Beyond Baby Talk
Drake is approaching his 2nd birthday. At his 18-month checkup, my husband G. Grod and I were abashed to admit that Drake wasn’t talking much; he made a lot of noise, but little of it was words. The doctor asked how many words he had. We generously said about eight. Then the doc asked how many words Drake said that other people would recognize as words. We generously said two or three. Since then, Drake’s language has had continuous momentum. I was not surprised to feel relief. What I have been surprised to feel, though, are twinges of sadness as he barrels along developmentally.
As do many children, Drake would identify animals by their sounds, or his approximation of their sounds, rather than by their names. A cat, for instance, was a “Beow.” As a responsible, teaching parent, every time he said “beow” I said, “the cat says Meow.” I emphasized the M and made sure that he could see my mouth as I formed the word. So it was with both great excitement and sadness that one day he looked back at me and said, “Meow.” A few months after that, he said, “cat.”
So now Drake knows that a cat says “meow” and he can communicate that with his own words. He has also shifted from “bu-POHN” to “button.” These are correct, and indicate that he’s learning and growing. I never thought I would, but I will always feel a pang for those sweet, brief days when a cat was a beow.
July 14th, 2005 at 10:08 am
Aw. I’m calling the cats “beows” from now on.