My two-year old's vocabulary is improving by leaps and bounds. First-time parents that we are, my husband and I cannot control our excitement as he makes rapid strides in the realm of communication. Each new word is greeted with a round of applause and proudly shared with anyone who cares to listen or is not in a position to run away. Even the building watchman is not spared, poor man.
My son seems to be a firm believer of the Continuity Theory. None of his words end abruptly. For example, oats is "oshee", juice is "juishee", ball is "ballee", sun is "sunny" and so on. All this is music to our ears. But occassionally, we are stumped by certain words he utters. Let me tell you about the "jeeyu mayu" mystery. One fine day, my son walks up to me and says "jeeyu mayu". I am naturally baffled as I can't think of any phrase in English, Hindi or Malayalam which sounds like this. I desperately think of an intelligent reply as my son looks earnestly at my face, hoping for some signs of comprehension. He repeats the phrase again hoping that this will help his mentally deficient mother who doesn't even know what "jeeyu mayu" means. I get panicky and end the conversation with a "Is it? OK". He walks away realising that this woman is hopeless while I pray that he doesn't repeat the word. However, "jeeyu mayu" continues to harass us for a week till I finally cracked the mystery. He was trying to say "See you tomorrow" which is what he tells his playschool teacher when he leaves at the end of a day!
My pride on solving this case was short-lived as he soon came up with the next puzzle. This time, it was "boto" which I soon discovered meant "water". My son continues to challenge our mental faculties and we hapless parents are bombarded with new brain teasers every other day. I just cracked one this morning-"ba ba bashki" means waste paper basket.
My son seems to be a firm believer of the Continuity Theory. None of his words end abruptly. For example, oats is "oshee", juice is "juishee", ball is "ballee", sun is "sunny" and so on. All this is music to our ears. But occassionally, we are stumped by certain words he utters. Let me tell you about the "jeeyu mayu" mystery. One fine day, my son walks up to me and says "jeeyu mayu". I am naturally baffled as I can't think of any phrase in English, Hindi or Malayalam which sounds like this. I desperately think of an intelligent reply as my son looks earnestly at my face, hoping for some signs of comprehension. He repeats the phrase again hoping that this will help his mentally deficient mother who doesn't even know what "jeeyu mayu" means. I get panicky and end the conversation with a "Is it? OK". He walks away realising that this woman is hopeless while I pray that he doesn't repeat the word. However, "jeeyu mayu" continues to harass us for a week till I finally cracked the mystery. He was trying to say "See you tomorrow" which is what he tells his playschool teacher when he leaves at the end of a day!
My pride on solving this case was short-lived as he soon came up with the next puzzle. This time, it was "boto" which I soon discovered meant "water". My son continues to challenge our mental faculties and we hapless parents are bombarded with new brain teasers every other day. I just cracked one this morning-"ba ba bashki" means waste paper basket.
