Lost in Translation

My nephew Luke is 20 months old now and is just barely starting to learn a few words aside from his normal gibberish (which I think is a combination of French, Spanish, Russian, German, and Chinese... and a smattering of northern Minnesotan). His word of choice at the present time is "hi". From the opening of a door to the opening of an eye, he'll greet you with his limited vocabulary of "hi" about 80 times in a row. Another "word" he has aquired is "la". "La" happens to mean "bye-bye", though when I first heard him say the word, it took me a while to translate what exactly he was trying to communicate with me until it was accompanied by a waving hand gesturing for me to get out. I am also quite proud to say that, other than boring old ma and pa, he can say my name. He addresses me as Rob or Ra-Ra, depending on his mood and laziness factor.

Not everything he babbles about always makes sense however. More and more lately, I am starting to pick up subtleties thinking he really is trying to say something coherent underneath all the mumbles and jumbles. You can ask him a question and he will respond. Though I don't really comprehend what he is trying to tell me, I will nod in agreement and smile as though I'm following along with everything he is telling me.

For instance, at lunch today I was being lazy and lying on the couch while he used my legs as a highway for his Matchbox cars. I asked him a simple question: "Lukie! Are you going to go swimming in the pool this afternoon?" To which he responded: "Aye bloob a doob flerple nerples mathwich." Or something to that extent. I didn't get a direct quote so I had to paraphrase. Now, in my mind I tried to translate his crazy reply to which I guess he was telling me that either he (A) was going swimming this afternoon and he was very excited; or he (B) was mowing and trimming a spoon and he was merry exited. No matter what, I got lost along the way and before I could clarify what exactly he was trying to tell me in response to my question, he was in the other room talking to the TV.

Not everything is as confusing as the above incident - there will always be the clear answer of "NO" where he throws himself to the ground in the most dramatic fashion and puts his head on the floor shaking it back and forth while whining and screaming. The terrible two's are coming... I'd better brace myself.