My toddler has a pretty big baby talk vocabulary. He has a name for everything, and often I think his names are way better than the real thing. I know you’re supposed to teach them the right words and correct them, but sometimes their words are just more fun!
Mogatoos and Other Things
My son calls motorcycles “mogatoos.” So every time I see one I want to shout “Mogatoo!” It’s more fun to say, so I find it hard to correct him. But I don’t want him to show up the first day of kindergarten and tell everyone he wants to ride a mogatoo. That’s probably a parenting fail.
Strawberries are straw babies. He also likes blue babies and cran babies.
His sippy cup is a Z cup.
See? More fun.
Why Baby Talk Is Important
From calling spaghetti “pasketti” to referring to all animals as “doggy,” babies have a way of turning language into something equal parts charming and creative. While these little linguistic slip-ups might earn laughs or become cherished family stories, they’re also a sign of something remarkable: a child’s brain hard at work.
When toddlers mix up words, invent new ones, or simplify complex sounds, it’s not a failure—it’s a phase of healthy language development. These missteps show they’re absorbing, experimenting, and making sense of the language around them. Think of it as their first draft of communication. It may not be perfect, but it’s undeniably clever.
Linguists refer to this as “overgeneralization” or “phonological simplification.” For instance, a child might say “goed” instead of “went” because they’re trying to apply regular grammar rules before they’ve learned all the exceptions.
Or they might say “nana” instead of “banana” because it’s easier for their developing mouths and minds to handle. These so-called errors are really evidence of problem-solving in action.
And let’s be honest—there’s real joy in these moments. A toddler declaring that the moon is “broken” when it’s a crescent or calling sunglasses “eye hats” gives us a glimpse into how they’re making sense of the world. It’s whimsical, endearing, and deeply human.
So, when your child says something a little offbeat, there’s no need to correct them immediately. Celebrate it, repeat it back with a smile, and know that each cute mispronunciation is a steppingstone on their journey to mastering language.
I will do my job and eventually correct him. But I think I’ll keep mogatoo for a little while longer.
So, what unique words has your toddler come up with?
Discover more from Geek Mamas
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I love it! Tru calls elephants, elephanants. His sippy cup is a sicky cup. I’m sure there’s more but I can’t think of them right now…
Sometimes I wish they came with a glossary… lol
Lol I think I loved the baby talk for too long with my first. Possible speech therapy here we come! 😂
Oh no 😂
I agree with baby talk. Plus, I can’t help but speak that way to little ones! Not many phrases from my 16 month old, so not much to share quite yet. ☺
Toddler talk is my favorite ever. For us, my two favorites at the moment are unicorns are hornicorn (unicorn) and applespause (applesauce).
Hornicorn! I love it 😂
My 2 year daughter called a hospital a hopsadoodle for a while and despite my career as an SLP I couldn’t bring myself to correct her! Huge difference between funny words that they come out with and talking to them using baby talk 24/7. The other day she discovered wagon wheel pasta and now calls them dragons, short for dragon wheels 😜😂. When asked what she wanted to eat “some dragons and sprinkley cheese on top, please”
I would totally encourage dragon wheels! Lol
Omg my niece ate ‘strawbabies’ and ‘bluebabies’ forever and no one would correct her because it was just TOO CUTE.
It totally is 🙂
Scarlett calls her sippy cup ‘ping’ because it has a straw that is flexible and ‘pings’ back toward you if you push it. We also call the pacifier/dummy a ‘plug’, so at night she will ask for plug instead of paci or dummy 😂
Plug… omg… that’s hilarious 😂
Omg strawbabies sounded sooo adorable for me not to comment and run away. Haha
Iol 🙂
My 20mo, Puff, likes to put on a certain pair of shiny red ballet flats from my closet and “tap dance” with them … she calls them “tappos”!!!
A isn’t talking enough yet but I can’t wait for this! When I was a nanny, my little one said bam bans for bandaids, snooze cookies for Stew’s cookies and he called his brother guy guy (his name is Justin). I was so sad when he out grew it. They do eventually without you usually having to actually correct them.
Straw babies! <3
Baby Girl calls Cheez Doodles "Doo Doos" (Shame on me for giving them to her.)
Bwahahaha 😂