With the seminary being mostly shut down due to Christmas (including O’s daycare), him and I have been enjoying some good bonding time since my work at Advent devoured my Christmas days and the followup can be done at night. I spend my days making sure O doesn’t totally destroy the house or lose his mittens outside and I spend my nights trying to cram too much work in too little time. Even with the major worship services done, the work of the church communications director continues.
O, over the last few days, has started to do something I didn’t expect. I’ll be carrying him up and down the stairs or hanging out with him on the living room couch, and he’ll start to talk. This isn’t unusual – he’s very talkative right now. I can tell he’s trying to string words together (mostly gibberish) and it seems he’s trying to sound out the English language. It’s neat. But one thing that’s really blown my mind is a pattern that he has come up with. He’ll first say “Mom,” then follow that up with “Dad,” and then create a new word, either “Mo-add” or “Da-dum.” He’ll then put these words into an order, going “Mom,” “Mo-add,” and then “Dad.” He’ll do this over and over again, mixing up the pattern and changing the middle word. He’s taking two words that we have used with him a million times, words that I know he knows, and combining them into something new. He’s playing a game, I think, and having fun with it. It’s really neat and I’m now trying to get him to do it with the names of the our pets. He knows “Chula” and he can say it. He’s struggling with “Twinkie” but he’s getting closer. Soon, I’ll hear nothing but “Chula, Twinkie Chu-linkie” all day long.