29 July 2011

Of First Words (Again)

Our son's first "concrete" word was a surprise to me.  Obviously he has the basics: "bye-bye" is pretty solid, "hi," "ma-ma," and "da-da" (or sometimes "ba-ba") tend to be a little more hit-and-miss.

But what really caught me unaware occurred at his evaluation the other day, to test how well he was developing, other than his laziness issue.  Right there, in the middle of a circle formed by myself, his sister and the three health department employees, Emmett held a yellow smiley-faced mug toward one of the women and distinctly said, "Lyellow!"  We all softly gasped and giggled in shock - perhaps this declaration is what earned him a high rating in his communication - but I still wasn't convinced it was not a fluke (though I clearly kept my doubts to myself at the time - I wanted these women to believe that my brilliant son was a savant - of course my thirteen-month-old knows his colors; you mean that's not normal?!).

And then there was this evening.  As I sat under the dining room table with my daughter, in her favorite hang-out, we sifted through her newly-appointed dress-up tin (I re-organized today!) with jewelry of all kinds, mostly plastic, and she doled out pieces for everyone.  Emmett got the green-jeweled necklace and the rubber yellow bracelet.  When I handed him his loot, he proudly held up the armband and, once again, declared, "Lyellow!"  I encouraged him to repeat his performance when Daddy returned under the table by asking, "What color is it, Emmett?" and Little Man wowed us again.

Trying to trick him, Daddy held up the green necklace and asked, "What color is this?" to which he received no response.  Our guy knows his stuff.  Or, rather, he may not know it all, but he sure knows what's not yellow.  We're so proud.

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