Things we love: toddler speak

You say spaghetti, I say pasketti. You say sandwich, I say sammich. Let’s call the whole thing off!

Sometimes speaking to a toddler feels like communicating with someone from another country, continent, or even planet for that matter. And although they will happily repeat a new word for you enough times to impress the family’s pet parrot, deciphering a toddler’s first words can feel like trying to crack some sort of uber top secret code.

Yesterday afternoon when I left the office, Lillie was happily singing (swinging) in her sing (swing) out back repeating over and over again: “heee fuff lies! heee fuff lies!”

Now as her aunt BooBoo, I clearly knew she was calling “come here butterflies!” to the lovely little creatures flying around her. But to a passerby, that phrase would probably be nothing more than adorable toddler gibberish.

I did a little digging around to find real phrases from other tots that probably took a few days for mom and dad to decode:

"fwoots and begebals" = fruits and vegetables
"raisin opium" = raisin oatmeal
“strangle eggs” = scrambled eggs
"wrong angle" = triangle
“bullsh**” = goldfish
“lover” = flower
“washquash” = washcloth
“simming soup” = swimsuit