Sometimes I wonder how our twins see the world. Without words, it's hard to know.
Most of us think that Sawyer sees the world through pictures, that images will probably always mean more to him than words or language. Show him two items, and he will choose by pulling one toward him and pushing the other one away. Ask him about two items, and he will hear you, but he will not necessarily answer. You cannot select a word or push it away. Sometimes the words mean something, like "Mommy's truck" or "school," but more often than not you don't get the response you're looking for. Not yet anyway.
With Xander, I am beginning to think that he sees the world in a little of both. He sees the images, but he also sees the language. More to the point, he usually sees the letters. It amazes me the things he remembers about certain things or places. Put on one of his favorite Word World DVDs, and he will start spelling the words just moments before they appear. He not only knows what is coming, but he remembers exactly how it is spelled.
And this afternoon, we were sitting on the couch enjoying a cold and dreary day under some fleece blankets and singing his favorite song (the ABC song, of course). After quite a few times, he wanted to move on to other things. He started to spell some of his favorite words. Shoe. Chair. Canoe. Truck. Mostly things he has seen and learned on his two favorite shows, Word World and Super Why.
And then a new one appeared.
Thank you. That's not on either of the shows, not spelled out for him to see or to remember. It took me a minute, but I finally remembered where it came from.
The McDonald's play land on Wednesday. Xander took a break from climbing up and down the slides and the cubes to come out and get some attention from the adults. Grandma, Grandpa and I were sitting at a little table, watching the boys as they spent hours wearing themselves out and just playing on that rainy day. And while he was sitting there with us, the trash cans in the corner caught his attention. They had big capital letters on each of the swinging doors. Thank you. He spelled it several times at the end of the day.
So either my little spell boy was just adding a new word to the ones he spells daily, or he was trying to tell me something. Perhaps the walls were closing in on him, too, and a trip to the play land was on his mind.
Maybe some day he'll tell us himself.
