I think my first lightbulb moment was when Logan a few months ago started using full sentences. I thought "Wow she's grown so much!". As any parent of a young child knows, you are usually the only one who can understand your child's garbled speech when they first start using words and sentences. So I began picking up on her sentences and the way in which she said them because a few months ago it was pretty garbled. Andrew and I were reminiscing one day of Logan's younger days and watching some videos. I think we were watching a video where she was about 18 months and those of you who know Logan know she was always a chatterbox. Well to my surprise I understood what she was saying in the video! At the time of the video you could hear me in the background saying "Yeah yeah yeah" to her but I didn't know what she was saying...I thought it was just meaningless chatter. Now that I know the way she says specific words, I could actually pick up what she was saying and it was very clear to me...poor Logan all that time trying to communicate and me just nodding my head. So because of that lightbulb moment, I have been focusing more on Fox's words and his communication.
I am slowly learning but yesterday at the playground, he all of a sudden started screaming and grunting "bbb bbb bbb bbb". I thought he was just excited until I looked up and saw he was looking at a bus and shouting "bbb bbb bbb bbb". Obviously he was trying to say "bus" and point it out to me so I got really excited and pointed at the bus and said "Yes it's a big bus!".
Sometimes I question the whole learning through play thing but again I got to see it with my children this morning. Our friends Tim and Janet gave us this amazing construction type of toy with plastic screws, wheels, etc. I love creative toys like that because they are imaginative and children can be creative. Well I had hid it in the closet because they are only allowed to have 1 toy with pieces out at a time (otherwise things end up everywhere!) and the duplo was out. I left them alone and they managed to get it out of the closet by themselves and were playing with it. I walked into the room and Logan was building something all by herself. I sort of just did the "Cool look what you are making" and she looked at me and said "Mum I make a helicopter". I was amazed that she had made this by herself and knew exactly what she was making and you know what it was a pretty amazing and creative representation of a helicopter. I was so proud so I snapped a picture.
That they are! I find it amazing that we don't think they are conscious until we recognise their abilities (rather condescending) and that we expect our children to do things we would never expect of ourselves. We give them a gift, something precious, and then expect them to share it, almost instantly. However if someone where to give us, lets say a car, we sure wouldn't share. Here is to parents who actually pay attention to parenting - way to go girl!!
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