With Elsa and Clio talking so much, and able to communicate increasingly complex thoughts -- why, just yesterday Clio was commenting that while the media frenzy over the Henry Gates/Cambridge police issue was lamentable, it has spurred important conversations about race in America -- it's easy for me to get into the mindset that everyone should understand what they're saying as well as Alastair and I. But the fact is, a lot of what they say is still unintelligible to the majority of people.
Which I guess shouldn't come as a surprise. While it's immediately clear to me that "We goto go on da feeeeg go inda kye!" means "We're going to go on the swings and go up in the sky!" ( I also know that "up in the sky" means way up high, though the exact moment at which "sky" highness is attained remains a bit of a mystery) I can't expect someone who doesn't spend huge amounts of time with the girls to know that.
I've been reminded of this over the past week; we've seen a number of relatives and friends that haven't seen the girls since they were babies, and have had to do a lot of translating. We even have to translate a word or two for their grandparents sometimes, in spite of the fact that they see the girls on a regular basis. So, picture me, standing there there beaming with idiotic pride while Elsa walks up to a distant cousin and says, "We go wi Mommy to da TOHwah!" not quite realizing that the cousin is probably thinking something along the lines of "They go with Mommy to the Torah?...hm..are they raising them Jewish? I know Alastair's mother is...but I didn't know whether or not...and aren't they a little young to...and isn't the Torah a book? Can you physically go up to the Torah? I guess you can. I went to my friend's kid's Bar Mitzvah, and I think he...but...Am I going to sound like an ignorant Christian here if I say that back? So should I just nod? Or maybe Jane can...."
Then, finally, I realize that the cousin is looking at me quizically -- perhaps desperately -- and jump in to explain that Elsa is saying that they went to the store with me today. At which point, cousin can nod at Elsa and say "Ohhhh!" and ask some follow up question like, "Did you have fun?" to which she can reply with something equally unintelligible to him, like "An we ga gape fuh me!" (And we got grapes for me.)
Of course, I am often clueless when it comes to what other people's toddlers are saying. You'd like to think that as a mother of toddlers, you'd be able to pick it up -- at least some of it. As if it was all just dialects of one universal Toddler language. But each toddler really does have his or her own little patois and either you know it or you don't. There are times when I don't understand what my own kids are saying. Sometimes Alastair and I can translate for each other. (Most often Alastair for me, which always bums me out, because it reminds me that he spends so much more time with them.) And sometimes the other twin will translate for us. (Really!)
Then there are times when we're all just at a loss. There was a time when Clio kept asking, in the kitchen, for what sounded like a "Peet." We asked back: A plate? (No.) A peach? (No.) A beet?? Which you've never had in your life? (No...A Peeeeeet.) So, I asked her, "Clio, what is a peet?" And she explained "A peet is a keet." I'm pretty sure she was just messing with me.
"We make da cone!"
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