From the "not alone" vault - my boys have both been pretty verbal since a young age, and i'm always amazed when people don't understand something that is pretty clear. I know that there are times when parents understand "baby language" better than others, but... we're not talking gobbledy-gook here, so, really?
I remember clearly when my oldest was just shy of four we were in arizona on vacation and were visiting with my husband's cousin. My son had just started reading (it was during that very trip we realized he could read and didn't just have things memorized when he asked us in the car what "yoga" meant from a sign he saw on the side of the road) and was a very clear speaker.
Anyway, no matter what he said the cousin always looked at us and said - what was that? what did he say? and it drove me bonkers - she fully expected NOT to be able to understand a 3 and a half year old, so she didn't. Plain and simple. No matter what he said or how he said it - clear as day! - she always turned to me for clarification. All i could say was ask my son to speak louder - in the hopes that she was just hard of hearing! (which she's not, but i didn't know what else to do!) These weren't necessarily hard words - it was, pure and simple - a decision that kids of a certain age are not to be understood.
Insanity.
