I Want More

You know how in high school, your foreign language teacher will teach want/like/have on the same day?  I have retained hardly any of my Spanish, but I clearly remember learning querer/gustar/tener. It felt like a big day in Spanish class.  I went from understand random vocabulary words that I couldn't really apply in conversation to having a basic understanding of rudimentary phrases in another language.  I felt like I could finally communicate. It was a huge breakthrough for our class.

Imagine my surprise this morning when my kids, instead of saying simply "more" said distinctly: "I want more."  And they didn't stop there. They continued with "I want milk." As soon as their father came downstairs, I gushed to him "The babies are speaking in sentences! They know I want!"

Without skipping a beat, the babies turned to my husband. "I like daddy," they said. Like and want all in the span of ten minutes.  Was I dreaming?

And this is just one of dozens of little language breakthroughs they've had in just the past few weeks.  They've got a firm grip on the command. "Go get it," and "help me," to name just two. They say please and thank you and here you go. It's amazing to watch this unfold.

I find myself continually thinking back to my 7th-grade days, where teachers tried their hardest to impress these same notions into our 12-year-old heads. They followed a very similar path to this natural learning I am observing in my kids.

Another thing that amazes me is how easily they accept the same word to have different meanings.  For instance, Pop Pop is their grandfather.  But pop pop is their toy vaccuum.  They completey accept this and never get confused.

The human mind is a hell of a thing.

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