Peatuk’s language progression is still absolutely amazing to me. At the moment he is playing in the shallow waters of sentence construction. Usually 3-word sentences. Things like,
- “Daddy play Pipi,” (Daddy play with Peatuk) or,
- “Hodi, park.” (Let’s go to the park) or,
- “Vizh mama airplane.” (Mommy, look at the airplane).
The way that he combines Bulgarian and English tickles me and the way that he reaches for whatever word he needs without concern about rules amazes me.
Today, we were reading Curious George before bed. He decided that he wanted to read the book to me. He flipped through the pages, explaining what was going on. As he talked, his sentences got longer. On one page:
“Vizh mama. George door bunny up off.” (Look, mama, George opened the door and took the bunny out).
On one page there was a picture of a boy in a wheelchair with very big, obvious wheels. Peatuk pointed to them and concentrated, trying to think of the word. Eventually, he called it, “Bus.” But as he said the word bus, he made the motion with his hands that I make as I sing “The wheels on the bus,” to him. It is a motion I often try to get him to repeat but he rarely does. I thought it was strange and cute but totally missed his meaning… he was trying to get to the word “wheel.”
I said, “That is actually a wheel chair,” and he very emphatically said, “Da, da, mama, wheel chair.” He then repeated the word several times, pointing it out on the next few pages.
The way he constructs language baffles me. The associations he makes are amazing. It is such a treasure to watch him develop this way.
Then, as usual, while he was falling sleep, he went through a strange word-association game where he basically processes his latest vocabulary.
He asked me to tell him the story about the train but I told him that I was tired and he should tell it to me instead. He thought quietly for a moment and then,
“Choo choo, choo choo, choo choo, moon. Choo choo, Pipi. Hodi choo choo moon. Moon, mama.”
I understood that story perfectly, and my heart melted.
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