Elizabethese.

So here's a mini-tutorial on the Elizabeth language. It's really catching on around here and everyday we're all becoming more and more fluent. Be sure you brush up on your Elizabethese before visiting though; otherwise you're going to be lost in translation. Seriously.

"Monna, Mommy, esa way!" = "Come on, (insert name), this way!" [This is one of my favorites. I ask her to say this many, many times a day simply because I get a kick out of it.]

"Boo/Poo" = can be "balloon," "spoon," etc., depending on the context.

"Ummy" = "yummy." It can also mean "I'm hungry, and I would like something to eat," or it can be the name the particular food she's pointing to at the moment.

"Wa-wa" = "water" [I'm working on this one. I have made it a point to not talk "baby talk" to her since...I don't know, forever ago. Alas, this one, and the next word, persists. To my chagrin.] "Wa-wa" is also the name for her Peter Rabbit movie that starts out with some rain.

"Co-co" = "colors/crayons." Also, "I want to color, if it please you, Mother." At least that's the way I translate it. And I am the authority on this particular dialect.

"Diz" = dance

"A-go!" = Let go.

"I Yooooouuu!" = I love you. This translation courtesy of my parents, specifically Dad/a.k.a. Bear (which incidentally also sounds like "boo.")

The words she says clearly are:

Hold you, Mommy! [Which means "hold me," obviously.]

Bye-bye.

Watch!

Away! [This is what she calls a Veggie Tales movie in which Larry/a.k.a. Moe says "Hi-ho Sliver, away!"] [It's also what she says when she wants to throw something away.]

Night-night.

Judah [This one is as clear as a bell and is the reason we don't call him "Jude" more often around here.]

Puppy

Ok, I'm realizing she says a lot of words. I'll get around to publishing a dictionary sooner or later. I mean, what do the nursery workers at church do when I'm not there? They think she wants to go potty by herself, that's what they do. Another word I forgot to mention is "poop," which in Elizabethese, just means wet. The direct cognate can get confusing, I know. I figured this out myself when one night, she got out of the bath and pointed to her dripping hair and said assuredly, "Poop!" Not quite, baby. Anyway, on Wednesday night, the women in the nursery thought she wanted to go potty by herself because she was saying that and pointing to herself. She's also quite brilliant when it comes to using "poop" to get out of classrooms, carseats, strollers.... I'm proud to say it doesn't work with Mommy and Daddy anymore. No siree. I've fallen for that for the last time! She needs to learn the moral of the story about the boy who cried wolf. Otherwise she's going to find herself uncomfortably sitting in her own...ahem...while we finish the six-hour car ride to Memphis.

Pictures to come soon. We're too busy trying to find somewhere to live for when we move out in TWO WEEKS to upload new pictures. Which reminds me, it's time to get back to it. By the way, I've learned that I am entirely too picky. Tony's getting a little disgusted.