Baby Word

Baby Word: noun. A word spoken by a baby that is so mispronounced, it is unrecognizable if taken out of context.

When Monkey Son #1 was less than a year old, he started saying "goo-gak." It wasn't mere baby talk or the random babble that babies make. He was using it as a word. But what could it mean? We were just baffled.

Finally, we were watching PBS one day, and Sesame Street came on. When Cookie Monster came on the screen, Monkey Son #1 said, "Goo-gak!"

"Goo-gak?" I said. Then I looked at the screen. "Cookie?"

"Goo-gak!"

Oh. Cookie, referring specifically to Cookie Monster. The only similarity between the two words is the "oo" sound in the middle and that they are both 2 syllabals, but for some reason, they were close enough to each other to sound right to those baby ears.

Now, next time, we'll talk about baby songs.