The Power of Voice

My YS is just starting to really acquire more words. At meals, he will say "meat," his favorite part of the meal. Outside, he will pick up his brother's toads and say "toadie." When he wants to go down the slide he will come and petition me with "up." Moreover, at night, when I ask "Who wants a song?" he now replies, "meeee," just like his brother.

When my ES was little, we didn't own a camcorder. We borrowed one a few times to take limited videos. I do remember his little voice, even if we don't have many recordings of it. Of course, we cherish the ones we have.

For his third Christmas, I had purchased small frames which allowed you to record a message. ES diligently made one for each set of grandparents. He also made an adorable one for his dad. He said, "I wuv you, Daddy, because you pway (play) wif me. Yowr the best daddy in the wowold (world)." My husband kept it on his dresser and we often listened to his little voice.

I was devastated one afternoon (I think he was 7), when I discovered he had figured out how to tape over the recording. He had replaced his sweet childish tones with the horrid sounds of pretend farts! Even though I can still hear the sound of the recording in my head, we will never be able to replicate that.

We did finally purchase a camcorder shortly after he started school. We often marvel when we watch one of our home videos from the Christmas of his first grade year. At that point in time, he was crazy about the ridiculous show called "Ed, Edd, and Eddy." (Think childish version of Beavis and Butthead) He was a very spirited child. He literally bounced around the room saying crazy things in his E,E & E voice, like "Beware of the mutant hot dogs!"

When we went to visit my parents that year, my mother would look down at ES and quietly say, "I'm sorry. I can't hear you or understand you until you stop talking in your Edd voice and talk in a normal voice." He still would lapse into it from time to time, because that was his modus operandi.

Thankfully, over time his boundless energy has become more contained. However, he still tends to pick up phrases and use odd voices. He went through a phase where every time something happened to someone (say, ketchup exploded out of the container or something), he would respond with a sneering "Owned, Neeee-Neeee-Neeeee!" This became such a frequent sound in our house that YS actually learned to parrot "neeee" before other normal words. Oh, how proud ES felt (Mom, not so proud).

I can't really describe his present form of crazy voice, except to say that every comment ends with a sort of "sneering" quality. MS often tries to sound just like him. When ES's friends are over, they will comment on how MS sounds just like ES.

The other night, I had put a load of laundry into the dryer before signing on to blog. When the clothes were done, I crept into ES's room to hang his t-shirts and jeans in the closet. He must have been dreaming. All of sudden, he batted something away from his face and said, in his typical sneering voice, "Get off me, freakin' kitty!"

He has a friend who has recently acquired a small kitten and I know that the kitten has scratched him a few times when they were playing with it. When I told him about what he said in his sleep, he cracked up. Now, he continues to repeat this phrase to make me laugh. He did a similar thing back when I created the funny Jib Jab video of the boys dancing. He would come up behind me and burst out with a staccato "Jib Jab!" At night, long after he had been sent to bed, I would hear from his room, "Jib Jab!"

Oh, how that boy makes me laugh. Unfortunately, I can't always laugh about his behavior because of the two parrots ready to follow him. I don't think anyone else would find it humorous if MS were to see a classmate trip and then say, "Owned. Neeee-Neee-Neee!" So, inevitably we have to establish word control in our house (not to mention that ever confusing task of attempting to teach empathy). Still, I know we will look back and fondly remember our first son for his pet phrases and odd voices! How I wish we could make a tape recording (alright, I'm dating myself - a cd) of his various voices and phrases over the years. Wouldn't that be an interesting sound track to play at his wedding? Perhaps I'll greet him after the wedding with, "Married! Neeee-Neee-Neeee!"