One of the best things about being a mom is watching your child grow and learn about the world around them. One of the ways they grow is through language, and I have always loved how my son has learned to speak and communicate. For a while, we sort of had a secret language. He would learn a new word and it would take me some time to figure out exactly what he was referring to, or sometimes I would use “baby talk” and refer to something and that word is now part of his vocabulary. Words like “ju ju” for juice, or “night night” for bed time are all ones (although not very original), that I made myself. Then there are others such as the “wa wa” (pacifier) which he created on his own. Either way we learned together to communicate and I always find it fun to see what we come up with.

As I am writing this I am trying to think of examples of words that we’ve made up, but it’s funny that it’s harder than I thought. It seems that those words just seem so normal now that I can’t even think of many that are unusual. One of those such words is one that Captain Awesome came up with. My son would never eat pasta, so one day, as a game The Captain decided to blow through the penne pasta and make an “ooo” sound through it. My son found it hysterical, and together they would eat pasta by blowing through each piece making the “oooo” noise. Now, pasta is called “ooo’s”.

Another one of Captain Awesome’s gems stemmed from another of my sons aversions to food. This one was the little clementine oranges. Who doesn’t like those? Perfect for a kid right? Well I couldn’t get my son to even try one. So, for some reason by calling it a “baby orange ju ju” (stemming from orange juice which we reminded him he liked), he ended up trying it and of course liking it. From then on that is exactly what a clementine became…Baby Orange Ju Ju.

I love watching his language grow. Sometimes people tell him that he’s older now and can say things right like “juice”, but I say why? He’ll get there. For now I enjoy our little language, and I love seeing him express himself. He’s a little chatterbox these days and it’s so fun to hear the things he comes up with. His words make me smile, and I have been so happy to be a part of developing them.

What fun words did you and your kids come up with?