Georgina's Blog: It’s the way she tells ‘em!

Having a conversation with my almost two-year-old is sometimes like talking to a small, but chatty alien who has their very own special language.

Some words are so cutely mispronounced that Alex and I have adopted them ourselves; ‘Where is Biger (tiger)?’ has become a familiar sentence in our house as yet again, the furry favourite plays his hiding game. Or ‘sheeese please Mummy’ as Saskia crooks her first finger and waggles it up and down at me to indicate the direction of the kitchen, where the beloved Cheddar is stashed in the fridge. She also loves plastic ‘piders’ that we bought for Halloween one year – and sticks them on her head when ever she gets a chance!

My personal favourite is ‘porter’ for water and ‘barf Mummy, barf…stairs…’ when it’s time for bath time.

But sometimes I just don’t get what she’s saying at all and it drives her mad. Standing by the sink at the weekend, her head tipped back she looked at the windowsill, which is stacked with stuff and said random words, while pointing in a frenzied manner. So I picked up the empty water bottle…but no, it wasn’t that and the random word was said louder and more urgently, repeated over and over.

Was it the empty cardboard cereal packet waiting to go in the recycling bin…no, no, no, it wasn’t that either. Was it her water cup then? But it couldn’t be that because she would have said ‘porter’…Then just as I was about to give up and the shouting had reached a crescendo I picked up the giraffe ornament, something my sister gave me years ago. Wreathed in smiles she grasped her prize in her little hand. The random word became ‘horsey, horsey, horsey…neigh, neigh, neigh.’ ‘Giraffe’ I corrected her, ‘it’s a giraffe’ my darling.’ ‘Golaffe’ she said satisfied and toddled off to show Daddy. Sometimes I just don’t want her to get any older!

Georgina Maric, mum to Saskia, aged 23 months