Incredible!

A little time has passed since my last post - a week to be precise and I was kind of hoping that I would manage to keep a daily diary but alas, no. The only danger of me trying to put something every day is that, to be honest, as much as your children give you something new on a regular basis, a daily offering is pushing it - anyone who has read my past posts will tell you that on a couple of occasions I have ventured into a more 'self self self' type posting and I reckon that's not what the Blog world needs.

That said, J gave me the perfect topic tonight - language.

As per usual, you will perhaps appreciate this blog more if you have children of your own or at the very least, are expecting or trying for children - they are amazing.

The unbelievable thing is the rate at which they learn. At 1 year to 18 months they are burbling and 'talking' jibberish and within a year they are talking to you. Think about it. They have not only learnt a language (you know how tough that it right?) but they have actually learnt to speak! Learnt how to form words, their meanings, which way round to put the words, how to correct themselves when they hear the words coming out wrong etcetera etcetera.

Tonight, J and I sat at his little table just under his window, with his pre-requisite plate of fruit and snacks (or his 'platter' as he calls it) and me lounging on the armchair in his room. As he was eating, he looked out of his window and smiled. "Look, an airplane", he said, all the while craning his neck forward to keep the plane in view. "Oh, it's gone behind that roof now. I can't see it anymore. Maybe I'll see it again when it comes out the other side".

Now that may or may not sound like much to you but take it from me, it sounded amazing. I couldn't help but smile. The cool thing is that J now sees (or rather, hears) his little sister slowly learning to speak. She will be one year old next week and is already moving from the nonsense noises and rambling and dribbling to loosely forming actual words. Her favourite word at the moment sounds a bit like "pickup" or "big-up" - not sure which, but she always says it 3 or 4 times in a row, much to J's amusement. "What are we going to pick up today A" he says laughing.

Children are mighty clever you know - never underestimate them.