I Have a Child Who Speaks Primarily with Vowels...

Except for when he's requesting to watch "Nemo", it's not uncommon for Emmett to speak with only vowels.

Our conversation this morning:

Pointing to the fridge, "iw"
Pointing next to the milk, "ah-eh"
Running over to the dishwasher, "uh"
Clearly all my child wanted was chocolate milk in a cup.  You could have gotten that, right?  All you have to do is assess the visual context of the situation and pair it with the vowel sounds he's making.  Easy, right?

*SIGH*

As much as I would like to blame Emmett's lack of early language acquisition on the government, or the moral decay of society--since that's what we blame almost everything else that irritates our lives--I must painfully watch the finger turn and point to myself.  With child #1, we faithfully read 5 books a day and did 20 minutes of Starfall.  With child #2, the only thing we've remained consistent on is reading a scripture story every day (we've only sporadically read books and done Starfall occasionally).  Now, I realize that reading scriptures is still a worthy accomplishment within a day, but holy cow, we've got to get crackin' on his education again, because I CANNOT live a life communicating by all vowels!

Some other notable moments that have happened lately:

Tyson's new favorite phrases are, "Holy-moly-spicy-macaroni!" and in place of saying yes, he says "Yep-er-ree-a-rooni".

More than once, Emmett has whacked Tyson in the head with a toy or a stick or something, and it wasn't necessarily on purpose.  Tyson runs to me or Mitch in tears and tattles, so we tell Emmett to say sorry.  As soon as we tell Emmett to say sorry, he'll spread his arms open as wide as they go, run to Tyson and as he hugs him softly will say, "Sah-ee", and Tyson will reply (still in tears), "It's okay!  I love you ALWAYS!"  It's so tender and I feel the Spirit every time.  I love my boys!

Recently we've been working on teaching Tyson about modesty, because he was having no problem running around naked after a shower, or while he's changing, (even if people are over at our house).  So we've had a couple conversations explaining that he should change in his bedroom or stay in the bathroom until he's dressed after going potty and he's listened.  Now if people are around when he's changing to a swimming suit, he will go behind the couch or something and yell, "DO NOT come over here!  I am changing!"  It's really funny actually.  Also part of this conversation I explained to him that he shouldn't run around friends in even his underwear because that's not modest, either, and that if ever he sees someone in their underwear that he should look away to give them privacy because we don't look at people in their underwear, either.  Of course, he practices this concept by looking away from commercials that might show up on TV of scantily clad people, too.  Well, the other day Mitch took the kids to the swimming pool, and I hadn't explained anything about people's swimming suits, and he saw a lady in a bikini.  So as they were walking by a mom and kids getting their towels, Tyson exclaimed something like, "Oh, no!  Dad, hide your eyes!  There's a lady in her underwear!"  To say the least, I'm glad he's listening, and proud of him for looking away, because bikinis really do look like underwear and they're definitely not the most modest choices for swimwear, but at the same time you also feel like saying, "Oh my gosh, don't say that too loud, Son!  She might hear you!"  

Kids really know how to tell it like it is.  SO FUNNY!