Toddler gibberish is all Greek to me

I need a translator in my house, for a new language is being bantered about.

At least one of us is fluent, but the others only pick up a word here and there to barely keep the conversation going.

It’s called toddlerese.

The other day, my 19-month-old started saying something to me, quite emphatically. He pointed and said, “Tsat!”

I smiled at him and went back to what I was doing, feeling pretty confident that my parenting skills were on the mark to acknowledge him and move on.

But he wasn’t going to let it go. Apparently he had thrown down the gauntlet and I didn’t get the memo.

He started to say “tsat” over and over. He pointed, he motioned, he increased in volume until he was shouting.

I stared at him blankly. Either I had just stepped into a “Peanuts” comic strip where he was the grownup or my son was trying to tell me something.

Then it hit me. He was saying, “What’s that?” to every object he saw. He wanted to know the name of things.

Once we got that out of the way and I started verbalizing object names, we got along famously for at least the next 15 minutes, but it made me wonder: How many other times had he said what I thought to be gibberish and he was really trying to communicate?

What if he cracked dizzying, complex equations deserving of a snarky off-the-cuff reference by Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory?” What if he thought of some profound prose eloquent enough to be remembered in the annals of poetic lore? What if he had an astute observation about the human condition?

I’m probably over thinking it. He more than likely is just trying to say he pooped his diaper, but still, it could be all that other stuff.

The point is, I thought when he started talking that I would be able to understand him. I’ve met plenty of moms who beam nearby as their small tot imparts some keen observation to me, only to have to translate for me. Seriously, munchkin voices paired with speech impediments aren’t the clearest to understand.

I figured when my son started to speak, I would just know what he was saying because I’m the mom and I’m supposed to know these things.

Nope. I got nothin.

I sure hope Rosetta Stone has something to offer me.

— Sarah Leach is managing editor at The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at (616) 564-4278 or sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com.