Tonight, during his bath, Nate started singing a song he must have learned in music class (I say "must" because unlike the rest of what he's singing these days, this contained no dark themes or totally inappropriate lyrics -- yes, The Decemberists, I'm looking at you). "Bubble gum, bubble gum, chewy chewy chewy chewy bubble gum, I like it, I like it," he sang happily.
"Wow, Nate," I said, "I'm going to have to buy you some bubble gum!"
Nate, of course, has major food issues and generally refuses to put anything in his mouth that is not a direct descendant of the pancake family. "What??" he started in a panic. "No, I don't like it. I don't like it!!"
"What??" I feigned innocence. "But you just said you like bubble gum!"
"No," Nate explained, "I was just singing a song!" Then a look of recognition came over his face, and what may turn out to be one of the most significant moments of our almost 6 years together suddenly happened. "You were teasing me!!"
As is well documented on this blog, Nate has had some language issues. We've had a lot of long, dark days and nights of struggling to define and understand exactly what is going on with him, how best to help him, and what the future might look like. And one thing we didn't know if we would ever see is Nate making language-based jokes, or even getting jokes. And then there he was, laughing hysterically over my joking literal interpretation of his song. He got it, he got why it was funny, and he loved it.
We've just seen such a sea change in the past couple of months, and even the past few weeks. As Steve reported here earlier, he can't get enough of the Landshark skit. He's becoming much more interested in stories, and his kindergarten writing assignments are becoming much more inventive and on-topic (recent assignment: Write a sentence about spring. Nate's sentence: "In the Spring I will take many swimming lessons.") It definitely feels like we might be seeing the beginning of Nate: The Talky Years.
Although, even as I write this, Nate is standing here telling me that when I came in from Chicago the other night, I arrived at Gate 7. Which is perfect, because I also really need to know that Nate will always be Nate.
Recent Comments