A few months ago, Allen finally started talking for real, forming complete, mostly grammatically correct, sentences. After much hemming and hawing on my part.
His first complete sentence, seriously, was when he loudly blurted out:
"SHARK EAT RA-RA'S BOW!!!"
when Cora's neon pink hair bow blew into the intercoastal waterway and promply sank (in Allen's mind into a shark's jaw apparently) while we were waiting to catch a ferry to Fort Matanza.
The funny thing was how shocked all of us were when the words came out of Allen's mouth,
especially Allen. My theory is that he had been thinking in full sentences for months but it was
his little secret that he was waiting until just the right moment to reveal ... then he forgot himself and couldn't pretend he couldn't talk anymore.
A milestone. And a load off my back.
I was wondering if we would ever see the day after multiple consultations with Doctors, a speech therapist (who reprimanded me for being too hard on my son and that he was just fine, just a little brother of a very loquacious big sister) and my very own futile efforts as a former language professor and even little Cora spending hours with books and toys coaxing him to
please just say something so he would be more fun to play with and mommy could stop worrying so much.
One of a long line of our humbling endeavors as parents ... but sometimes children (and all of us for that matter) do things on our own timetable. And that is perfectly ok most of the time. There is no blueprint for life and we all have our own stories, thank goodness.
***
What is interesting to us is just how different our kids are when it comes to the Art of Conversation.
Cora could have an articulate, sophisticated chat with the Queen of England, and then there is our Allen, who sounds like a character WALL-E the musical but is definitely more listening-focused and to the point in his conversations, which I greatly appreciate and doesn't seem to bother his friends one bit. (my Dad likes to say Allen is in training to be a good husband.)
So having two kids I can actually converse with has made each day less ho-hum and turned ordinary experiences into real adventures for me... especially since I spent months pondering what was going on in Allen's little butterscotch-fuzzed head. (I can't even remember Cora NOT talking, because she has been doing so for such a long time pretty much non-stop except when she is sleeping. And she is just like me and usually says whatever is on her mind for better or worse.)
Their favorite conversation topics at the moment?
Cora-
1) AGE (in terms of years old and well as birthdays and grade levels of all of her friends and their mommies too) like when we were sitting at breakfast the other morning and she said "Mama, you are MUCH older than Daddy, right?!" (Colin is two years older than me. AHHH). And she gets really excited when she is the oldest in her various groups, like MOPS where she is the second oldest. She does not like being the second youngest however, like in her playschool class. All of this complicates our neverending conversation that must be resolved soon on whether to hold her back or not. Anyway. Oh and she loves talking to my grandmother, her great-grandmother about how old she is. "Gracie, how old are you again? NINETY?!! Wow!! My husband Jonathan is 90 too! and he and I have been married for 90 years!! Let's have a birthday party for you guys together!"
2) HER HUSBAND Jonathan and her 13 daughers- Apple, Maybe Baby, Jemma, Jem, Catalina, Sophia, ect. Where Jonathan is at the moment... sometimes riding on top of her car or on vacation in Saint Maarten or working one of his two careers - he is the "muffin man" and a nurse. We have to listen to the song "Do you know the muffin man?" because it is Jonathan's favorite since he spends so much time baking muffins for Cora after all.
3) GOD. This little Girl loves the Lord and declares her profound love of God when I am least expecting it. I cannot even count the number of times she has said out of nowhere "Mama, do you know who I love so so much? GOD. And my Family. And Jesus too. Jesus is GOD, right Mama? But how is that possible?!" (!!!) She often asks me about Heaven and Angels and God sending us babies and what happens after death, like when her Grandma's bird died. I will never forget the conversation I had with Dean Kate at our church before Allen's baptism when she was telling me about Children's need for spirituality in their lives... so wonderful and amazing and true!
4) Making PLANS. Cora is the most industrious, goal oriented person I have ever met... she wakes up determined that we will plant a garden, paint her room purple, make cookies for her friends, invite neighbors over to fingerpaint, visit her great grandma and pack a picnic and that we do all of these things before naptime. It is hard to say no to her enthusiasm and This is why I am so tired most of the time.
(I just noticed that the four things she talks about the most are also the topics I probably talk about the most too- funny!)
Allen-
OK so the truth is that he is more of a deliriously happy neanderthal who talks like a singing robot. His favorite topics include...
1) TRAINS He is obsessed with them. He sleeps with his little trains, talks about them in his sleep, and gets ridiculously excited when we get stopped by a train. He makes "tracks" out of whatever he can find around... sticks at the playground or sugar packets at a restaurant. We have a good friend who works at East Coast Railway and we are already trying to get an internship for Allen there as soon as he is age appropriate. I can hardly wait to buy him a Eur-rail pass and send him off with a backpack for the summer. This week our plans include a picnic on the riverwalk in the hopes of getting to see a train cross the train bridge downtown. Because it is rediscovering the little things, like watching a train cross a bridge, that makes motherhood so so fun.
2) "Cuck" sites (translation= constructions sites). He shouts "CUCK SITE" every time we pass one and thanks to Allen and various books like our favorite "Good Night Construction Site" that his grandma gave him, both of us are able to even identify different kinds of trucks and "earth movers" as he calls them. If you had asked me the difference between an excavator and a bull dozer a year ago I would have had no idea but now I even know what a backhoe loader is. Impressed?
3) FRIENDS Since Allen is pretty much stuck with me all day, playdates with other little boys are extra special and he can't seem to see his friends enough. Kids are really even cuter in numbers and Allen and his friends are like little bear cubs wrestling, choo chooing their little trains together and playing with sticks and dirt. He has given a couple of his favorite friends nicknames- "Tuggy" (Tug), "Dack" (Jack) and "Fierce" (Pierce). Of course his best friend is his sister "RA-RA" who he says he missed almost every morning when we drop her off at school.
Then of course there are times I wish he wouldn't talk so clearly like this afternoon when I was at a boutique in our neighborhood and a prominent (and quite prim and proper) donor at the Hospital where I volunteer came in and Allen loudly announced "AYEN (what he is currently calling himself) GOT BIG BOOG-ER" and jutted his little hand out where he had a big green one, indeed and he wanted to show all of the ladies shopping in the store. And I know 100% that he enjoyed mortifying me. Of course.
other words he says funny-
He is always asking when "Daddy comes hone (home)?? Daddy gwerk today (go to work today)?
"Poot" = poop. He LOVES announcing when he "toots" and especially when his sister does. He even makes his puppets toot, much to my dismay. He makes his Thomas trains too, but I think that is not in a vulgar way.
"Cakey" = anything in the muffin, cupcake or breakfast bread variety. One of Allen's first words.
"Gunk" = milk
"Babysuit" = bathing suit
***
Due to having two talkers that are often in competition with each other, mainly over my attention in the morning, I implemented a necessary rule in our home last week to avoid me being bombarded by demands and therefore becoming unnecessarily grumpy and overwhelmed before I have had my morning coffee:
No child shall enter Mommy's bedroom until Mommy says it is time in the morning.
They usually get up around 6:45 and I am not usually ready to face the day or them until 7:30 so this rule has worked out for all of us in that I get to wake up peacefully, make the bed, put on my workout clothes and check my email while the kids play together.
And let me tell you that every since Allen started talking too, their morning play together is hilarious and imaginative- they play "family", "tigers", "Max and Ruby", "Thomas and James" and are just so sweet to listen to as I am preparing myself to face them and our day.
However, my favorite thing that they have started saying recently, sometimes even spontaneously, on their own is the following, and makes all of mundane chores and challenges and frustrations so so rewarding and worthwhile:
Cora: "Leettle guy, I love you so so much, do you know that?!" (Squeezing him fiercely).
Allen: "Ayen wuv Ra-Ra too." (Hugs her back).
Happy Monday!! xx
