Leaps and bounds

I was reading through my blog archives recently and realizing that as little as a year ago, I had two kids with whom my ability to communicate was extremely limited. Thor knew a few phrases but was still largely the strong, silent type. He had learned enough words that I was no longer panicking as much about a possible verbal delay. Winnie was just showing signs of speaking a word or two.

 

Now Thor is so verbally adept that it sometimes shocks me. Out of the blue yesterday he asked me, “Mom, what is ‘sacrifice’?” He also asked me what “inspired” means the other day. His vocabulary questions often focus on the abstract, which can be challenging, but I try to always answer with something he can understand. He usually surprises me with how much he does understand. He has definite opinions and ideas about things that sometimes seem to come out of nowhere. When we were talking the other day about the new baby in my tummy, he said, “It’s dark in there, Mom. It’s sticky in there.” “It is?”  “Yeah, it’s sticky in there.” He frequently asks about what the baby’s doing. “Is he sleeping? Is he kicking you hard?” I’ve reassured him it’s not too hard.

Winnie will not be far behind. As she gets more verbal, she gets more bossy. This morning I asked her if she wanted to go to Grandma’s house and she said, “Yes. You carry me.” Well, OK, then. Lately when I leave the room she usually says “I go with you” and follows me everywhere – notably into the bathroom. When she goes out back to play, she likes me to come along and she will stand on the porch yelling, “Come on, mom! Come with me! Come on guys!” I often find her in the office banging away on the computer keyboard and when I ask what she’s doing she looks up ever-so-briefly, says, “I working,” and immediately goes back to hammering away. Sometimes when I ask her to do something she says, in an exasperated tone, “Hang ON. Hang ON a minute.” She loves to boss the dogs around: “Come here, Dan! Come here, puppies! Come over here!” She has her own, very garbled version of the ABC song, and her own version of the Sesame Street song (consisting mainly of “A-OK. Sesame Street!”) which she sings to herself all the time. Basically, she is a hundred times more expressive than Thor was at the same age.

 

She has recently shown an interest in the potty (no formal training in progress yet – we’re just encouraging her to try it out) and whenever I change her diaper or undress her for bed, she says, “Pee toilet! Pee toilet!” and then runs in and pees. We may get up the nerve to try to potty train her this summer, but I’m not rushing it.

 

These kids are changing so fast that I feel like I can barely keep up with all of their new developments. I’m already feeling a little nostalgic for Thor’s baby days, while Winnie’s baby characteristics are rapidly falling away, too. Yes, they’re still little, but I can see what the future portends – my babies are growing up.