Use Your Words

Its amazing how kids pick up language, isn't it? One minute you're hoping for a little coo from your baby and the next thing you know they're saying "no!" and shaking their head back and forth.

I've read in a lot of books that twins can develop their language skills a bit later than singletons, so I always felt a little anxious for them to start cooing, babbling and then finally talking. When they started saying "hi" and "bye" I was absolutely thrilled. But I started to wonder when the other words would come. Anindita's boys always blow my mind because at two years and change, they're saying such wonders as "giant excavator", "backhoe loader" and "concrete crusher" (there are a lot of books on trucks in that household, and a lot of construction sites in our neighbourhood...much to the boys' delight!) They actually are little talking wonders to me, since my guys just grunt and point, whereas Aiden and Andrew actually ask for things in full sentences.

But I can see that the words are coming. Its pretty amazing to watch them trying new words. Owen seems to be a little bit ahead of Will, and has been practicing "truck" and "shoe" (sounds like "duh" and "tchooooo") and loves nothing better than to command the dog to "GO!" (sounds more like "Goh", as in the start of "gothic").

William, however, is perfecting the use of "mummy" and its variations, saying "ma, ma, ma" and "muh-may",like a posh little Brit, about a million times a day. Sometimes he's calling me, but most of the time, when I say "yes, William?" he looks surprised that I answered and clearly just likes the sounds he's making. He also surprised us all by suddenly saying "baby" the other day. Now he and Owen both say "baby" when Abigail is over, as well as try to touch her head and feet, whilst Amber and I try not to panic as we semi-shout "Gently! Gently!" But that's for another post.

One of my greatest pleasures right now is the way both Owen and William say thank you after I give them food or a toy. Its actually more like "dank-eee!!!", but it makes me smile every time. They also use thank you in order to try to share with each other. If Will has a toy that Owen wants, he'll wander over to his brother with something else and in a highly choreographed move, attempt to take the wanted toy with one hand whilst giving William the decoy toy with the other and at the same time say as sweetly as possible, "dank-eee". Sometimes it works, but not always. Sometimes it leads to biting and crying and time outs. But that's for another post.

For now I sit here typing to you, listening to my boys chattering away to each other upstairs on the monitor. It sounds like pure gibberish, but I know its an important step towards new words, so in a way, it also sounds like pure heaven.