The Foundations of Communication: Small-Talk and Um

Charlie has long shown himself to be a good talker. He knows his audience, whether his parents, siblings, distant relatives, or friends. He has linked all of these individuals to events, so when he sees coffee, he says "Daddy," and when he sees a Nintendo DSi, he says "Brandon." His vocabulary is splendid. His enunciation is impressive. He applies different tones of voice to different situations. He even has topic-specific body language. So, he seems to be doing great when it comes to learning how to talk with others.

Lately I've noticed two parts of conversation that he has learned as well, and they are not things it ever dawned on me that someone would develop so early. One is small talk. It's amazing that when I first see him when coming home from work and he runs up to me, he starts listing off stuff that he sees around him: "Football. Juice." Othertimes, he'll just list off the words he hears the most. "Daddy, Mommy, Brandon, Dija, Ba-Ba..." He doesn't actually have anything to say here, but he wants some attention, and he is getting it by speaking. Not having any prepared notes and being untrained in impromptu speeches, he instead makes use of the inspiration around him.

Once he is in a real conversation, I have also noticed that he has started to say "Um." So young? Amazing. And it's not that verbal tick most adults have when they are on the spot talking, filling in gaps with not only Ums, but Errs, Wells, Actuallys, Whatnots, and whatnot that come out because we are blabbing and don't want to lose our audience. He is actually using the Um to take a break to formulate his thought, to get the right word, to say what he means.

He's only two and a half.

Charliepics: Fall 2010

Two-and-a-Half Year Checkup: Perfect Health

Charlie's in perfect health, his doctor reports. 37 inches, 29.6 pounds. When he saw his doctor, he ran right to her, which is a good sign that he doesn't link these visits with anything negative. It helps that the office has an awesome playroom. As soon as we walk in, he goes to the tricked-out car, saying "My car." After he played for awhile, another kid came over to check it out. Charlie got out, and said "here you go." When I tell you this boy is sweet.

Creative Hijinks

This evening, Charlie took his toy camera to take a picture of me, requiring me to say "cheese." I then took the camera, pointed it back at him, and said "Okay, now I'll take a picture of you. Say cheese!" He proceeded to make a goofy face and yell "BLAH!" He then snatched the camera, pretended to see a picture of himself, and told me "Funny Charlie!" Good stuff.

"I got it," "thank you," "sorry," "It's Charlie!"

These are just a few of the hundreds of words and phrases the kid has in his arsenal now. In fact, He's gone flying past word acquisition, past key phrases, and into sentence construction. He knows full well how to speak in sentences. If there are parts he doesn't know the words to, he'll mumble past it, just for the sake of speaking the way adults do. It's marvelous to observe.

Hi kid. I'm back

Hi Charlie,

I've been away. Not from you in real life, of course, but from this place, my place I set up on the day you were born to keep track of all of your progress, your growth, your individual moments. I've been enjoying our time together to such a degree that I have neglected to take the time to document them. I promise to try to get back to this. It's important for two reasons. One, so when you're older, you can look back and see what you were like. Two, so when all of your family and I are older, we can look back and remember the specifics of what made us smile.