Misnomers and Imperfections

Talk is cheap. Graeme’s is cheaper than Liam’s. Some of the stuff they say is hilarious, both intentionally and unintentionally (examples below). Graeme however has become dangerous (not just from biting). He repeats everything he hears, although his pronunciation sometimes leaves a bit to be desired and some words are easier than others.

One of the few advantages of being a traveling daddy is that the boys are hearing their first bad words from mommy and not me. It’s pretty obvious who they learn which words from because Tiffany and I swear in very different ways. This is the kind of thing you never really notice until you start to hear it repeated in miniature. So far I’ve heard Graeme say “cwap” (crap) and “bastar” (should be obvious). We’re going to have to work harder on editing ourselves.

My favorite though, is accidental. Graeme has discovered the concept of stuck. He lets us know if he’s stuck by saying that he’s stuck or calling to us and saying stuck, but he can’t say it. The verbal result is repetition of either “I suck, I suck” or “mommy suck, mommy suck.”

The other day, Tiffany was cautioning Liam against some kind of lunch time shenanigan and called him “Liam Michael.” Now, Graeme struggles with saying “Liam” but “Michael” apparently struck his fancy and was phonetically viable. For the rest of the day, Graeme followed Liam around shouting, “Micha, micha.” Liam just kept looking at him with an expression that said, “what the heck are you talking about.” It also may be that Graeme though it was a word used to scold Liam. Who knows.

Due to his frequent biting of Liam when he’s tired or protecting his turf, Tiffany has taught Graeme to he is sorry (“I sawwy”) when he does something that makes Liam cry. Yesterday Liam was frolicking on the bed and fell and whacked his head on the screen of mommy’s laptop. Needless to say this resulted in much wailing. Graeme came running in around the corner from the bathroom, looked and Liam woefully and said, “I sawwy.” I’m fairly sure he doesn’t understand why mommy wants him to say it.

Other humorous pronunciations:

Fwaug – frog
Cack – cat
Goosh - goose
Choo-choo – train