As much as I go on about how the monkey’s language skills are becoming fairly “advanced”, I am reminded every now and then that he isn’t always perfectly clear. As his parent I get to be around him—learning his habits, being attuned to his mannerisms, and understanding the things that motivate him. It’s easy to take these things for granted, and easy to forget how important they are for communication.

Tonight, he said to me, “Want watch TeeVee!” which would have been clear and obvious for anyone to understand. But then he took a few steps over to a friend of ours and looked up, exclaiming what must have sounded like:

“Wonwa cha mockee doo”, which given the loud and distracting conversational environment (several adults talking at once in the same room) could have sounded even worse, like “Wawa mock ee!” Barely a step removed from Charlie Brown’s teacher.

Since I already had the context of the clearly-spoken “Want watch TeeVee!” I recognized it immediately for what it was:

“Want watch Monkey-Doo!” (Monkey-See Monkey-Do is a favourite program of his). All I could do when our friend raised his eyebrows questioningly was translate and smile.