Managing expectations

We are so worried our child will never speak that we face his first words with the same amazement we would face Jesus multiplying fishes in front of our eyes.

Yes, he only says auto "atoatoato" and little more, but that's a great improvement from not saying anything at all. I can't help but wondering, though, whether my excitement about this new skill is making me lower my expectations about my child language abilities. I'll explain.

For starters, I have embraced "Auto" as a Spanish word, which is not. We call it "Coche". But, as my mother put it "make it easy for him, honey, he has enough in his plate". Which translates to, "you just had to end up with a random Polish, and now I will have to learn Russian to communicate with my grandson. Couldn't you just get yourself a nice Spanish engineer, and stay where my tupperware could reach you?"

And so we are making it easy for him. And now I'm trying to figure out how much I can simplify stuff before it becames even more confusing.

-So this is an auto

-Ato

-YES! And this is a truck

-Ato

-Well, yes, a truck is an auto too. A big auto. And this is a bicycle

-Ato

-mmmmh, kind of. Close enough. I’ll take it! And this is a plane

-Ato

-What the heck, why not? Yes, a flying auto. And this is...

-Ato

-Well... no honey, that's a duck.

Well, I draw the line in the duck. Only because it did not have wheels.

Unrelated question of the day: Raise your hand if you ever left the baby home, went out for an adult event and realized you are carrying a diaper in your bag.