Growing Language

“BALL”. “DOGGY”. “MAMA”. First come the nouns. As I watch my third child acquire and develop language, I marvel. The nouns always come first. Babies need a way to name their world, to identify the objects that they see. And Sean is a writer. Although he can barely hold a laddie pencil in his chubby grip, he knows that every good story needs a few good characters with a few interesting toys.

“LOOK!” “GO”. “RUN”. Next come the verbs. The heart of the story, even a young babe understands that a story needs to move. As Sean’s own body limbers up and accomplishes actions like “JUMP!” and “FALL”, his language mirrors these steps.

Adjectives and adverbs tend to come together. For some reason, the children in my house really enjoy adverbs like “PROBABLY” and “ACTUALLY” along with traditional adjectives such as “HOT” and “GOOD”. Careful not to overuse these and make his language too flowery, Sean often skips these altogether.

Now two years old, Sean has mastered an economy of language that makes me smile. All drinks are “mokey,” for instance. Perhaps he is maturing, though, because yesterday he did specify “apple mokey.” All vehicles are “trucks”: “choo-choo trucks”, “school trucks”, “air trucks”. All animals are “doggies”, including polar bears, mice, actual dogs, and sometimes his older brother.

His sentences are economical as well. The Spartans would be proud. He does not waste any words and NEVER uses superfluous language. If two words are good, one is even better. “Up me” when he wants to be picked up. “I go pool” for obvious reasons. And don’t even get me started on the hours of subtext he can put into the word “MINE!”

His all-time favorite phrase, though, is “ALL RIGHT!” Usually reserved for his revered Uncle, as in “All right, Nick!”, I have also heard “All right chips” and “All right meat.” The kid knows what he likes!”

But my favorite sentence of his, when he’s in the mood and the wind is blowing at exactly twelve knots from the northwest, features his brown eyes locked on mine and his arms around my neck and his sweet baby voice crooning “Love you, Mommy.” Best story ever written!!