Parenthood - Week 522: "Communication, a telephonic invasion"

"The water in my bottle bottles isn't cold!" 

"Go fill up your water bottle with cold water," Diana yelled to Ethan.

"[pause] THE WATER IN MY BOTTLE ISN'T COLD!!!"

"FINE! I'll get you some water. Stop yelling"!"

I rolled over and looked at the clock. It was 6:08 AM. What a way to start a Friday. I pulled myself out of bed and went downstairs to fix him a water bottle with plenty of ice. I brought the bottle up to his room and handed it to him. He reached for the bottle, drank it, handed it back to me, and flopped back to bed. I went back to my bed for another twenty minutes of sleep before I needed to get up in the morning.

Maybe I should have made him get up and make the water bottle himself. However, sometimes getting my kid to stop screaming takes priority over teaching my child to be independent.

*****

Lucas has learned how to say "please…pretty please?" when he asks for something he wants.

Lucas has always had a warm disposition and a gentle way about him. He wasn't a demanding baby and learned early that he could get what he wanted by being sweet and smiling more effectively than by screaming. Lucas doesn't quite understand that adding "pretty" to "please" changes a "no" into a "yes" but we appreciate the effort and, of course, his cuteness.

Lucas is a resourceful kid. He learned early how to carry footstools around the house to get what he wanted from tall shelves around the house and in the pantry. So it's common for me to make dinner and see Lucas sitting at the table eating a snack he somehow got all by himself.

It's wonderful to see Lucas find success in communication. It's satisfying to see language work for him, and he is so proud of himself when a "pretty please" gives him access to something through positive interaction with one of us.

*****

When Ollie gets going, it's fascinating to hear him talk. Sometimes, Ollie needs a minute to think about what he wants to say or respond to a question. Then there are moments when he expresses something that he has thought deeply about, and I can see the words flow out of him freely.

Sometimes it's about a video game, a speed cube, or something else he has considered. And once he gets going, it's almost like he can't stop. The words come and come, and it's like he's downloading out loud something his mind has been trying to figure out and now is finally ready to make real through words what he has been feeling and thinking about. Once Ollie becomes better at typing, I'm excited to see how his thoughts look as the speed he can put words on a page catch up to the speed of his thoughts.