I was gonna be that person who didn’t talk “baby talk” to our baby. I read/heard many, many years ago, before Abby was even a dream, that baby talk actually dumbs down kids (we shall ignore the dumbing effect on parents) and that they learn to speak earlier when given the actual words for things. And who doesn’t want their baby to thrive? So I was determined that we would avoid the unintelligible patter that befalls some parents.

But, alas, I’ve noticed lately that some made up words are creeping into our vocabulary:

• Abby wants/gets nom noms (om nom nom).
• Abby currently has the snorgles (stuffed up nose, making her snort).
• When I’m frustrated or need to swear but cannot, I say Germiner (that’s spelled phonetically). I have no idea what the origin of that one is, but I’ve said it for YEARS.

… just to name a few.

I think that I get it from my dad. To this day, I still refer to eggs (at least in my head) as cackleberrys, as that is what he called them when I was a kid.

I suppose it can’t be that bad to use made up words since I turned out okay. Right?