Words and ideas

Last night, Gordon returned from a work trip to Cairo. He'd been looking forward to visiting Africa for the first time. Lady and Thomas read up on Ancient Egypt while he was gone and Lady wrote about how the pyramids were built, how mummies were made and why. Like most children that age, she liked the gross details, like how the brains of bodies to be mummified, were fished out through the nose. Gordon was lucky enough to see the pyramids and Great Sphinx at Giza

When he got home, he was greeted as a hero by Lady and Thomas who bombed down the stairs and jumped on him. Duncan continued playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 on his PC. He always takes a while to get used to his dad's return, even when Gordon has just been to work for the day. But when he was ready, he came over too and demanded to go upstairs to play various rough and tumble games they have invented.

I was listening to Duncan yesterday as he played with Gordon. His language has progressed so much recently. He can verbalise more complicated ideas and concepts. He uses more descriptive words. A few days ago, I was in town with the boys while Lady was at gymnastics class. Duncan asked to go "look at the toy trains." He knew I wasn't going to buy one and was making it clear that he understood this. In the toy shop, he picked up a toy rifle, held it up as if to shoot, and looked at me saying, "It's a gun, it's a toy one. It doesn't make fire." I asked who uses a gun, and he told me it was Clayton (the baddie in Disney's Tarzan), that Clayton is a "bad guy" who shoots the tree, which he does. He wanted me to buy the gun, but I had no money and anyway, I'm not happy with the idea of toy guns. Toy swords, fine, but I'm enough of a wishy washy liberal to feel creeped out at the idea of toy guns, Ah well, it's not that big a deal, and he didn't exactly push it so I can forget it for now. Though, he did pretend the long plastic vacuum cleaner attachment was Clayton's gun yesterday!

I was thinking about Duncan's developing communicative skills. He has always been able to communicate, even if it was taking me by the hand and putting my hand on what he wanted, or by wailing or shouting until I got or did the right thing, or by smiling and turning to me when he was happy and wanted more of whatever we were doing or playing, or running away when he didn't want to do something. But the subtle ideas he is now able to convey, help us all. He also communicates via his pictures and typed titles, and he has started to type things in turn with me, though he's more interested in writing about his characters and logos than asking or answering questions! He is less frustrated that we're not missing his meaning, I'm happier that I can understand him better, and make myself understood better. He might not be happy with everything I say, but what 7 year old thinks his mum always knows best.