Things That Go

Matthew's wheels are a' turnin'.

This kid is watching, thinking, processing and talking in ways that surprise and delight us day by day. His speech abilities have exploded in the last three weeks, both vocabulary and grammar. Suddenly we're getting complete sentences (even a couple of compound sentences!) where there were two-word phrases before. Suddenly he is our Life Narrator--constantly monologing on all that he sees and refusing to be silenced until we acknowledge him. "Yes, buddy! We see it too! OK!"

This morning we were outside, in front of our house. Matthew was wielding a stick about a foot long, intent on finding ways to use it in his play. After an initial dig in the shrubbery, he wandered over to the minivan, stuck the stick up the exhaust as far as it would go, and rattled it around a bit.

"F-fiiiixa you car, Mommy!" he said triumphantly.

"Wow, you fixed my car?"

"Yes." Eyes aglow, he turned back to the tailpipe for more. "Fiiixa you car again!"

Later we were down at the bottom of the street, and when lunch time came, Matthew made it half-way home before asking me to carry him. He climbed aboard for a piggyback and started rattling off the names of everything that caught his eye.

"Boo car!"

"Yep, that is a blue car."

"Boo pick-up chuck!"

"That's right, a blue pick-up truck."

"Boo mowercycle!"

"Yeah, blue motorcycle!"

"Uhrrr mowercycle!"

"Yep, it's another motorcycle."

One thing's for certain: he is still a Boy. His observation skills are in high gear (sorry) when it comes to all things transportation. And the color blue, evidently.

Case in point: a couple of days ago we were driving in an area that is unfamiliar to my kids, and we passed by a large Sunoco station with a blue canopy over the filling area. Intent on the road ahead, I didn't even see it until:

"Gaaaaas," said Matthew. "Boo gas."

Ohhhh, little man. You bring us so much joy--you, your planes, trains, automobiles, your gasoline... and all your hot air too.