Over the past few months, our little Jackson has become quite the big talker. But if you’re not around him very often, it might be difficult for you to interpret what he’s saying. So here’s a little glossary of sorts to help you better understand the world of Jack Speak:

• Hee-Hee: the first word he ever had for Abby Kate. This is his way of saying “Sissy”
• Ah-Kay: his more recent attempt at saying her name. But he still defaults to “Hee-Hee”
• Bubba: his name for Joshua
• Ah-Jah: same with Abby Kate, this is his more recent attempt at saying his brother’s name. He only uses this in reference to them, though; when addressing them, it’s always “Hee-Hee” and “Bubba”
• Doe-Doe: his attempt at “Dora”, as in “Dadda, watch Doe-Doe, please?”
• Yay-Go: this is Dora’s male counterpart, Deigo. It’s really cute when Jack starts singing the “Yay-Go” song
• Ho-Ho: You’re probably beginning to notice a lot of syllabic repetition here. But that’s what makes Jack Speak so difficult to translate at times; you don’t have a lot of material to work with. “Ho-Ho” is Jack Speak for “horse”. We usually hear this gleeful cry when he spots a few of our neighbors horses out our playroom window.
• Eh: Probably one of the most difficult for anybody to translate. Jack will walk up to you and go, “Where’s my eh?” The word, “eh”, is just this caveman guttural sound that has no bearing to the word he’s actually trying to say. This is his version of “pacifier” or “pacy”.
• Dadda Pop: Another difficult one, but one he asks for daily. “Dadda Pop” is a Brown Suger & Cinnamon Pop Tart. He refers to these as “Dadda’s” because I’m pretty selfish about sharing them. But Jackson always gets one in the morning if he wants one. Yeah, I’m a pushover.
• Joo: a reference to “juice” of any kind.

So there you have it, the communicative key to my little two year old. Consider yourself fully fluent in Jack Speak!