When Helen’s around, Alice doesn’t talk a whole lot. Mostly because Helen talks CONSTANTLY and so it’s hard to get a word in edgewise. But sometimes, she’ll just blindside me with something.
The other day, my dad came over to install a new quilt hanging system in our dining room — one that is custom-made for the size quilts I make, and is screwed to the studs. So that the girls can’t rip it out of the wall this time.
After Dad left, Alice came into the New Room where we were decorating for Christmas and very matter-of-factly said, “I told Papacake that I had a boo-boo and he said that he would kiss it tomorrow.” I am not making this up. That was what she said, verbatim.
She’s two. Not even 2.5 yet.
Helen could string together sentences that would make our jaws drop when she was that age, but I swear, it never ceases to be amazing to see how much a child has absorbed just by being immersed in language. I love it.
(Incidentally, the girls call my dad “Papacake” because Helen was terrified of him for almost 2 years, and one time he tried to bribe her with coffee cake at a church breakfast – and it worked. After that she said she wanted some “Papacake” and the nickname stuck.)
It really doesn’t stop. But it goes from words to ideas.
They will come up with some idea, wonder or observation that will just blow you away.