Baby Talk

     Recently our family has been grappling with the issue of how much one child should be tortured into talking. Joshua has about a 20-30 word vocabulary with about 1/3 of those words sounding like "Da" (dog, Dada, all done, duck, that, etc...), 1/3 sounding like "Ba" (ball, bye, book, ...) and the rest are an assortment of the rare "te-oo" (thank you), "mama" and "the-go" (there you go).  The words fly around fluently according to Joshua's whim and fancy.  He will say "Bye" for 10 minutes straight as I talk to his babysitter on the way out the door.  He will say "ba" as he collects book after book after book for you to read aloud to him (although often he just wants the same one read and reread).  But when he just isn't in the mood, all he will do is grunt, whine and point.  This is rather inconvenient.
     I remember going through the same thing with our first child but I just assumed that this was a different kid so it would be a different story. No such luck.  Joshua only speaks when he wants to speak.  It seems like his reluctance comes mostly when he's overly emotional. So if he really wants those goldfish crackers, that's the time to grunt and point but if he's just chilling in his diaper he will call out "da" as he dances around the living room.  Come to think of it, are we ever really cooperative when we're mad or sad? When Joshua wakes up perky, he happily will drop his binkies (he usually carries around 3 after naps) into the crib but when he wakes up cranky it's awfully hard to pry them from his small hands!
     Is this a natural human tendency?  For communication to simply break down when we get frustrated, hungry or sad?  Or is there an actual disconnect between language and emotions that clouds our ability to articulate what we really want?  Or maybe I'm just over-thinking it and torturing my child.  It's come to this.  Joshua wants more blueberries (shocker) and I say, "Say 'more' Joshua."  Pointing, grunting... "Do you want more?"  Pointing and grunting, whining,...  "Use your words..." Pointing, grunting, whining,... And after about 3 minutes, "Say 'more'.  Say 'yes'.  SAY ANYTHING!"  At this point, I happily accept any vocal sound other than whining, pointing, grunting.  Is it really working?  Probably not.  Probably I should just sit back and respond to any form of communication (well, maybe not the whining) and give my baby his blueberries or goldfish crackers.