The Gift of Language

I have always been one to enjoy parenting more once my children can speak. The guess work involved in toddlerhood is tough and I just prefer my child let me know what she is thinking.

With La Nina, language development was fun. She slowly added single words like "ball", then two word phrases such as "red ball" and finally, she started speaking in sentences, "I want a red ball". Her process was text book and she spoke young for a child who didn't hear English until she was 9 months old. Maggie has approached language in fits and starts. She started with a phrase, "Iwanna..." then she slowly added words onto the end of her phrase. "Iwannacracker" was first, "Iwannajuice" was fairly early too. "Iwannasleep" has still not occurred, but I am ever hopeful.

Of late, I am questioning my desire to have my children speak, ever. You see, neither of my children value silence. In fact, La Nina is quieter than the Magster...and trust me, it is hard to believe La Nina is quieter than anyone. But it is the Magster who I believe may just drive me crazy. Because when you couple her determination with language, you are in for one long day.

When the Magster wants something, she begins a chant. Her chants begin around 6AM and it is always the same chant first. "I want juice. Momma, Juice. I need juice. Please, momma, juice. Mommeeeee, Juice." You get the idea. By 7:30AM, she is chanting about "Waffulls". The chant morphs into Crackers around 10AM, and by the time the Lunch chant starts, I am done. We have never had any of the cute two word phrases. With Maggie it is all demands, all the time.

Lest you think it is only me who gets frustrated with her never-ending pleadings, it isn't. Today at pre-school her teacher called her "persistent and hard to distract" because she asked for her "boo banky" for 3 hours straight. Yesterday, at the gym, the childcare person popped in a Pooh video to quiet her down. She saw the video on the shelf and asked for it for 45 minutes straight. So, what to do with the child who will not only not take 'no' for an answer, but will pester the most hard nosed pre-school teachers into submission?

I have no idea. So, as always, I turned to my Mom. You see, the advantage of living near your mother is she can provide you with sage advice, pearls of wisdom, insight and common sense solutions not found in today's child rearing books. But when I turned to my mother in my time of need, she had a good laugh. 'What goes around comes around' were her exact words. Perhaps I finally found the curse my mother levelled against me.