Little by little, 21 month old Tinytoes is starting to say more words. Some are crystal clear, but others are slightly more cryptic. She loves to abbreviate, saying “by” for “butterfly” or “a-ua” for “aigua” (Catalan for water), as well as conjuring up some of her own interpretations. For example “pea” will mean “pea”, but will also mean pretty anything small and round. If she sees a blueberry or a dot on her polka dot jumper, she’ll excitedly squeal “pea, pea, pea!”
Her favourite toy in the whole world is a small furry Winnie the Pooh. She has a completely unique name for him; not a sound in any way recognisable in the English language, thus making it impossible for me to try to spell it. It’s a strange, cooing sound made in the back of the throat, which almost sounds Danish. The best way to describe it is the noise a woodpigeon makes. In fact I once genuinely mistook the sound of a woodpigeon for my daughter’s wail at having dropped Winnie the Pooh.
So as not to confuse her beloved Pooh Bear with anything she might leave in her nappy (worried it may leave long-lasting psychological effects), I’ve generally tried to use the Catalan word ‘caca’ to refer to any nappy contents. And she in turns says “caca, caca” at the appropriate moment.
Today when I bring Tinytoes home from morning nursery, unusually she doesn’t settle for a nap. I watch her on the monitor screen and she is running back and forth in her cot shouting something out with great conviction. At first I think she is saying “a-ua” and I go to get her water. Then I listen more carefully and it seems to be the word “apple”. She is saying it again and again and again. I smile to myself. How sweet. She had enjoyed an apple yesterday and was very excited about it, properly saying the word “apple” for the first time.
Nearly an hour later she is still awake. Saying “a-pple, a-pple, a-pple.” Suddenly I have a flash of inspiration. I run upstairs and the smell hits me. I realise she was in fact clearly telling me “a poo, a poo, a poo,” poor little thing. It was a pretty impressive-sized ‘apple’ too; no wonder she couldn’t go to sleep…
I marvel at the fact that although she does not pronounce “Pooh Bear” correctly, she is able to say “a poo” really clearly. The reason I had misunderstood her was because I thought that 1) she only knew it as “caca” and 2) that she was unable to pronounce the word “poo”. Now I know the strange woodpigeon sound is just her own name for her favourite bear and that she’s perfectly capable of saying the word “poo.”
With Tinytoes happily asleep in a clean nappy, I feel relief that I can safely call a “poo” a “poo” (or an “a poo”) without scarring her. My mind turns to the imminent potty training and I wonder again whether it was wise for DearDaddy to have purchased a potty with the image of Winnie the Pooh inside. At least verbally Tinytoes can differentiate between her favourite bear and the contents of her nappy. I’ll just need to make sure I don’t change her nappy next time she asks for an apple…
Calamitous Mummy 