Scroll down for part 1 and some great pictures.
After a few more trips down to the dock to wave at the BOPES!, feeding butter beans to his grandmother, playing with the water hose, chasing the cat for a while, walking a retired baby doll around by the hand (the same way he has been learning to walk with me), emptying a kitchen cabinet, and countless stops to bang on the piano, our trip to my parents' house came to a close. For Asher, it was better than Disney World. It was a 24-hour-party in which he was the star of the show. What kid doesn't love that?
Now, when I was 15, I was the definition of extroverted. The longer I was around people, the more energized I became. But the older I get, the more I appreciate balance. By now, I function best when I have equal parts quiet and excitement. But an hour in a car with a toddler can hardly be called quiet. Most of the time, Asher occupies himself by narrating books and noticing the scenery with what is quickly becoming a characteristic exuberance for language. I normally spend most of my travel time saying, "Yes, baby, that is a leaf." I assumed the quiet I was craving after the Asher Show Marathon would not begin until after bedtime tonight.
I was wrong.
About five minutes down the road, after remembering our day out loud (BOPES. JACK. MARMEEEEEE!), Asher asked for his blanket and pacifier. He'd already had a nap, and we normally have a strict rule about saving pacifiers for bedtime, but it was such an unusual request that I complied. He got the glazed-over look of a tired baby with a paci in his mouth, and I wondered if he was going to sleep, but he didn't. Instead, we listened to the Indigo Girls together. In between songs, he'd ask (quietly - a decibel I did not realize he was capable of using) for more music. And when he recognized a word, he'd announce it softly. "Love," he said. "Jesus!" This one was his favorite, and he repeated it a few times, smiling as he said it. "Jesus!" "Jesus!" very softly, from the back seat. "True?" "Water?" "School." And - my favorite - a word that came out of his innocent mouth as "Uck," which I am certain he thought was referring to his dad's vehicle. We let that one pass us by. This is how we rode home. Until we pulled into the driveway, Asher and I listened to the Indigo Girls, occasionally repeating the important words, and relaxed for a while.
I love the words that stood out to him. We learn language by the repetition of sounds, a thousand times over, until babble becomes associated with an object, and imitating that babble gets us what we want. How long do those little neurons have to fire before nonsense becomes substance? How many times do we hear a word before we understand it? My professor once asked it this way: "How much 'cup'ness do we really need to comprehend before we understand that c-u-p holds our drink?" It's a difficult question to answer. But the salient words for Asher, the ones that he recognized, were so sweet. I love that these are the words he's heard enough to recognize, repeat, and know that he's saying something.
Except Uck. That one was all him.
4 comments:
Awww...that is precious!!! And I find it very appropriate that I was listening to Indigo Girls even before I clicked on this post!! Love it!
ps - you should get skype so i can see that baby and hear him talk!! :)
They all have different ways of decompressing. Personally, I am a fan of blankies all the time if they need them -- nothing cuter than a kid self-soothing and quietly talking to himself!
His blanket is always available, but he almost never looks for it until he's sleepy.
re: vacation sickness---no, I haven't gotten sick yet (fingers crossed, knock on wood, pray to the Lord most high), but Jeff went to the DOCTOR tonight--he never goes to the doctor...so he's feeling rough. this one will go in the books as some kind of vacation!
Post a Comment