Words

Callum is at that stage where his vocabulary and speech have exploded, to the point where you might not even need me to translate for almost 70% of what he’s talking about. Although you may still need me to give you a bit of a reference as to why he?s talking about, say, a horse he rode.

It is crazy fun, and also crazy exhausting. He now talks non-stop at home. NON-STOP. My day is all about the minute details of Callum’s life.

I baking muffins, mama. Baking muffins. You want a muffin mama? I baking! No, Claire, Callum baking. Mixing mama. Mix? Mama? Mixing now, mommy, mommy? Callum go outside, Mama? Outside! I wanna go outside!

On and on it goes as he moves through his day, and everything is repeated several thousand times. If you say a word that is new to him, he will roll that new word around in his mouth until he thinks he?s got it.
Yet, there are numerous times throughout the day where the kid just warms the stone that is my heart. The other morning as he was getting out of bed he did his usual routine of picking up the blankets and handing them to me, picking up Elmo, Cookie Monster, and possibly Crab and Monkey George (I can’t remember as both Crab and Monkey George fall in and out of favour), all the while verbalizing the exchange. Then he just stops for a moment. I said ?Whatcha doin?? and he matter-a-factly replies ?I thinking, Mama. Thinking.?
But of course!

After his nap yesterday he hung out in his room for a while before heading down stairs and when I asked him what he was doing, he told me ?I reading Mama?. Oh, I see.
I started this little routine at dinner where I get Callum to tell Papa what he did today. I read somewhere this is good for kids and it seemed reasonable, you sit down at dinner and converse, right? It was sold like a great way for kids to start remembering and organizing thoughts. What the article failed to mention is that kids latch onto a routine like dogs do and now Callum thinks that dinner is all about rehashing Callum?s life, which he will gladly do being Callum-focused at the moment. If Steve so much as turns to Claire and says ?and what did YOU do today?, Callum is all put out, because he certainly hasn?t stopped talking about his day yet. It is ridiculously cute, and I?m sure eventually he?ll realize that there is some give and take to conversing? at least, I sure hope so.

The only time he stops talking is if we go somewhere, although he talks the entire trip to the destination, and home again, but while we are at the destination he may or may not talk so most people do not believe me when I say he never stops talking at home.

Up until this point in his young, little life, he was very much Steve?s son. A little bit of Amber is finally peeking through.