Communication

It is pretty amazing the sort of complex stuff Lucas can communicate to us these days. Even when he doesn't know many of the right words, he can use what he does know to get his point across. You get a really great sense of what's on his mind, and what aspects of his experiences stand out for him. Here's an example.

This weekend Dad took Lucas to the mall near Grandma Sally's house while mom and grandma were sleeping in. One thing led to another, and Luke ended up on the bungee-trampoline thing that bounces you 20 feet into the air. (Dad really wasn't planning to have Lucas ride it, but Luke wanted to watch the other older kids bouncing on it, and pretty soon the operator was asking us if Luke was next. "Isn't he too little?!" "I had an 18-month old on last week!")

Tonight on the changing table, mom asked him about the bungee jump.

J: Did you have fun on the bungee jump at the mall?
L: Yeah! Bungee* jump!
J: How did you get started? Did you jump up and down, or did the man help you?
L: (Thinks hard about this.) Grabbed my socks.**
J: The man did?
L: Yeah, funny. Went way up high! Looked down!
J: Did you bounce on the trampoline, or did the man help you bounce?
L: (Thinks again.) Feet on table.
J: So your feet touched the table at the bottom? That was the trampoline.
L: (Gleefully) Yeah! Went high in the air! Big kids went REALLY high!
J: Did you watch the big kids jumping?
L: Yeah! Want to do it again!
*Neither one of us had any idea that Luke knew the word "bungee", and Dad doesn't remember using it at the mall, but somehow Lucas figured out what mom was talking about and immediately repeated the word in order to learn it.

** The guy running the bungee jump yanked Luke's socks off in mid-bounce about a minute after he started bouncing. Luke cracked up when he did that.