My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

We were driving home at night, so the interior of the car was dark, and I heard Becky say, “Susie, are you there?”

Susie replied, “No.”

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After she had said something funny, I told Susie she was cute.  Susie smiled and said, “Thanks, Mom.  I’m always cute with this blonde hair.”

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I had mentioned something to Susie about using her brain, and she looked up in sincere bewilderment and gaped, “I have a BRAIN?”

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Susie: “Can I have candy before bed?”

Me: “No.”

Susie: “Why not?”

Me: “Because you could get cavities.”

Susie: “But I LOVE the dentist!”

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Susie, pretending to be a pirate: “Shiver me mateys!”

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Susie: “I really want my tooth to fall out so I can get a present from God.” 

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Me: “Susie, can you help Jimmy into his highchair?”

Susie: “According to my research, I can’t help you.”

Kids’ language acquisition never ceases to amaze me.  As of January, Jimmy’s entire vocabulary consisted only of the words “All done” (pronounced “A-dah”), “Daddy, “Bubba,” “oh dear” (oh-dee), “please” (pee), “bowl” (boh), “stuck” (a gutteral “kah”), “blanket” (bee), “hot” (ha), and occasional “mama.”  We had him evaluated by early intervention specialists, who said we didn’t need to worry because although his expressive speech was delayed, his receptive speech (what he understood) was just fine.  Furthermore, he communicated his needs extremely effectively through pointing and gesticulating (and forcibly moving our faces where he wanted us to look). 

Not one week after that evaluation, Jimmy decided he was done being the strong, silent type.  Within a few days, he added “more” (mo), “boo”, “ball” (ba), “yucky” (gacky), “no,” “boat” (bo), “ice” (i).  And since then, his language exploded.  I can’t even count all his words now!  He still uses a few words to get most of his needs met – notably, “no” and “me” and “ice” (now pronounced “eyesh”) are in heavy rotation.  And he still uses a lot of Jimmy-invented sign language, like pointing to his head to indicate he wants his daddy to fly the remote-control helicopter.  Why, you may ask, would he point to his head?  Don’t all toy helicopters take off from little boys’ noggins?

Here’s a video of Jimmy using a few of his words and being his normal busy little self:

Good thing I ran out of space in that cart, otherwise my Costco bill would have been even more ridiculous! 

It’s nice to know the girls aren’t too big to squeeze together onto their favorite chair for a rocking good time!

Here’s a current clip of their rocker antics (note Jimmy plotting his escape in the background):

And here they are almost three years ago with the same chair.  Is it just me, or was that chair a lot bigger back then?

This one’s for you, Grandpa!