Wha' Heard?

Drew is by far my most inquisitive kid. He always has been; when he was about a year old, his favorite things to say were "Dhis!" (which I took to mean, "What is this?") and "Dhah!" (which I decided meant "What is that?") He would point to things with his whole hand, too. It was very funny. When he got better at speaking, he would always be asking me, "W'is that?"

It's so much fun now that he understands my answers better. The other day he was playing in the bathroom sink while I was putting on my makeup. He noticed the little overflow holes in the top of the basin and asked me what they were for. I gave him a pretty detailed answer, most of which he seemed to understand, about how if the sink gets too full the water will spill into those holes so the sink doesn't overflow onto the floor. Then he got this twinkle in his eye, looked at me and said, "I wanna try!" So we got a cup and poured water into the holes in our sink.

Later that day, as Drew was flushing the toilet, he yelled goodbye to the water as usual then asked me, "Where's it goes?" So I pointed out to him that the water snakes around through the bottom of the toilet and into a pipe that goes out of the house into the septic tank (I had learned all about this at the science museum in Seattle and was excited to share my knowledge with someone). I asked Drew if he could say "septic tank." He called it the "Celtic tank," which would probably be considered pretty blasphemous by certain members of our household, so I just acted like that part of the conversation never happened. Now every time we flush the toilet Drew explains it to whoever will listen: "It goes down here and in the pipes."

Drew is also very interested in sounds. He recognises the different types of trucks that drive by our house. Whenever a big truck goes by, he'll yell, "Wha' heard?" (in English that translates as "what did you hear?") and run out to the deck to see what is going by. Lately, he's gotten good at identifying the truck without seeing it. He can tell the difference between the garbage trucks and the dump trucks. He knows cars, too: the Corvette engine makes a different noise than the Camaro engine, and Drew's generally happy to demonstrate.

Tonight we were walking around the neighborhood and we heard some crickets chirping around. Drew of course yelled, "Wha' heard?" We told him they were crickets (he already knew this from a few weeks ago when we heard one in our apple tree, but sometimes he'd rather ask what something is than identify it for us). The rest of the evening Drew was telling David (who was actually with us so he already knew) that "we heard trickets." And as we were getting ready for bed, Drew asked, "Where's the trickets?" Owen, who had been quiet all evening (he was sulking a bit 'cause he got in trouble for taking his diaper off at nap time), piped in and told us, "It's in the apple tree."

I'm always amazed at how different my boys are. Drew learns by inquiring and doing, and Owen learns by listening and watching (and practicing when he thinks no one else is watching). But I can tell he absorbs a lot of what is going on.