October 22, 2003 - Wednesday
After Jeremy and I left Harry's preschool this morning, we happened to drive by a road construction crew repaving a section of road. We went by just as a large dump truck was dumping its load of asphalt components into a paver. That's a dramatic scene, of course, for a little boy and it was on a backstreet, so I was able to slow down a little and give Jeremy a good look. It was another five minutes or so driving after that before we got to Mary's house and during much of that time Jeremy was babbling away. It was the kind of sound that he's been making for a while and not something that I paid too much attention to until I recognized "dup tuk."

"Did you like the dump truck, Jeremy?" I said with the sheepish realization that Jeremy may have been looking for a dialogue for several minutes.
"Ya-ah." Jeremy has been saying that a fair amount lately and it has this endearing enthusiastic, yet patient quality about it that sounds like, "that's great, dad, you finally got it. I'm so proud of you." He went on to add, "big dup tuk."
"Yeah, it was a big dump truck," I agreed.
"Ya-ah, weh bah dup tuk."
It suddenly struck me that that was the same babbling he had been saying when I hadn't really been paying attention. And, it struck me that he wasn't just babbling. Those were words and, indeed, a sentence. "Did we go by the dump truck, Jeremy?"
"Ya-a-ah," he said and it sounded even more like 'dad, I'm so proud of you,' and then he confirmed the proper tense, "ya-ah, weh bah dup tuk," emphasizing the "weh bah."
"We went by the dump truck?" I asked to confirm what he was saying.
"Ya-a-a-ah, weh bah big dup tuk."
"We went by the big dump truck," I said, mostly to myself and with a smile. I did finally get it. Jeremy was talking and we were having a conversation.


Comments, Opinions?