Evan to English dictionary

For quite a few months when she was just learning to talk, Julia's word for sleep was "elbie-yehyoh-papa-baba." Complete gobbledygook to anyone who didn't put her to bed on a regular basis, but to those of us who knew Julia and how her mind works, it was quite clear. She was asking for her stuffed Elmo (Elbie), her yellow lovey (Yehyoh), her paci (papa) and her blanket (baba) -- the 4 things that she got only when she was in her crib. It always made us laugh that she'd managed to turn a one syllable word into an eight syllable word.

I don't remember how long she used this term before she started just asking to take a nap or go to bed, but I'm pretty sure it was quite a while. It was one of those cute, endearing things we were sure we would always remember about Julia's early language development. And less than 2 years later, I had completely forgotten about it until a friend reminded me last week. So much for memories.

The fact that I'd forgotten such an "important" Juliaism so quickly unnerved me a little bit (though it also underscored yet again why I shouldn't take it so personally when my mother can't remember which of her children likes mustard and which of us likes mayo). Whole chunks of my children's early years are going to disappear forever into the abyss of my over-caffeinated, undernourished mind if I'm not careful. So, at the risk of boring the roughly 30-40 of you who visit my blog daily (who are you people, anyway?), I'm going to take this opportunity to catalogue Evan's current gobbledygook in the only place I know I'm likely to be able to find it later.

At just under 15 months, here's what Evan has to say these days:

Mama -- did I mention I got top billing this time around?
Dada -- the big guy who shows up at the end of the day
Doo Dah -- Julia (this is by far my favorite nickname for her now -- particularly when sung to the tune of Camptown Races)
Wih Wah -- Willow, our cat (and now every other furry 4-footed creature, from a dog in the park to a lion in a book)
Nana -- originally banana, but he had such great results with this one that he now uses it to describe any form of food or to tell me that he's hungry
Nyhna -- strange bastardization of nana used exclusively for milk
Buh Buh -- bye bye (accompanied by frantic 2-handed waving)
Buh Buh -- bubble (distinguishable from bye bye only because no waving is taking place and there are bubbles floating around)
Beh Buh -- bless you (the difference between this & the 2 above words is very faint, but it does exist... plus he says this one only when somebody sneezes)
Beh Beh -- (are you seeing a recurring theme here?) this one means baby. I swear.
Boo -- just what it sounds like (he and Julia love to "get" each other with boos)
Gurgle - Gurgle -- I can't spell this one phonetically and I'm giving up trying. It means Cookie, though (the Sesame Street monster, not the food, thank you very much)
Ah Duh -- all done
Yeah -- an affirmative response (used all too rarely these days, I'm afraid)
Nah -- it's hard to miss what this one means, since it's usually repeated several times in rapid succession, along with violent head shaking

I've heard many other word attempts recently, including up, Grandma and Grandpa, and there are several things, including Elmo and Zoe, that he's clearly trying to say but is mispronouncing so completely that it's not worth even trying to record them. Then there are the words like cat (an emphatic AT!) and achoo that seem to have disappeared by the wayside in the past month or two. But for all intents and purposes, this is Evan's vocabulary at the moment. Nothing as fun as elbie-yehyoh-papa-baba just yet, but at least I'll be able to look back and remember that now...