Sunday, November 6, 2011

happy talk talk talkin'

Sunday.  Fast Sunday.  So hungry.  Not much in my brain right now.

OH - except I haven't mentioned it yet, but we had a coolness happen last week.  The Dude's occupational therapist told me they wanted to cut his visits down to a monthly check-in because he's just fine and dandy.  His verbal skills are literally exploding all over the place.  She may have even used the word "advanced" and I may have totally freaked out and called my mom gloating all over the place.  He came up to me today with a bright pink lollipop someone had given him at church (a pox on people who give other people's kids candy just before nap time) and said  "Oh! I have pink!"  Cool, huh??

One good and bad thing is that he can ask for what he wants most of the time.  The problem is, he actually says "I want ________" - which is great communicating, right?  But one thing I really detest is kids saying "I want" anything.  I banned that from WG's vocabulary years ago - and just sticking a PLEASE on it doesn't cut it.  "May I please ______" gets me every time.  Poor Dude can stick 3 words together now and every time he asks for something I try and get him to draw it out with at least 5 words with "May I please have."  He's nice about it but it's still just out of his grasp.  He's only 26 months old, for crying out loud!

Mean mommy.  I really am jumping up and down from his fabulous vocabulary, but I am laying the smack down with the "I want" thing.  All those nights I knelt down and begged heaven to let my child talk, and now I'm all "oooo, but not THOSE words."  I recognize what a nutcase I am, I do.

It's like once, years ago, I had a stand partner in orchestra with really terrible body odor.  I went to the stage manager and asked him to say something to him about it - mostly because the stage manager was obsessed with asking all the women to not wear too much perfume on concert night so we wouldn't all choke each other out, and I knew he'd understand.  The dear stage manager did it, and that night at our first convert I swear the boy was wearing an entire bottle of cologne.  I almost threw up.  When I saw the stage manager later and he excitedly told me he'd had a successful conversation with the lad (on a very sensitive subject, for sure) and instead of thanking him first, I went on a tirade of how now it wasn't body odor but cologne that was crazy intense.  I've felt bad about it for years, and wished I'd recognized what a nice thing he'd done for me before going off on the cologne thing.

So poor Dude, if you are reading this someday, I'm sorry I keep pushing and shaping your words, and I will try harder to show you how thrilled I am that you can and do talk to me with every single word you know.  I do know I am the luckiest mommy ever... well, second to my own dear mother who had the joy of raising moi. You're welcome, mom!!

2 comments:

Jane said...

First, yay!! For the dude and mastering words. Don't feel bad about teaching him to be polite as well as verbal. There are some children I know who I wish couldn't talk at all because of what comes out of their mouths. So lead with the politeness. It's your job to guide his steps, even as he's making them. Like learning to walk. You wouldn't let him fall down the stairs just because it was his first step.
Second, I really, really, REALLY hate it when people give food out on Fast Sunday. How are we supposed to teach children about what it means to fast if the adults - hello missionaries, I'm talking to you - are eating all over the place? Gah!

Maria said...

Yay!!! That's great that he is talking so well! My sister had some major worries with her little boy as well-took him to see a specialist and everything. But about two months ago, (he will be three next weekend) he just started talking in sentences-like fife to seven word sentences! So sometimes they just have their own timing, as scary as that is to us. Scarlett took a year to potty train for pooping in the potty instead of her pants...the pee part was fast, thankfully-and I started when she was 2 years, 9 months old! Whew! So every child has their own timing on things.

And huge kudos to you for making your kids awesome in the manners department-that is sooo important and sadly much neglected in so many children now. It's up to us!!

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