A Way With Words

I love language and, when I stop to think about it, am totally amazed at how God designed humans to acquire it and use it. What a creative God I serve!
I mostly love watching my children develop language and the exciting adventures that result. It is crazy to me that my children are born speaking no English at all and will have a workable knowledge of it within a couple years of life and will be quite fluent not much later. If only I didn't mind sounding like they do from time to time, I wonder how quickly I could finally master German...

I LOVE talking to my children. I remember when Evie was non-verbal (well, incomprehensibly-verbal) and I would take her grocery shopping and talk to her the entire time, knowing full well that she understood little or nothing I was saying. I would instruct her to say "hello" to people when she was probably too young to even distinguish a human face from an oddly-shaped melon. I did this (and do this also now with Lily) because I don't know which day they will finally understand and so I want them to know the joy of greeting others as soon as they are able.

I used to long for the day when Ev could communicate with words. Well, those days are here for her and quickly arriving for Lily. And I love it. I know I am supposed to want them to grow up and become independent (and I do, because God gave them to me to raise and send out), but there is also a part of me that wants to keep them in this stage forever because I love to hear Evie say things like, "Mommy, can you stay here for a long time ago?" I love pondering how her brain picks up phrases and associates meaning faster than it does with individual words - how usage is everything for her little mind. She hears how we use phrases in certain contexts and applies them in similar ones - often with precious or hilarious outcomes. Here are some examples:

Tonight when Daddy got home from work she ran to him and said, "I'm so glad you're here," as though he were an unexpected guest. She often follows that one up with, "because I love you so much." In her own little way, she is showing all the affection she can muster.

"Earlier" - This is one of Evie's favorite sentence starters. "Earlier" applies to anything that happened in the past. So, tonight when she almost pinched Daddy's neck in the zipper on his fleece, she reminded him that she had also done that "earlier". The event in question happened last year.

"Yestertime" - Things that don't qualify for the "earlier" category are described as occurring "yestertime".

When I carry her and she starts slipping, she asks me, "Can you carry me straight up?". I think she must be associating that with us asking her to stand up straight but who knows where she comes up with things, really.

Or, if I am carrying her sister, Ev will ask me , "Can you carry both of them?", not "both of us", though she uses us frequently in other sentences.

And, if I ask her to carry something, she frequently can't because she "has both hands". Apparently specifying that she has both hands full would be an overstatement because she does not see the need to include that detail. And, generally, they are not full. So maybe she just has a sensitive conscience about lying... or maybe not. I am pretty sure her "Grammy in Carroll" knows her daddy's history too well to believe that one :)

Speaking of her daddy, I would be remiss not to mention his interaction with Ev here. He has always spoken to Evie like she is 20, not 2. I love listening to him explain things to her and telling her things that she can't possibly understand. She loves it. I think she feels big and important. While he takes the time to put things on her level when needed, he also puts some things a little out of her mental reach just to keep her on her toes. He asks her questions all the time and she loves being talked to like she knows things and has something to contribute. She thinks about what he is asking and responds very seriously - though sometimes quite off the mark. And he just keeps it going. Like tonight, she was drinking from her sippy cup and he asked her why she thought it was called a sippy cup. She responded, "because I call it a sippy cup". He then asked her a bunch of questions about why that was and she repeated "because I call it a sippy cup" with increasing hand motions and verbal intensity to convince her dad that the question had been answered. Sensing it was time to move on, he asked her if she knew what his cup was called and then told her it was called a styrofoam cup. Her response to this revelation, "Um, I think it tastes like Dr. Pepper." Good answer.