Our Poppy Voice

Poppy turned 1 last week and, to be honest, she can't really say anything yet.  We try to convince ourselves that some of her mumbling translates to 'yes', 'yea', 'all done' and 'dada'.  And since I am marginally convinced that she's saying 'yea' sometimes, I'll give her that one.  It's less clear whether or not she's purposefully saying 'dada' as opposed to merely repeating the sound that arrives when one puts together the letters d and a.  She is constantly going 'da.....dada...dadadada..dadada...da' – so, admittedly, it's a bit of a leap to claim that Poppy is addressing her father when she creates this sound.   

Nope, Poppy can't speak for herself yet, which is why Matt and I have taken to speaking for her/as her via a near constant stream of voice-over narration.  We narrate what we imagine she would say in any given situation.  Our 'Poppy Voice' sounds like a cross between Cartman and a gay uncle on helium.  If she knew what we were doing she'd be embarrassed.  But since she doesn't know what we're doing, we're able to adapt our Poppy character to suit ourselves.  

For example, Matt sees Poppy in the finance world someday...hence his Poppy character dabbles in quant strategies*.  

Poppy via Matt (I'm paraphrasing of course): 'Oh my goodness guys, I've been looking at this new Kangaroo Cocktail quant strategy and I think that it could be really interesting as long as it's optimized for curve fitting...'


(For some reason, it's less annoying when it's Poppy who is talking about innovations in quant strategy algorithms.)

Sadly, our Poppy voice-over narration has become a near perpetual practice.  It has also become a medium through which Matt and I voice our own thoughts, desires and fears – even when they have little to do with The Pop-Tart.  As such, Poppy is a baby who plays many roles– 

Poppy via me: 'Oh my goodness daddy, don't forget to assemble my little red radio flyer wagon wagon today like you said you would.'

Matt: 'Don't become like your mother Poppy.'

(For some reason, it isn't less annoying when it's Poppy who is nagging.)

I'm not sure if Matt is doing this for points or if it's what he really thinks Poppy thinks, but Matt's Poppy is often very complimentary of me.  She says things like:

I wonder what the real Poppy is going to say-

*As Poppy would say, 'Quantitative investment strategies are proprietary algorithmic models that are typically run by highly educated teams who use them to increase their ability to beat the market.'