Dada? Dabby? Dawby? What is he trying to say??

So you'd think, as rapidly as Garrett is growing, the things I'd be most concerned about with his development are 'is he trying to walk enough?' 'can he hear me when I call his name?' 'does he KNOW his name?'  'will he have a peanut allergy because I could live on peanut butter if allowed, so if my kid has an allergy what will I do?'

But no. My biggest worry right now is not being able to understand what he is trying to say as he gets more vocal.  I'm always around parents who's child speaks a language only they understand and the parent says "that's right, junior, that's the doggy..." or "oh you'd like a banana?".  And I always am baffled.  How did the parent get banana from 'ranrethaa'?  

Case in point.  Garrett goes to daycare four days a week. By all accounts, he has a great time.  He no longer cries when I leave him.  He grins and giggles when we arrive...he waves bye when we leave.  He's in toy paradise there. He's very busy. But his daycare provider, who I really like and think is good for him, tells me "Oh he said cracker all day today!" Or, "he said tiger today and he loves his tiger and all he says is tiger tiger tiger."

What? I have never heard him say tiger or cracker.   I have never heard him say anything that resembles these things. So now I am paralyzed with fear that I am not going to know what in the world he is trying to convey if I can't understand him. 

Recently, he started saying Dawby...or Dawba or Dahba...so I'm wondering...is he combining 'doggy' and 'gabby'? Doggy and Dada?  How do I know???  The other night as we were commuting home together (the best part of having him in daycare literally two minutes from the college), I spent the whole ride home saying 'Tiiiiiiger.  Say Tiiiiiger.' My commute is about 25 minutes. I have no idea if he fell asleep listening to my one word conversation, but he never said it.  He did mumble "brdrwrnrr"  Was that tiger?   I don't know. I just hope that when the time comes for him to be a little more vocal, that I will finally hear what other parents seem to magically understand.

Stay tuned.