A Typical Conversation

Monday morning, in the car, driving away from the local shopping center.

Sam: Alb Alb Alb
Me: Albertsons? (one of the stores we went to)
Sam: Ya!
Me: Yes, we did the grocery shopping at Albertsons.
Sam: Alb… aw dun [signing “all done”]
Me: Yes, we’re all done with Albertsons.
Sam: Djo djo djo djo djo
Me: ???
Sam: Djo djo djo djo!
Me: Oh, Do you mean Trader Joe’s?
Sam: YA!
Me: Yes! We went to Trader Joe’s too. Now we’re going home.
Sam: Ar car ohm?
Me: Yes, we’re driving our car home. And then we’ll have lunch.
Sam: Me me me me me me!
Me: Yes, we’ll listen to “Free to Be You and Me” during lunch.
Sam: At at at at at at
Me: Yes and it will include the story of “Atalanta”
Sam: guhrl …. race
Me: Yes, Atalanta was a girl who ran a race.
Sam: Me me me me me!
Me: Yes, honey, we’ll listen to “Free to Be You and Me” during lunch
Sam: Ya!

This thread repeated several times over until I deflected the conversation onto another of Sammy’s favorite topics (various neighborhood kitty cats). Luckily she repeats words over and over until her interlocutor successfully repeats it back to her. Just like a language teacher. In fact, it’s hard not to adopt her own pronunciation and gestures.

Typical utterances among the “adults”:

Me: So I took Sammy to the pa* with the baby weesh* this afternoon.

Sam’s Dad: I think Sam’s shoes are in her ra wa.* Have you seen the bee baw?*

Me: I need to give the kee cat* his medicine.

Sam’s Dad: So we really need to work on our taxes.

Me: [waving furiously as though a gnat were in my face] Bye bye bye bye!*

* pa= park; * baby weesh = baby swings; *ra wa= red wagon; *bee baw = big ball; * kee cat= kitty cat; *emphatic bye bye= what Sam says when she wants us to go away.