This recent piece over at Huffington Post Parents, "The Ten Toddler Words That I'll Miss Most" by John Kinnear, is right where we're at with Peanut these days--that hilarious phase when carers are the only ones who can understand the baffling toddler speak. The two languages have made it challenging for even Andrea and I, because we're running through two separate mental lists when we're trying to narrow down what "copato" (emphasis on the last syllable) could possibly mean. That's one we've never managed to figure out. Well, actually, we know it means dishwasher soap puck. But we cannot for the life of us figure out what word it derives from or even whether it's Italian or English. I suppose Peanut could have invented it. But he has always just said it with such insistence and conviction. You know how preschoolers can be all, Come on! Are you kidding me? You know what I'm talking about! Like we're supposed to be totally aware of this word.

"Copato" is in a tight race with "badoghins" (again, emphasis on the last syllable) as my favourite. This is how Peanut says (the kids TV show) Backyardigans. It kills me every time. There's also "macooter" for computer, "mikitato" for dimenticato (forgot), "loshquat" for washcloth, and "Dabile" for Davide. He often mixes Italian and English together in the same sentence like "anche me too" and "andiamo alla park," or even the same word ("moona"). He still can't manage to say "the," so even if he says a sentence all in English, the definite article is always la.

Here's a little taste of what I'm talking about: