Sometimes it's Communication

Maddie adores Tucker. She can be lying on her play-mat completely fascinated by the giraffe hanging above her hand, but if she catches sight of brother's foot or hears brother's voice she begins contorting herself to try to get a better view of his antics. And most of the time I have to step in and shift her, because I am afraid she is going to dislocate her neck.

Meanwhile, Tucker has started telling people "hi." The only problem is he won't stop telling a person "hi" unless they leave the room or acknowledge him with a similar greeting. And sometimes it will just encourage him to either shout "hi," (if the person leaves), or continue a "hi" conversation (if the person engages). And that brings us to this morning.

This morning Tucker came and sat next to Maddie with a bowl of pretzels. Maddie craned her neck backwards trying to make eye contact with Tucker. He gently acknowledged her efforts by placing his hand on her head and repeating, "Hi, Maddie. Hi, Maddie." For about fifteen minutes this interaction lasted. Maddie would stick out her tongue, and I tried to explain to Tucker that that was how Maddie was saying "hi," but he didn't believe me I guess, because the "hi's" continued... until the pretzels became more intriguing.

Tucker's vocabulary has grown quite extensively, however, despite the fact that he has become fascinated with having a conversation made up entirely of greetings... Last night Tucker came to me and handed me his sippy cup. He then explained,

Tucker: "Go to get Igger."
Me: "Ok, you can get Tigger."
Tucker: expectant look
Me: "He's in your room, upstairs."
Tucker: "Okay!"
and then in a sing-song voice as he turns to head up the stairs
"Beeee right back! Right back!"

Nathan and I looked at each other and immediately started laughing. Hilarious! What flashed through my mind at that moment was all of the times, while running upstairs to grab something really quick, I would yell down to him, "I'll be right back, Tucker. I'll be right back!" It seems so natural for me to say it, but to hear him saying it sounded odd- like he was using "Grown-up" language instead of "little-kid-talk."