Baby Babble and Their Happiness
Babble
Baby Babble
Your going to come to a point in your early parenthood, if your not there already, when your baby is going to discover his or her voice. It starts off with some light coos and ahhs. Gradually you will find yourself with a child who has transitioned into a louder stronger voice and is acquiring more and more noises until you have a one child symphony. Mix that with all the expressions that comes with it and you have the greatest entertainment ever!
Now you may think you need to figure out this new language your child is spouting forth. I would not bother. He or she is copying the world in the best way they can, with imitation. It may be a poor imitation but practice makes perfect. For all we know he or she is declaring that this planet is ripe for the taking and they are prepared to take the burden upon themselves and we may now serve them their every need and bring them a pony to cart them around, and while we are at it a mote full of piranha would do nicely around their crib complete with drawbridge drawn by rabbits. They might not be saying anything tangible but they are looking for you for a sort of reassurance of their noise. You don't need to figure out what they are saying but how they are saying it. It does not matter if you agree to the child's desire of world domination or that they just merrily filled their diaper; they just want you to be happy about it.
What they could be saying...
A long bit of nonsense
Voice, Tone and Expression
I have come to learn that I cannot figure out what my child is trying to say. Don't get me wrong it would be great to know what he is actually saying, but I am not entirely sure he knows himself so why try so hard to make your head explode? He is acquiring such a dictionary of word and noise I can not keep up. He also uses the same words and noises and tones in different combinations. Even his awesome full body laugh and leg kicking seems to mean different things.
He will use similar noises and tones over and over. The first time I try and figure out what he wants I fail for the first half hour. Then the second time I get it right on the spot. The next time he does the same exact thing and I am convinced I know what it is...FAIL!!! OK, now what?
I have to look at How he is saying something. He has this great range of expression that he has developed that circumvents anything he could ever say right now. I have tried and tried to figure out what he is trying to get across but it only works with the combination of voice, tone and expression. He does not want me to know what he is saying. He wants me to do what he wants, and be very happy about it too. Everything he says I need to smile or laugh. I could do exactly what he wants but if I do it without a smile, I'm done for. It keeps him a smiling happy baby and usually does not go wrong.
I noticed that when he babbles on for a minute, or more, with the same tone ( lately its a kind of BAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAHHHAHHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHBBBHHH for minutes at a time) but looks around everywhere, I have found he is entertaining himself. If he makes the same noise but is looking directly at me, I need to entertain him, he is giving me a story and wants one in return. If he is making the same noise but is looking at someone else, he wants their undivided attention and they should stop what they are doing and come right over and stare at him, or be stared at silently by him.
Lately he gets really serious expressions on his face while he is making noises and I just need to smile and watch him intently. He is telling me something very important and should not interrupt him. This is usually when I get to hear new noises from him which I would not want to interrupt anyway. When he is done he stops talking looks at me with his big eyes and waits. I have no idea what he just said but I look right at him, smile or laugh and say that was a great explanation and I will take that into account. I myself might as well of said bibble babble hook fish and smiled and that would be all he wanted.
Baby babble
How many have tried to figure out what their child is saying?
Baby's happiness
Its not all happy though as we all well know. It gets really frustrating not knowing what he or she is saying but there really is no point figuring it out. He or she will have the right words eventually. They listen to us constantly and everyone and everything else. They think everything is communicating with them. I caught my child trying to figure out how to respond back to a squeak toy. He or she gets frustrated just as we do not knowing how to get their thoughts across. The best thing is to simply try everything. They might get a little frustrated at first but they will be so happy when you do what they want, and really they just want to know you are there trying to make everything right.
Just focus on making your child happy with as much attention as you can muster and then more. I have developed a continuous laugh that is always at the ready for my noise making child. Sometimes I turn on the music and pretend he is singing along and we happily dance to whatever is on.
I have also been known to cheat when my child is upset and smiling is not enough to change his upset babble to a gleeful tide I will tickle it out of him and we end up in a merry chuckle that goes on for a good ten minutes.
A lot of people get frustrated with baby babble and trying to figure it out but they need to remember that their child just wants you to be happy so they can be happy. If you are frustrated they will see the frustration and you can only imagine what their dark babble could mean.