Monday, September 22, 2008

Language explosion

It started about two weeks ago with the light switches.
Jonathan suddenly discovered that lights can be turned on and off. He wanted me to flick the switch. I refused. Not until he said, "on."
His response was "Ah. Ah."
Good enough.
I flicked the switch to the dining room chandelier, not realizing that I was flicking a switch inside his head at the same time. Over the next few days, Jonathan was obsessed with light switches. He took great joy in saying, "Ah. Ah" and in seeing the result.
Soon Matthew joined in and every light in the house had to be on constantly, even during the brightest part of the day. Eventually, we pulled out a couple of stools, placed them under light switches and gave them the power to do it themselves.
With that urge satisfied, they began to testing me to see whether words could get them other things.
Matthew pointed to the box of Mini Nilla Wafers on the counter and said "cookie." After Jonathan got a time-out for standing on a chair to reach the apples, he stood below the basket, pointed and said, "ahhh-pp."
Both boys grinned widely when they realized that saying "no" was even more fun than simply shaking their heads. They run to the gate blocking the stairs to the second floor at least once a day and say "bath" with exciting clarity.
Just a month ago, we were talking to the pediatrician about speech therapy if the boys didn't start saying a few clear words soon. Now I have trouble reading books to them because they interrupt constantly, making animal sounds or pointing to objects and attempting to verbalize their names.
The best part?
I finally get to hear their voices.
Their real voices.
The voices of my identical twins boys.

7 comments:

Liz Jimenez said...

That's so exciting! I'm still waiting on real words from my kids. It's early, yet, but if we still have none by their next pediatrician appt, I'll ask about having an evaluation done. Can't hurt, right?

Unknown said...

What a cute story. They are like little sponges, they soak in everything. I loved it when my kids began talking, it's so sweet. It's funny how you know what they are saying when they aren't pronouncing words correctly.
I can't wait until I can see how my babies interact with each other. I have a feeling I'm carrying two identical boys, but hopefully we find out for sure this week.

Unknown said...

And if they're anything like my girls, you'll one day not too long from now catch yourself saying "Do they ever STOP talking????"

Little fountains of words. Times two for you.

Anonymous said...

(above comment left by Natalie)

Blessed Mommy said...

Came across your blog. I have twin boys who can not be any different. One has blonde hair and blue eyes and the other brown hair and brown eyes. Their personalities are different too. My boys started with the switching on and off of the lights a few days ago, too funny. My boys are not talking , a few mumbles, but that is all. I know they can hear because they respond to their names and follow directions, who knows. If no talking by two, it might be off to the speech therapist we go.

Twinsmom said...

Thanks for the great comments! They've been talking even more now, still not clearly and still not putting two words together. But they jabber constantly!

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.