In Other Words

Since the last time I mentioned Locke's and Lola's speech development, their vocabulary has simply exploded. They can now repeat, somewhat recognizably, many things I say. Which puts a fair amount of pressure on me. Not that I've ever incorporated excessive expletives or used horrendous grammar. It's just that anything I say could be used against me, say, on my next trip to Target.

I've read it all before. In the pages of Parenting and Parents magazines. They always have a section of crazy things kids say to embarrass their moms when they're out in public. I guess it's worth it to let the whole parenting world know about a time when you were mortified, as long as your full name and city and state of residence makes it in print. I, however, would be just fine if the only appearance we made in a parenting magazine is for an interview with the parents of the first Nobel Prize-winning twins. You know, stuff like "What did you do when Lola and Locke were young to help develop their astounding talent?" But I digress.

Beyond this new ability to parrot words, lies a surprising understanding of the meaning of most of what they say. Many words still sound the same. For instance, I have a hard time trying to figure out whether Lola wants water or waffles, or whether Locke is talking about Duncan (a much loved train friend of Thomas) or Dragon (as in Chinese Dragon, another train in the Thomas and Friends lineup). But they know exactly what they're saying and they'll correct me with a slow head shake and a "no" when I guess the wrong thing. But their accuracy gets better and better each day and their depth of knowledge surprises me constantly.

The other day, I was reading a Mercy Meyer book to them in which Little Critter and his mom take a train ride to the big city. She buys the train tickets and lets Little Critter hold them. Well, as expected, Little Critter drops the tickets as they board the train and, on the next page, his mom is forking over more money to pay the conductor for the lost tickets. As soon as I turned the page, Locke pointed to money that Little Critter's mom was pulling out of her purse and said "more tickets, more tickets." I know that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be the next Treasury Secretary (although, if recent tenures are any indication, he could be), but I was astounded that he understood this little exchange.

Lola continues to surprise me with her knowledge of letters and numbers. She knows all the letters and can count to 10, although 4 is a tough one and sometimes she replaces 7 with 19. She gets very excited when she's counting so, by the time she gets to 10, she's in full scream. I of course encourage it by being so excited for her as she's counting.

Lola and Locke are both learning the ABC song too. Right now it goes something like this: "A-B-C-B-D-B-D-B-W-X-Y-Z." So close.

So things are really changing fast now. They turn 2 this next weekend -- it's so hard to believe. Just like that they went from babies to preschoolers. I know I have a few years before they'll be in school but, if these 2 years have been any indication, I better start preparing myself now because it goes by in the blink of an eye.