[HBV]

So, H is doing something new and sort of funny the last couple of weeks.

He has a huge vocabulary and has been speaking in perfectly understandable multi-word sentences for several months, (e.g. Mommy, H needs milk now, please. Mommy, H get TIME OUT again for climbing on table.)

But lately he's begun to "speak" in these huge paragraphs, like he's telling a story, complete w/ gestures, but I can only understand about 10 words of it---the rest is absolute gibberish to me. He's very expressive about it, the inflection is there---he looks like one of the talking heads on FIRING LINE or something. He'll finish and look at me for a response, but I have no idea what he's just said.

I imagine it's kind of like the jargoning that they do as babies, but do they go through another stage of it? Or do I just need a pocket translator?

[bajj]

LOL, both of my boys did this. Unfortunately they would not accept and answer like, "Really?" I had to try and repeat what they said. So, I usually repeated the few words I recognized and it seemed to please them for awhile.

It's a cute stage, but they do get frustrated when we don't understand them.

[redbonec]

That is so interesting! And entertaining!

[SchmennaLeigh]

HA! I was thinking about posting this SAME exact thing as Nick told me a HUGE story today and at the end, laughed like he had said something funny. So, i laughed, too. But I have no clue what he said. LOL

[HBV]

Originally Posted by bajj

LOL, both of my boys did this. Unfortunately they would not accept and answer like, "Really?" I had to try and repeat what they said. So, I usually repeated the few words I recognized and it seemed to please them for awhile.

It's a cute stage, but they do get frustrated when we don't understand them.

bajj: YES! That is exactly what drove me to post---I cannot get away with "Really?" or any other conversational punt. And while I can guess from context sometimes, often the dialogue is so elaborate that I can't guess whether "Rogers" (Mr. Rogers) was the victim of some awful accident or perpetrated a fraud on Ernie.... or whatever. He looks at me, disgusted that I have somehow missed the salient point of the story.

It's hilarious, but I am sure it's frustrating for him.

[loveajax]

I think once they master "communicating" simple phrases and sentences, they get cocky and get way ahead of themselves. DD will do this, she will start out, "Once upon a time, a queen lived with a princess and they loved blue dresses." Then she will want to continue but I don't think she knows what else to say, so she will just "blah blah" her way thru it...some makes sense, and some doesn't!!!

[MrsHoot]

Mine does the same thing - most time when hubby says "really" she huffs and puffs and tells him "NO! Daddy..." and then launches right back into the same dialog

Try "oh, okay" or "and then what happened"

We also get great milage out of "I didn't know that, thank you for sharing that with me" or "that was a great story, is there more?"

[Slatond10]

My DD does this as well and I use similar phrases Mrs Hoot or ask a question about something I did understand. Like " so&so was sad, why?"

It is funny, especially all the expressiveness and actions associated w/ the story!

[marthavmommy]

For the first time tonight our daughter grabbed the book and announced she would read the story...My husband is a teacher and said, "well I am not going to say no to that request" She took the book and it starts with
I was born with ten little fingers and ten little toes...

She said ' bon wif ten fingers and ten toes!'

We were so amazed and thrilled. Parenthood rocks.