Wednesday, October 17, 2007

One Ring To Rule Them All

Life is full of weird little coincidences. The least of which is how Jessey's life and my life often intersect (while remaining completely different). This time, we are both amazed by the language of our little ones...

Marcus is still only barely saying a word at a time, with the notable exception of his favorite question "What's that?" Athena is (no big surprise here) orating constantly, not really giving Marcus a chance to say, "Boo." He, instead, is practicing hitting her head so hard it lands in Cleveland. A useful skill, true, but not one I really feel he needs to perfected in place of his language skills. Especially since they changed the NHL rules and goons don't get the ice time they once did. Now the only money for that is in organized crime and wrestling.

So... here's the really weird bit. A month ago, I listened to a lecture on CD on Fantasy literature, which of course was about half devoted to Tolkein. This professor is an expert in middle English, so he discussed Tolkein's language a LOT and read a great deal of the Elvish stuff (which, if you don't know, is really a pretty complete language considering one dude made it up all on his lonesome).

Anyway, although I never listened to this lecture with Athena in the car... she has begun speaking Elvish. She is uttering what appear to be complete sentences with nouns, verbs, and objects... often using consistent sounds that make it sound like she really is speaking another language. Many of the fricatives and blends seem consistent with the Elvish I was listening to. It's freaky. And she thinks it's awesome.

So now I have a son who has a promising future helping people swim with the fishes, and a daughter who seems destined to wear prosthetic ears and attend Sci Fi conventions.

My job here is done.

4 comments:

Jessica said...

Oh. My. God.
You have no idea.
Dylan also is taking this opportunity, while he's still small and nonverbal enough to be called a "baby", to beat down, beat up, beat on anyone and anything that gets in his way of cookies, soda, kitties, dance parties, etc. Basically, if he wants something and you impede that...blammo! He'll whack ya.
He gets timeouts, but he converts his time in the penalty box into good quality alone time during which he can suck his thumb uninterupted.
Elizabeth (mine) doesn't speak Elvish, but she does speak a very convoluted mixture of gibberish and Dora/Diego spanish which she thinks is ACTUAL spanish.
So "Blee flew flee flaw boolio" equals "Lets go save the puppies"
Or whatever.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Your descriptions of the kids always make me smile and laugh!

Marcus is a bruiser...when he was playing with something Zoe wanted she just let him go for it. She knew that he was one that was not to be messed with :)!

But, now I have a good idea

Bern said...

When I read the first line of your post I thought you were pregnant too!

Marcus = strong like bull.

eaf said...

Oh, heavens! Pregnancy is so far from my mind. We haven't done anything permanent, but let's just say my birth control is very dependable and doesn't rely on my memory or my ability to get to a drugstore often enough. So no babies are in my future. Yes, I toy with the idea, but it would mean quitting work, and I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. I enjoy my job, and I feel lucky that I do. Two kids is plenty for me.