The Conversationalists

It's been a while since I featured some video clips, so here you go. A couple short glimpses into the craziness.

In this first video, Celia expounds on her dislike of the wind and the rain, two meteorological events that she believes are conspiring against her. (This has been an ongoing spat for a month now--she routinely gets annoyed on windy days, even shouting "I DON'T LIKE YOU WIND!" with fists clenched.) Eventually she is sidetracked by her brother, and you get a brief look at the game of "baby," which has overtaken our house.


I find "baby" fascinating. It is the only game that the two of them can play peacefully, happily, and uninterrupted for more than 5 minutes. And they often play for upwards of 30. Here's the plot: one child is a baby, and the other is a nurturing daddy or mommy. The baby only says "goo goo ga ga" but IS allowed to use different intonations, so as to indicate happiness or sadness. The parent will ask the baby all sorts of questions like "are you hungry baby?" or "do you want to play baby?" or "do you want one of your pillow pets baby?" to which the baby will respond "ga" or "GAAAH!" or "geh?" Then they switch roles and continue playing.

It's all very fun to watch. But it's also bizarre.

In this second video, I taped a dinner conversation that the kids had tonight. It's on the long side, but it captures their relationship well, from the joking to the earnest questions. They are such easy conversationalists that I have a hard time remembering a time when this was not so.

I love talking to them. Andres is not as fluid a talker as his sister; he struggles to shape his ideas sometimes, and will often construct hefty sentences that bend uncomfortably, like the branches of an old gnarled tree. He can be hard to follow. But I'm impressed with how his vocabulary has grown--he describes things as "humungous" or "gigantic" or "enormous" now, and for the first few weeks after moving into our new home, tried to work the word "bulkhead" into every sentence. Sometimes I'll ask him where he heard one of these new words. He shrugs these questions off, saying "I just know it" or, perhaps, nonchalantly tell me that he heard it on Martha Speaks or Super Why.

Celia discovered the gift of gab at an early age ("early" being a relative term, as she is not yet 3). Her mouth is constantly moving. She talks, she questions, she sings, she reprimands her dolls, she serenades her blankie, she jokes with me and Natalia. She also has a peculiar lilt/cadence to her voice; Natalia said that it sounded like Maya Rudolph doing an impersonation of Oprah, and I think that's 99% accurate.

She has an easier time talking than her brother. Her vocabulary is not as large as his, but the sentences flow out more fluidly, and she is usually more willing to share daily items from school or daycare. Celia is precocious enough to be beloved by the adults who watch her during the day, and I think this feeds into her verbal nature--she talks, they listen, they give feedback and attention, and she talks more.

More than talking to them, though, I love listening to Andres and Celia talk to each other. They have legitimate conversations about the day's events, friendships, movies, everything. Once they get going I just try to sit back and take it all in, knowing that in a few years their verbal skills will be far improved, but their willingness to talk to each other may be on the decline.