Language Explosion

Khubz has a new name at our house. "Chachalaca" or Mexican prairie chicken. She is always talking. This is great in the abstract. She has so many questions about the world, so focused and interested in communicating, so articulate in describing the billions of neurons firing in her head. . . As I said, the abstract = great.

One day, though, I just couldn't take any more of it. "Why do we have to wear shoes on our feet?What if we had six toes instead of five? Do puppies have toes? Jake y Annie have a puppy They live in Lawrence. We used to live in Lawrence. Can we go to Lawrence? Why it is so far far far away?" And I am still back at "because there are prickly weeds in the grass. So put your shoes on."

So we were piling into the car and I turned off the radio and said, "Mommy just needs five minutes of quiet. Just five minutes. Mommy has a headache so we have to shhhhh and be quiet for five minutes."

Seconds roll by: one, two, three, four, five

"Mommy?"

(sigh)

"Why do crackers have edges?"

I burst! "BECAUSE IF THEY DIDN'T THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD JUST BE ONE GREAT BIG ENORMOUS CRACKER!!! WHICH IS HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW!!"

Not to be outdone, Thumper is hot on her tail with his own language explosion. He is saying pretty clearly: Agua, bye-bye, mama, [b]anana, leche, pan, apple, a fuera, elmo, book, gotcha, mas, gma, no!!, chango, taza, up, thank you, bath and pie (as in foot, not apple or cherry) and then just yesterday he said his first "pease" for please! That is a word mommy is excited about.

Today was not my best day ever but we are really doing pretty well.