The Many Meanings of "Bah" and "Dah"

When I used to go visit Addison, she would say something that sounded like it was in another language.  The crazy thing was, Kara would answer her.  I asked Kara if she understood her.  She said, "Yes, but you have to be around her a lot to understand what she's trying to say."  Now that I'm a parent, I know what she means.

Tyler amazes me with his knowledge of words.  We can now ask him to do simple commands like "Crawl to your [high] chair" or "bring me that" or "come sit in my lap," and he understands us and does the command (if he's in the mood).  We even play "Where's [insert toy here]?" and he'll look around, see the object, smile, and crawl over and get it for us.

He knows so many words.  He's getting better about communicating some of this knowledge, too.  Words he currently says (or at least attempts to say):

Toys:  Bear, Gordy (his toy giraffe), duck, dinosaur, book, dog, ball, puzzle, Elmo

TV: Peppa (as in Peppa Pig), Dora, map & backpack (both from Dora)

Others: Daddy, Mama, puffs, outside, tree, hey/hi, bye, that! (as in, "I want that!")




Now, when I say Tyler says these words, he makes the same sound for the object each time.  That does not mean that the syllables "di-no-saur" are coming out of his mouth.  In fact, nearly every word he says is some "b" or "d" word.

Bear is "bah."  Book is "buh."  Bye is "bye" (I consider this his first official word).  Ball is "bah."  Backpack is "bah buh."  Map?  Well, map is "bah."  Nothing close, but that is very clearly what he says to request the Map Song from Dora.

Duck is "duh."  Dinosaur is "die" or "die-rrrrrr," which comes from George on Peppa Pig always saying "Dinosaur, grr!"  Dog is "dawh."  Dora is "Dorh."  Daddy is sometimes "Da da," but usually it's "Dah."  I especially love when he says "Hey dah" to get Jason's attention.  Precious.

"That!" is "Dat!"  He may not have the "th" sound downpat yet, but no one would need this one explained to them if they heard him.


As you can tell, lots of very similar-sounding "b" and "d" words that Jason and I have to decipher.  The outside world?  You may need a translator.