Conversation with a 2 year old

Kyle was a very quiet baby. He not only cried rarely, but he really didn't do much babbling either. In fact he was well past a year old by the time he said his first intelligible word. Now Travis would argue with this and say that Kyle was a child genius, speaking his first word well before he was a year old. Of course the word that Travis would be referring to is "dada". I just roll my eyes and fire back that all babies can say simple things like "dada" because it is a word made of developmentally simple syllables, and any one who knows anything about the development of speech knows that it takes a higher level of motor control to create the "m" sound so of course dada is going to come before mama. Besides when Ky was a baby he could ramble off a hundred "dadadadada"s but until he actually made the connection between that sound and Travis it really didn't count as his first word. So there.

Kyle's cousin Brina is almost 14 months older than he is, and so it was easy to compare his speech development with hers. I should have known better than to do this because by the time Brina was 18 months old talking to her was like talking to a little adult. Conversations with Kyle when he was 18 months old consisted of a lot of nodding and general responses such as "oh my goodness" and "wow, Kyle". Luckily for me he is so easy going that even when he would say a word and I would say the wrong word back he just smiled, shook his head and said "noooo, mama" and tried, tried, tried again,and he got good at showing me what he wanted when I just couldn't get it right.

Fast forward to an almost 3 year old Kyle. I invite you to ride along to daycare with the Livesays and share in a conversation with a 2 (almost 3) year old Kyle (I apologize in advance for all of the exclamation marks, but Kyle really does talk like that):

K: "Tractors moving snow! Mama! tractors moving snow, I see it!"  3 second pause "Mama, my talking to you."
L: "I see the tractors Kyle. Look, there are some geese flying back, that means the snow is going to melt soon and the grass will be green again.
K: "Ooo, birds flying in the sky. Way up high in the sky! Where's the erpane (airplane)? No more snow mama? The dirt all gone?"
L: "Yes Kyle, the snow and the dirt will go away and the grass will turn green, the flowers will grow and the leaves will come back to the trees."
K: "I want leaves."
L: "Me too baby." 20 seconds of silence
K: "My eating the waffle all gone! Savages, savages" (Kyle has been watching Pocahontas. A lot.)
 "Mama, watch this!"
L: "I'm driving right now, Kyle, I can't watch you. Is Emily awake or is she sleeping?"
K: "Ahmie is awake, hi Bells! Mama, my see Gage?"
L: "I think Gage is already at school honey, but he'll be home this afternoon."
K: "Savages, savages!"

You get the picture. Quite babies do not quite toddlers make.

And little Miss Em? Well she just quietly hangs out in her car seat and plays with her toys, content to listen to all the talk of erpanes, birds, tractors, and of course savages.