So I’m showing my about-to-be-3-year-old a drawing app on the iPad and I start to draw a moonlit scene with sloping hills and graceful trees….I mean, seriously, it was about to be a masterpiece. Anyway, I get as far as the moon and I try to turn it into a learning lesson. I drew the moon as a sliver, so I ask my son if he knew what I was drawing. I should say at this point that I was about 90% certain he was going to say, “A moon!”. Maybe even 95%. That’s how masterful it was.
Instead he said, “A banana!”
(See? M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E.)
I nervously laughed off my surprise and said, “No, silly! That’s not a banana! You know what it is….” At this point I’m obviously reaching. His answer turns my surprise into stunned silence:
“It’s a crescent!”
It brought to mind a similar story from my daughter when she too was around 3. My wife and I were driving down the road with her in the back and I said something to the effect of, “That was so loud!”. Without hesitation, she blurted out, “It’s fortissimo!”
Now don’t feel ashamed if you don’t know what that word means. The only reason I even knew what it meant then was because I had been watching Baby Einsteins with my daughter recently, and I remember them using that term. Apparently she did too. Maybe crescent isn’t quite at that level of surprise I had that day, but it is certainly a step or two above circle or square.
I guess my main point is the title itself: they’re always listening, so watch what you say. If they’re within earshot they will absorb it along with all the good stuff you’re saying. I know many think it’s cute or funny when their 2 year old blurts out an extremity, but they really have no possible way to grasp its weight or context. Trust me, it’s far cuter and more memorable when they blurt out ‘fortissimo’ and actually use it in a semi-proper context.
Or, for that matter, even ‘crescent’ when that shape is clearly on the page.
But it was definitely not a banana.
