MamaBlogga

Hayden reached another milestone this week. While he’s made a play attempt or two at praying, he usually pretends to be shy when I try to help him through a prayer. Until Tuesday night.

Hayden was at the table getting ready to eat, I was getting ready to leave to visit someone from church and Ryan was getting his dinner. We reminded Hayden that we needed to say a prayer, and he dutifully folded his arms.

And then we heard what he was saying. “Hebely fader. Hebely fader. Hebely fader.”

Ryan and I quickly folded our arms and walked into the dining room. “Thank you for this day,” I prompted him.

“Dates day.”

“Thank you for this food.”

“Dates fud.”

“Please bless it.”

“P’ease b’ess.”

“In the name of Jesus Christ.”

Blank look.

“In the name of Jesus Christ,” I tried again.

Blank look.

This could be simpler for a two-year-old, I guess. “Jesus,” I tried.

He knew that one. “Dee sa.”

“Amen.”

“Amin.”

Not bad!

Hayden’s at the age where he learns new words every day. Here are some of the latest additions to his vocabulary:

With my parents and most of my sisters around all last week, I got called by my first name a lot more than normal—enough that Hayden started calling me “Dordee,” and especially “Mom—Mom—Dordee.” (Don’t worry, he doesn’t really know what he’s doing; today when I asked him what my name was, he said it was “Haydie.”)

Yesterday I went in to get him up from his nap and he was jumping in his crib. He looked at me and said “kay see” several times, then shook his head wildly.

It took me a minute to figure out that he was saying “crazy.” Which is usually one of the first things I say to him when he wakes up in one of these (wonderful, entertaining) manic moods.

This morning, we were in the grocery store and I sad, “Oh man!” Hayden repeated his version, something between “Oh men!” and “Oh min!” And then he added something that—I swear—sounded like “Bite me.” No idea where that one came from.

Today we were sitting in my room and he started gathering up loose clothes and papers from around the room, stuffing them into an empty box. As he did so, he would burst out with “Eee op! Eee op!” Luckily, I know the words to that song: “Clean up.”

Hayden’s newest favorite hobby is a bit alarming to me. He hops up in front of any available computer, starts playing with the mouse and keyboard and proclaims “I worky!” He is very devoted to his profession (whatever that is; probably something as nebulous as mine).

I promise, I really don’t work that much while he’s awake. I’ve been a bit worse lately about working while he’s awake, with him so obsessed with Blue’s Clues and all, but this? This is dedication.

Y’know, I always looked a bit askance at the parents who could hear their child say something that didn’t apparently have any consonants and interpret that into a paragraph’s worth of meaning. Until Sunday night.

We had a big family get together this weekend for Easter dinner. Hayden was his usual, babbly self—but oddly enough, I found myself translating from “Haydenese” for his aunts and uncles. I sounded like one of “those” parents: “He said, ‘Sorry,’” and “He means, ‘Brown milk.’ You know, chocolate milk.”

Hayden. Veiled child. Veiled meanings.

Strange; doesn’t everyone spend 12 hours a day listening to my son talk?

Many of his words are recognizable, but since the rest of my family is coming to visit this weekend, I figured a guide to Haydenese would be useful, so I’m not the 24/7 on-call interpreter again.

Anything I’ve missed?

In last 6 weeks or so, Hayden has really started picking up two word phrases. “B’eh du (Bless you)” was the just first (well, after “Doo too (thank you)”). He’s since picked up sentences as advanced as “No wanna” (especially popular at bedtime), “You ohay?” and “Deriddis (There it is).”

But of course, my favorite of Hayden’s new sentences is “Wuh doo” or “Wub doo”—”Love you.” He’s gotten so used to saying it that when he walks off from me during the day, he will wave and say “Buh bye; wuh doo!”

Usually, however, Hayden saves his “wuh doos” to respond to Ryan and me when we first tell him that we love him. But today was different.

I was having a frustrating time with the computer—freezing programs, forgotten logins and just plain wrong security questions. For some reason, Hayden chose that time to insist that I “um on (come on).” When I asked what he wanted me to do, he threw a fit.

I lost my patience and lectured him that I was busy with something that was important and very frustrating. While he was initially very upset, he calmed himself down quickly. But there’s not much more pitiful than a two-year-old stoically wiping tears from his eyes with a huge pouty lip. Even as I was telling him that I was working on something important, I knew that the things I was doing on the computer weren’t really ‘important’; Hayden was.

I picked him up and apologized for yelling at him. I just rocked him for a few moments and he rested his head on my shoulder and patted my back.

Then Hayden sat up and looked at me. “Wuh doo,” he said, still just the slightest bit pitiful.

I love you, too, sweet boy.

This morning I gave Hayden his breakfast at his new picnic table. He looked at the plate of cereal, then clasped his hands and closed his eyes.

“What are you doing, Hayden?” I thought he might be asking for some cheese, since his sign for cheese is similar to that.

He looked at me and made a show of closing his eyes again.

“Do you want to say a prayer?” I guessed. We always pray over dinner, but sadly I’m a lot less consistent with other meals, so this would be Hayden’s idea entirely.

Hayden nodded.

“Do you want me to say it?”

Hayden shook his head.

“Do you want any help saying it?”

Hayden shook his head and folded his arms. He launched headlong into about three seconds of gibberish, concluded with his trademark “Amin” and started in on his cereal.

Apparently someone’s doing something right around here. Must be his daddy.

My sister asked for a list of Hayden’s words today. I feel like this is woefully lacking and I’m sure I’ve missed some of his best words, but here are the first forty or so words that I could think of.

waddy (water)
pih (pig, piggy bank)
buboo/bubble
dooce (juice)
Mommy
Daddy
dee tee (TV)
diddy/mao (kitty)
mar/mardy/marny (Marty)
nanee (candy)
muah (more)
nanoo/nanle (candle)
nai (light)
nainai (night night)
toy
boy
toey (toe)
Nana
Bapa/Papa
ba’ pa’ (backpack and Mickey Mouse—see the second pic in this post to see why these are the same word)
Howdowee?
du tu (thank you)
beh du (bless you)
p’eece (please)
wu du (love you; he’s only said this twice)
yeah
no
hi
byebye
doe (Joe on Blue’s Clues)
bu hu (Blue’s Clues)
khar (car with a very guttural ‘c’)
no (snow)
baby
Haydie
ow (ouch or don’t touch my toes)
up
down
ope (open)
hewp (help)

And a few words that he repeats well:
purple
aitch (H)
wet (white or red)
orange/orntch

Words I remembered later:
beddy (belly)
own (on)
my
nana (banana)
mea/mean/meat (meat)
apple
po (plug, pull, push)
knee
hat
sooss (shoes)
eye (eye, glasses, sunglasses)
mou (mouth)
nos (nose)
hair
ear
pishy/pissy (fish, goldfish cracker)
pear (prayer, pear)
amen/minnie (amen)
Deetah (Jesus)
hot
annie (Auntie)
coat (coat, cold)
uh oh