What did you just say?

This is what my husband and shout throughout the day now. Sometimes, what we hear from our son is funny, like “go play, mommy” or “I need my coffee in the morning” but other times it’s embarrassing like when an elderly woman opens the door for me and my son and he says “that’s stupid” or in the middle of prayer service at church when he yells, “I wanna call grandma, now!” Within the span of 30 months, we have gone from “how do we know what he wants since he can’t talk?” to “I really wish he wouldn’t talk so much.” It’s both fun and scary to await the gems spewing from the mouth of a 2 ½ year-old, most of which he doesn’t completely understand. There is a lot of pure repeating (i.e. “I need my coffee in the morning”) and exploring his own voice and feelings. His real personality is starting to develop and, like it or not, it will be uniquely his. This is just the beginning. He may not be a peace-loving, tree-hugging, war-protesting, liberal like his mom or a conservative, fiscally moderate, traditionalist like his dad. He might be an amalgamation of the two of us or nothing like either of us. When his voice begins to speak his truth, our job will be to listen, influence and provide sound direction. But we will have to love and accept the parts of him that we may not understand, just as our parents have had to do for us. None of this will be easy. As a matter of fact, looking back now, the first year was probably the easiest of our whole parenting career. However, the future holds a world of excitement and we will have a third set of eyes through which to view the world. What a gift!