I’ve bragged a lot about Jonas on my blog, but Julesy needs a turn. Both my kids are extra special in their own ways, but Julesy has a specific knack for language and music that is quite impressive.
Julesy’s language skills have amazed everyone he’s come into contact with. The child talks in sentences and sings full songs with every lyric in tact. I’m not kidding. He’s just one of those kids who took up talking like he was born with a whole lot to say.
His brother was very different. Jonas didn’t say much of anything at this age except “bye” and “ni-ni” (for night-night.) The first real word I remember him saying was “chicken” shortly before his 2nd birthday. We were all so excited we talked about it for the rest of the night. Then many more words followed pretty quickly, and when I took an inventory 3 days before his second birthday, he was up to 70 words (and the fact that I recorded and counted each of those 70 words shows just how relieved I was to hear the child finally saying something.)
But Julesy just couldn’t wait to talk. I never got a chance to write down his first 70 words because they all came too fast. As a matter of fact, I don’t think he even started with words – he started with phrases. Complex phrases too. Back last fall he started singing a jumbled version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – at just 15 months old. He has since perfected that song, along with his ABCs, counting to 20, and singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” The child is unstoppable.
Today we’re sitting outside and Julesy, my 22 month old, says:
“Mommy? Is dis a pine cone, mommy?”
Me: “Yep! That IS a pine cone, Julesy”
Julesy: “But we don’t eat pine cones, do we, Mommy?”
Me: “No, we don’t eat those.”
Julesy: “Cuz der not healthy, Mommy?”
This. Coming from a child not even 2. And he carries on conversations like this often. Sometimes I don’t even know where he gets this stuff. And sometimes it’s obvious that he’s repeating full sentences he hears the adults say.
We were grocery shopping in Target earlier this week, when I stopped by Starbucks for my usual. The Barista asked me how old Julesy was, and I knew what she was going to say next because every time anybody asks me how old the child is they follow it with “But I can’t believe it – he talks like he’s 4!” So, already beaming, I tell the Barista that Julesy is 22 mos and she says “I heard him talking to you when you guys were by the food court and I thought it was the older boy talking – but then I turned around and it was the little guy! I couldn’t believe it!” The conversation she overheard came after I gave Julesy a chocolate milk in the cafeteria and he started shouting “Let me hold my OWN chocolate milk Mommy!” Oh yeah… he’s LOUD too. And he ends every sentence with “Mommy” or “Daddy” or “Grandma”, or whoever he’s addressing, which makes all of it so preciously adorable one can hardly stop themselves from scooping him up and covering him in kisses.
Have I also mentioned he’s bilingual? Both my kids are. Their grandma speaks nothing but Spanish to them, so they understand and speak it very well. You haven’t cried “awwwwee!!” until you’ve heard a redheaded 22 month old asking where his “pelota” is in a mixture of two languages. It’s crazy cute. Oh Julesy – I love you like mad.
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Did you have two children with very different language skills? What order did they come in? And what do you think made the difference?
My daughter spoke like that...one of her jaw-dropping sentences, coming just after her 2nd birthday, was "Actually Mama, that's too difficult for me, you should do it." But she was speaking in sentences before 18 months old...she's 13 now, reading at a college level, is in gifted programs for all her subjects and is also playing clarinet and is artistic too...so watch that boy, he's going places - not that you're first son isn't, but what my daughter's teachers tell me is that early speech is a twofold thing with parental engagement and a determination to be in touch with the world, at that determination goes hand in hand with a love of learning...but that if one child in a family is gifted, usually all children in the family are.
So while this is a little tl;dr, I guess it boils down to the fact that both your boys are going to keep you on your toes in the very best of ways.
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