Tell Me All About It

The lazy days of summer are over and Benjamin has emerged stronger, prouder.....and definitely louder. He is not an aggressively loud little dude, with infrequent bursts of crying or yelling on any given day. We actually have days when he never cries at all. What we are experiencing now with him is something very new - he seems to be expressing an opinion. As if two competing opinions at 3512 were not enough, Benjamin has decided that he, too, has something he would like to add, even if we don't ask. At the grocery store, he oohs and aahs at the colorful vegetables and babbles incessantly through the center aisles. Once I hit the frozen food section he decides that he is done shopping and begins to tell me so rather loudly. Not yelling - just making noise. (I think he is just bored by the time we get that far through the store. Or maybe he is cold. I don't know.) My own amusement is eventually replaced with embarrassment as Benji continues to yammer on for the remainder of the shopping trip. Iris at our local Giant always comes by and says "Well hello there Benjamin!" He smiles and babbles on. Then when we are in the check out, he usually starts fishing around in my purse or the cart and finds his bottle. He has learned to "play the bottle cap" which means that he takes the little plastic cap for his bottle, bites onto one edge, and beats the outside with his hands while making a "buh buh buh buh buh" noise. Its very funny....at first. By the time I get him into the car, I am exhausted from just listening to him. Benjamin, on the other hand, is totally energized and ready for the next errand.

Benjamin pipes up when the telephone rings and once we answer the call. He sings out when Auntie Joyce is singing, talks to his animals in the crib, comments on items in his favorite books and add his two cents when among friends of his own size. He giggles and babbles in the car for no reason whatsoever. He can't see anything except the backseat and trees whizzing by - - what on earth is so darn funny? We should get signs on our foreheads that read "tell me all about that" because that seems to be our common response to his chatter. We've run out of "uh huhs" and "oh, reallys" and "that sounds wonderfuls" and "thank you so much for sharings". We clearly can't understand him yet but he jabbers on just as happy as can be. I'm not seriously complaining here. I do believe this vibrant baby chatter of Benjamin's to be one of the cutest things I have encountered as a parent thus far. It is yet another sign that he is learning how to interact with his world and becoming his own little character. Hopefully, with our encouragement, he'll become a character who learns to let others get a word in edgewise. For now, he can interrupt and disrupt and talk until he feels that he has finished telling us all about it.