Headed Towards Two
In the last two weeks I’ve had multiple people tell me it’s time to write about Charlie again. I wholeheartedly agree, so thanks for helping to motivate me!
As a speech-language pathologist who loves analyzing and engaging with nearly every aspect of child development, it has been incredibly fun watching Charlie’s expressive language emerge. We are hearing new words on a daily basis. Some of them are quite expected, or he’s simply gone from saying them with his mouth closed to his mouth open, and some have been enormous surprises, like “yesterday.” While reading the Richard Scarry vehicle book, Charlie pointed at the garbage truck and said, “garbage truck yesterday!” Why yes, son, it was garbage day yesterday! Later, he used it to refer to something in the more distant past. It’s his general past tense marker for now. I love it. Charlie’s first verbs have been nap, eat, play, and get. Dinner time conversation is often including comments like “mama eat”, “papa eat”, and “Charlie eat.” While walking towards the library entrance today Charlie spotted a squirrel perched above us on a tree branch eagerly eating some morsel undoubtedly dropped by a toddler. He proudly proclaimed, “squirrel eat.” I replied, “Yes, the squirrel’s eating.” Then Charlie added, “Mama eat, Papa eat, Charlie eat.” Simple, but beautiful.
The funnier language moments come from words he puts together or ways he makes do with his toddler-sized vocabulary. Today’s unique combo was helicopterboat. Despite my frequent references to the motorboat pictured in a book we were reading, Charlie called it a helicopterboat. It works, right?! Trains have cars, so why shouldn’t boats have helicopters?! ( And aha! It just hit me—this makes all the more sense because we’ve been turning nearly every soft object in our house into helicopters for months. “Helicopter robot” sends his stuffed robot spinning in the air. Charlie can’t get enough of Harry’s latest version, “helicopter pillow.” Who can blame him for finding entertainment in pillows flying off of Harry’s head?)
Charlie’s creativity and play skills have also grown leaps and bounds. Today’s library visit highlight was watching Charlie seat several stuffed animal puppets around a little table. Each one received their own book to read after he placed them on their chair.
As every parent knows, I have only written about the tip of the iceberg…so, give me a call if you want to hear more fun details! My energy is waning as it heads towards 10:30. And I’m not delaying this post any longer!!! Ta ta for now…and…
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
