A dictionary for my child

I realized the old adage about only mothers being able to understand their children was completely true the day my husband started asking me for clarifications as to what our son was saying. In this household we speak three languages to our kid and he hears a fourth, which is the common language my husband and I use as well, from that Almighty God, the TV.

Needless to say, this stewing pot of accents and multilingualism has resulted in a tongue tourniquet for our poor child. Now in the toddler stage, he understands most of everything that is said to him but he still can't put whole sentences together in any of them. This is normal for children of multilingual households and though eventually he will sort everything out in his head, we find ourselves jumping hoops sometimes trying to figure out what he wants to tell us.

A few samples of what we've deciphered:

A da poopoo: Look! I made pupu.

A da pipi: You guessed it.

wicca da the pan: Here's the break down on this one - Wicca da (English for "where is") the (self-explanatory) pan (spanish for bread). My husband's gotten good on this one. He just catches the pan and he knows the kid wants bread.

Oh no! da Baba: Oh no! Where's Baba? Baba is Farsi for daddy.

No key-a-day! No key-a-day!: Basically he's trying to say "no quiere" in Spanish which means: I don't wanna. I ain't gonna and you can't make... well... I'll have you know that this is under total duress - you're mean!

Hapu look! mama! grour grour!: Mama run! there's a hapu (Farsi for woof woof or dog") and I want to talk to him, run!

Pa-que, stop! no! now! Pa-que!! stop!!! car!!: Okay, the park is next to our library so, whenever we go to the library he sees the park. Pa-que is Parque or the word in Spanish for park. This whole sentence means - Look! The park! I want to go now! Stop the car! Park! Park!

ha-di-dop-ter-o: He-li-cop-ter. The final "o" is just for good measure.

A-bo-bus: He's trying to say autobus in Spanish otherwise known as bus in English.

Luna--ai--moon!: Respectively, the word moon in Spanish, Turkish and English. He says it in all three languages because we're blind and can't even see it though, in all fairness, it's a cloudy night and we aren't blessed with his super x-ray vision.

I'm sorry to say that he's outgrowing all this charming gibberish. Everyday he pronounces clearer and is starting to string more words together in one language. I feel kind of sad for that. I can't deny that I enjoy being the go-to-girl for what my son wants to say. I keep telling myself I should record him speaking for posterity's sake but it would make me cry to hear that little voice speaking sometime in the future. I'd rather remember the childish nonsensicalness of it up here, in my head.