On his return from out of town, husband kept pondering of some drastic change that had occurred in our three and half year old son.
We could come up with no answer till the moment the bulb above my head lit up with the memory of last weekend, ie 13th July when we had come home from a picnic and as my son played with his toys, we reminded him, ( apparently for the last time ) to, ” Use your words. ”
It’s been seven days since he has spoken any gibberish. This milestone might seem tiny to many but the fact that our son finally let go of the crutches of babbling to tell his imaginary stories is a huge one in our book. The great conversationalist that he is, it was with great patience we waited for him to enunciate his sentences, elaborating his desires concisely. The doctor reassured us that most children brought up in a house where more than one language is spoken may take their time picking up a language clearly.
Over the last year his vocabulary has grown slowly but steadily. From a few made up words and pointing while babbling to shapes, numbers, letters. In the past few months it has snowballed into rhymes, songs, arguments, and elaborate fantasies.
This milestone, lost in the recesses of every day life, marks his footsteps into the world of critical and lateral thinking. Now, he’s the one telling us stories. He’s the one giving us reasons why something can or cannot be done. White lies, tantrums and hilarious one liners are pronounced clearly and expected to be accepted unconditionally.
Some occasions though meaningful to us, and much awaited slip by quietly but surely. Looking back fondly at that moment where he prattled on describing the intricate battle between Ironman and some monster it dawns on me that my little one is not going to be little for long. Just goes to show, even when our children cross the landmarks in life slowly, time seems to be passing much to fast.