Once Upon a Time

At our son's second birthday, he had a vocabulary of nothing. The two words that he'd had, had settled someplace unreachable in his brain. A year later, with help from the speech therapist, he had a vocab of roughly 400 words. Now, three months after that, he's beginning to use those words in a way that makes sense and is fun to listen to. I should also point out that the boy has a memory that trumps mine, and a heart of gold, with only a sliver of coal in it.

Which is why yesterday, when I found where he'd wandered off to, I decided that the following exchange was worthy of a post for all of our fans.

I found him in the rocking chair in his old room (the one he keeps wanting back), with a Disney Pixar Cars book in his hands and his stuffed Tigger sitting next to him. He took the book and, looking at the front cover said to Tigger, "Cars Cars Book".

Opening the book to the last page he read aloud,
"Once upon a time, there was Ramone"
turns one page back
"Once upon a time, there was Guido"
turns one page back
"Once upon a time, there was Doc"
turns one page back
"Once upon a time, there was Sheriff"
turns one page back
"Once upon a time, there was Sarge"
turns one page back
"Once upon a time, there was Sally"
turns one page back
"Once upon a time, there was McQueen."
shuts book
"Theeeee End"
turning to Tigger
"Tigger, you listen to the book?"

Then, looking over to Eden's doll house,

"Oh no! The furniture is tip over. I need to fix it."

On his knees in front of the doll house now, he moves into another world of pretend.

"Pretend this plant goes here."
"Pretend this table goes here."
"Pretend this chair goes here."
"Pretend this rug goes here."

By now I had taken over the big rocking chair and, with Elia on my lap, watched and listened with a smile.

He continued with that exact phrase until everything in the house had a place to pretend to be. When he was all done, he looked up at me and yelled, "No Mommy, I wasn't talking to you!"

As I walked off down the hall, he called after me, "Wait Mommy, I need a snack!"

And off we went...