mon-yee mon-yay

Overheard as I begin to compose this blog post:

Nathalie: Comment tu t'appelles? [What's your name?]
Benjamin: Bébé!

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Benjamin developed a new favorite expression a few weeks ago, something we took to be nonsense, though it's persistent nonsense: monYEE monYAY!

We couldn't figure out what it meant, or where it came from.

Then last night, I tried to get Benjamin to say his name. After many rounds of …

Me: BEN!
Benjamin: Bébé!
Me: Say, BEN!
Benjamin: Bébé!

…I finally made a weird sort of progress:

Me: BEN!
Benjamin: Men!
Me: BEN!
Benjamin: Men!

Really? Does he pronounce his name with an initial M? He has so many B-words, it's hard to imagine.

Me: Try saying BEN-JA-MIN ...
Benjamin: MonYEEmon

Wait! That sounded familiar. Could his constant repetitions of MonYEEmonYAY have been an attempt to say his name?

Just a hypothesis at this point.

Meanwhile, his vocabulary continues to grow:

57. peepee (scatological)
58. popo (scatological)
59. poot (scatological)
60. ça (this, as in "What's this? Tell me what this is.")
61. non ("no" — said all the time)
62. assis (seated)
63. dessin (drawing, said when he wanted to color)
64. balloon
    

At now-over-60 words recorded, I feel the need to review how many of these are still active vocabulary.

I have not heard these words in many months:

8. marcher (walk, pronounced "mash")
9. porte (door, pronounced "pote")�
14. dance (pronounced "dant" with more of an American accent than a French one)
16. banane (banana, pronounced "bamam")
17. monkey (pronounced "Maggie")
30. change (now he just signs it)

Still, his active vocabulary is over 50 words at this point. He's "lost" (for now) 6 of his first 30 words and has kept using all the words he's learned since. Also, he clearly comprehends the words he no longer says, plus plenty more. It's all getting much harder to track.

- papa, the recordkeeper