Language Barriers

My trainer on my mission was from southern Italy and spoke almost no English. It was an interesting 3 months. The closest set of sisters were a 2.5 hour train ride away. The elders in our city were not exactly friendly. I felt quite alone. There were many mornings that I would wake up just wondering when things would get better... when would I understand what was being said? I'll never forget the first FHE we attended with a family and I actually understood most of it. But even as my vocabulary expanded there were ALWAYS words that I didn't understand. One night we were walking back to our apartment and my companion spent a good 30 minutes trying to tell me about some character in a movie. It took 30 minutes for me to figure out that she was trying to describe Mickey Mouse to me. Yeah, that's not something they teach you in the MTC. That conversation was more frustrating then most. Neither of us would give up trying to understand the other.

So obviously my current language frustration barriers involve these two guys:(Sorry for the old photo. I need to download pictures off our camera)

They are generally pretty verbal. I haven't counted up their words, but the list is pretty long. But man, if I could only have someone with me everyday telling me what they were saying. When they were little we used to jokingly tell them to "Use your words!" Now, we're not joking... but they could be using their words and we just have no clue.

For example we had homemade pizza last night for dinner. Shawn and I had two pieces on our plate. The boys each had a single smaller slice on their highchairs. Austin just kept pointing at my plate all distressed. I gave him everything I could think of: a papertowel, my utensils, etc. Finally Shawn said, "I think he wants to have two pieces too." So I gave him another piece and voila, it worked. He was happy as long as he had two pieces on his tray at one time. Seriously... how were we supposed to know that? And then before their nap today Isaac just kept crying and calling out for something that he had seen on the kitchen counter. It sounded like "way." I hypothesized that he wanted some orange since that was on the counter. He was already in his crib, but Shawn just went back in and handed him an orange slice and he ate it and happily went to sleep.

I can't tell you how many times a day we say "What do you want? Tell mommy!" I know we're not alone in these frustrations. Any tips? What have you done to get through the language barriers with your toddlers? Shawn saw an iPhone app called "Cry Translator." When will Apple come out with "Toddler Translator?" (I'd really like to see an Apple commercial that tells me "There's an app for that.")