Talking

Joey talks. He is three and a half years old and he talks and talks and talks. He talks about rain and clouds and snow and penguins and the moon (can you see the moon now? now?..now?) and elephants and books and school and colors and Elmo and bananas and walking and mailboxes and who looks like who and what is this is for and what that is for and where God lives and where the blue train is and forts and friends and the orange slide the orange cat the orange light or is it yellow?

I love it. I almost can’t get enough of hearing about what is going on in his head. And I am so excited that he seems to have a white knuckle grip on English and thrilled that Guy, now two and some months, is learning as well. It is all so funny the way the words come out garbled a bit- as he stumbles through a darkened room of language feeling for the switch- it’s fascinating. And if I stop vacuuming the floor and I lower my head to the height of his head and put everything into context- I understand that Guy is saying not “hairs the frakon bush” but “where’s the dragon book?” and if I know that ‘nananers’ is actually bananas and an elle fa dent is an elephant and that ‘non nee’ is actually for night night which refers to his blanket—then-well- we understand each other just fine.

It is frustrating yes- when Guy stamps his foot repeating the same thing 10 times in a row and I can’t figure it out. Or when I do the very same thing to him. But most of the time (at least some of the time) he is like a little foreign traveler picking up a granny smith. Bapple? He asks. Apple. Yes.

Shruck? Yes. Truck. And Joey and Guy both spend all day taking in information about this world and repeating it back to me. And I know one day they will be discussing theology and mathematics and music and ideas and have all the words to say whatever they wish. And all the 'elfadents' and 'flutterbyes' will be long gone.  

But not today. And not tomorrow.

Yesterday I gave Guy his freshly washed blankie. “Non nee For Guy?!” He asked

“For you” I said

“Because you ‘I love you’ me?” He smiled.

“Yes. Because I ‘Iloveyou’ you.” Very. Very. Much.