk AGAIN!" (La Leche League meeting last week - very popular.)
ETA: And then today, Niall tells me, he said, "Nially told a bluebottle to go away while getting the muesli." (The "while" was a schwa, but the sense was clear.)
8. Eating tables is BLEAHHH!
We have a Hilarious Game about what's good and bad to eat. ("Eating [bananas] is MMMMM!" versus "Eating [coats] is BLEAHHH!") Oisín consistently comes up with new examples, and chuckles like a loon whenever we play.
9. He's great.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-16 04:45 pm (UTC)(Do tell all about LLL)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-16 05:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-16 08:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-16 09:54 pm (UTC)I laughed till I cried at this one.
Great to hear someone is working in the garden, since I am the daylight-deprived dissertation-ridden hag!
Thank you, again, for jumping my car. Tomsy's buying me a new battery before our next foray home (end September).
Reconstructed convention of female friends coincidentally taking place pre-nuptials will be taking place on Saturday 11 November....I expect that Jennifer or Rachel (or both) will be emailing you in due course with further information....
xxx
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-16 11:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-17 08:57 am (UTC)Poor waspie!
<silent nod> denk Unny wonderla.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-18 10:18 am (UTC)