Words, Words, Everywhere.

I begin many of my days waiting with bated breath. Just waiting. Waiting for the words to spill forward. Waiting with excitement for my baby to speak her first, true and clear word; and, waiting with anxiety for my older daughter's big question of the day.

My 15 month-old is making lots of sounds and "words" that we translate in to some sort of meaning. For example, she says bye-bye, book, bottle, baby, blanket, bottle... Are you noticing a pattern? Yes, she has mastered the 'b' sound and with a little finger pointing can clearly indicate to use which 'b' word item she wants. We manage to communicate quite well with her, especially since her understanding of what we say to her is growing in leaps and bounds. The only time we really have trouble is when she is after something that doesn't start with that beloved 'b' sound, and then it is a chaotic mess of pointing, grunting, leg hugging and guessing until we get it right. So it is with excitement and anticipation that we impatiently wait every day to hear her first word that doesn't require parental translation to adult english. (In other words, we are waiting for her to say something that any adult will clearly understand.)

On the other hand, my almost 5 year-old will speak incessantly, all day long, if allowed and not interrupted. We have advanced past the "Why?" phase and into a whole new level of conversation. Her latest conversation starter is, "I have a REALLLY good question...." The second I hear these words my heart skips a beat and my brain goes into overdrive attempting to guess what topic she is going to tackle next. In the last few weeks I have been asked: how fabric is made, how do clouds make shape art in the sky, why her Grandmother's cat doesn't wear a collar, how is glass made, why do people move, what was the very first animal, and (the grand-daddy of all questions) where did the very first person come from after the dinosaurs died?

Deep breath, what, ask me that again, uh, well-um, let me think for a minute...GULP. I'm glad she is inquisitive, loves to learn and is eager to hear all about the world around her. BUT when it is 5:30 and dinner is burning in the pot, the baby is screaming, TV is blaring and the phone starts ringing I can NOT for the life of me remember how glass is made, where fabric comes from and what the heck is a cloud that makes shape art!?!?!?

One of the many ironies of parenting - we can't wait for our babies to speak, to say Mama/Dada, to verbally show us they know about the world around them. Once they do talk we curse the back-talk, give responses like I don't know, because I said so and ask me again later, and to top it off we ask them to stop talking all of the time. Then when life slows down for a minute and we really take the time to listen to what they are saying we are amazed. Amazed by their magical thinking, by their curiosity and intuitiveness, their ability to see the world in a way we don't. Sure I've laid in the grass and named all the things I could see in the clouds, but never did I consider that my imagination had nothing to do with it and that the clouds were putting on a shape art show purely for my pleasure. Amazing!

Whether it be a first word or what feels like a million words in less than a minute they are all important, valuable and worth listening too. Even when they sneak out of bed at 9:30 to tell you one more "important" thing before they fall asleep. After all if it is important to our kids, isn't it important to us too?