Young Jackson James is learning to speak. He’s got an extensive vocabulary for a seventeen-month-old. Kate and Michael interact with him much like Ruth and I did with our three as they were growing up. We never used “baby talk” to speak with the kids. We held normal conversations using our adult vocabulary. Mike and Kate are doing the same. They want to make sure Jackson doesn’t develop bad habits.
Jackson picked up “Nana” right away. There’s a black and white photo of Ruth and me on a shelf at Mike and Kate’s. The two of them pointed her out and he caught on very quickly. They also have a black and white photo of a black man smoking a cigar. One day Jackson saw the photo of the cigar smoking man, pointed to it, and said “Nana”. It appears he associated the black and white picture with Ruth. Ergo, he called the man, “Nana”. He’s moved on from his initial mistake and recognizes her immediately.
English is a tough language to master. We have hundreds of crazy, illogical rules, it’s a wonder any of us learn anything. I ran across this post on Facebook a couple of days ago. It does a nice job of summarizing the conundrum.
While Ruth and my job of raising three kids and helping them develop their language skills is over, we’re still involved with our three grandchildren. Brady and Eva have a few bad habits, but Ruth still offers her two cents if one of them stumbles with their syntax. She sees room for improvement and offers to help. I tend to keep my mouth shut.
We’re heading West over the Labor Day weekend to visit Jackson and his mom and dad. In preparation for our arrival, Kate and Mike have been working with Jackson saying my name, TGO, pronounced teego. If you’re an avid blog reader, you know Ruth and I opted for Nana and TGO rather than grandma and grandpa. When Brady was born seventeen years ago, we weren’t ready for the traditional monikers, so we developed our own. While there have been other “Nanas”, I may be the only TGO. I’m fine with that.
We received a video of Jackson’s progress. While the audio sometimes fails, you should have no problem reading his lips. He’s doing well.
very cute