2007.05.01 - the two-year-old -
Truman is two.
Truman rubs my tummy when he's trying to calm himself down. He buries his head in my shoulder wnen I hug him. He pats his brother on the arm when he wants to wake him up in the morning, cocking his head to peer into Everett's sleeping face.
Truman loves to drink milk and put together train tracks, dig in the sand box and carry around armfuls of tiny (and huge) cars. He loves to hug and to kiss and to run and to dance. He wants to jump so badly, and tries ecstatically, throwing his arms into the air and bending his knees and going nowhere with stunning excitement. He is fearless, picking up beetles and crawling on high ledges with equal abandon.
Today, Truman talked.
He's been slowing gathering "words" these past six months, during which he was evaluated by the MESD (he passed their tests with far less than flying colors) and endlessly analyzed and agonized over by me. He learned "cah" (all things with wheels, except buses), "kack kack!" for quack, or duck, "cheee!" for chick,"t-t-t-t-t-t-t-teeeee" for train, a gutteral grunt for a dog's bark, "rah!" for Everett, or brother, who knows, "uh-oh" and "whoa," both executed perfectly, "sheeooish" for shoes (and socks, sandals, boots), always very excitedly, and a word I can't even figure out how to type that must be a combination between "teeth" and "tooth" and "brush" and "wash," "theeeeashh!" perhaps. These added to the aforementioned "kee-ie-ieeehh", "haah!" and "aye!" to make 12 words, with other sounds that seem to stand in for words ("EEEEEE!" for bus and "da-duh-duh-da" for bottle, for instance) bringing him to a critical mass that constitute "progress" in the eyes of MESD. He won't be diagnosed with a learning disability this young.
His second birthday was Saturday, and when he woke up in the morning I looked into his lovely eyes, and asked, "Truman, are you going to talk today?" He looked back at me, as if to say, "mama, please stop pressuring me," and smiled.
Everett was hopeful, and kept saying that "Truman is so big that he's almost ready to start talking!" Yes, at two years old. I sighed, and got to creating our birthday.
But today, he and Everett were happily playing with trains on the floor of my office as I tried to work late into the night (never quite succeeding in finishing my important project, naturally). "Beep, beep, beep!" said Everett, as I brought Truman his own train to run in front of Everett's. "Beep, beep, beep!" said Truman, clear as day, running his train just where his brother wanted it. My eyes popped.
An hour later, they chased the kitty downstairs. "Kitty, kitty, kitty!" said Everett, calling for her. "Kitty! Kitty!" said Truman.
I hugged them both. I was ecstatic. "Everett, how did Truman learn so many words so quickly?" I asked. "I've been teaching him!" said Everett proudly.
Indeed. What a thing it is to have a big brother, and a mama who can finally let go of her angst.
