Margo à la Maude

Margo's at an age where she can make herself understood with words. This is big. Really big. No more tantrums or frustrations, or at least, these are reduced to the bare minimum of 20 per day. The only problem is that sometimes, you have to be trained in her language, because she has a tendency to add syllables.

And sometimes, she adds a lot of syllables.

I'm trying to scrape my recent memories for examples.

Okay, how's this. Note that English will be followed by MargoSpeek:

Next = Neggasset

Okay, I can see that, just misheard, the word and learned it that way.

Grand-maman = GamaMAma

Anybody can make that mistake... you start a word, and you're not sure when to stop, so you just take a shot in the dark as to when to end the word.

Down = di-di-dow

You know, this might actually mean "Baby down," as it's only used when she wants down, not when an object wants down. But let's take a look at some of the funner parts of the English language. I've been teaching Margo Cowboy recently.

Okely dokely = dokey dokey (sure, I can see that)

Listen up, pardner = lissen ow de de podda (see those extra syllables in there)

Git along li'l doggie = Gitta dow na ne ne na doggie (I wasn't expecting that to come out of her mouth)

Yippee kayo ki-yay! = Yippee dee dee na day ni-yay



Moving away from Cowboy, here are a few tricky ones:

Little Italy = liddee dee dee dee da didalee (funny thing is, most of her words are perfectly clear... she's a good little talker)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 = on two fee four fi six salmon nine twelve elemen five

and in French = un duh trois cot cinq sixsetoooeetninedoze elemen

(clever)

and... the ever-popular:

I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit = it's a sheet (Margo = no time for bullshit tongue twisters)


So let's move on to songs. In a previous post, there was a video of Margo singing Pat-a-Cake. Much like Sinatra, once MarMon sings a song, she makes it her own.

Michaud est monté dans un peuplier (x4)
La branche a cassé
Michaud est tombé
Ou donc est Michaud
Michaud est sur l'dos
Ah, relève, relève, relève
Ah, relève, relève Michaud

=

Michaud TOMBE!
Relève!!

(very efficient. Way to lay-off all those frilly extra words, Margo, you just got right down to the heart of the story)

And, of course, Donna and my personal favourite from Margo's songbook, War by D.O.A.

WAR!
What the heck (edited for Margo) is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again!

=

WAR!
Whatta huck a de de de de dene de ne ne ne da ne di di na de de di na de day no no fo
Absolililili noffing
Saya can


I've got to tell you... these past couple of weeks, I was really contemplating joining the Canadian Forces. You know, patriotic duty, "protegera nos foyers et nos droits..."

...but then I heard Margo sing this song, and I had to stop and ask myself, "Michel, whatta huck is war a de de de de dene de ne ne ne da ne di di na de de di na de day no no fo." You know what, she's right: absolililili noffing.


Elsewhere on the language front, though a good three-quarters of what comes out of her mouth is English, it's nice to see that she has a very, very thorough understanding of French, and is able to follow pretty complex directions, like asking her to go get something upstairs, and explaining where it is, and having her come back with it. Like, way better than having a French golden retriever.

- Michel

p.s. Margo also has a good grasp of small, medium and large, and demonstrates it with monster growls. I'll ask, Margo, peux-tu faire un petit monstre, and she'll respond "raawr." Peux-tu faire un moyen monstre: "raaaawr." Peux-tu faire un gros monstre: "RAAAWRRRRR." Today, I kicked it up a notch and asked to go beyond monsterdom and into dragonhood. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR."

Yeah, she gets it.

Labels: developments

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 02, 2008 at 10:55 p.m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.