Monday, December 2, 2013

Making Conversation

Michael is still technically a little behind in language development, but the more I observe him, the more I see that he's just going about things at his own pace and in his own way. His approach is very different than Abby's was- she who would hold off on trying a word until she was sure that she could do it near-perfectly, and who would then immediately add it to her ever growing arsenal. No, Michael will try anything, but only if he's inspired to. After which point, I may hear it occasionally, or I may never hear it again.

Initially, this held true only for single words or two-word phrases. Now, he's muttering entire sentences, and if you're paying enough attention, and listening carefully (and he has actually made an effort to say something discernible), you might just figure out what it was he said. Predictably, Abby is the best at this game, and has begun to "interpret" for Michael on occasion. Tom and I have felt pleased to discover that we usually don't need the assistance (we're pretty good at interpreting, ourselves), but it's still fun to see the interplay.

The most fun of all, however, has been witnessing the most recent development in both Michael and Abby. They've begun to actually have conversations with each other.


Take this evening, as they sat in their respective booster seats in the kitchen and allowed themselves to be amused by Tom's programming as he prepared dinner while keeping an eye on them:

Abby: "What are we watching?"
Tom: "Star Trek, Sweetie."
Michael: "Erb blah bleh boo fee fuh."
Abby: "No, Michael. It's Star Trek; we just told you."

Dinner conversation is bound to get a lot more interesting soon.