I'm a believer

Ever since I was pregnant with Chase I've read a lot of parenting books, blogs,e-mail feeds and magazine articles. One piece of advice I come across often is to talk to your baby even when you don't think they can understand what you are saying. This is something I've tried to do with Chase ever since he was born. I narrated most of the things I was doing with him. "Let's take a bath. Mom is turning on the water now. The water is too cold. Let's add some hot water so we can warm it up." What's neat now is that he's talking more and more and it's through this new found chatter that he's confirming that he's been listening this whole time.

I've gone to the drive through ATM 3 times with Chase. Each time I've gone, I've told him that we're going to the ATM, that I'm going to put my card in, push some buttons and take out some money. He also 'helps' me at the supermarket and at the store by swiping my debit card each time we pay. There's a point to this, I promise. ;)

One day, after going to the supermarket I set up a pretend grocery store in our living room. When I found him swiping our old Mervyn's card on the calculator, I asked him what he was doing and he responded 'ATM.'

Yes, I know that the card reader at the check out is not an ATM. Well, not a standard ATM at least. But what I love are the connections he made. I've never called the card reader an ATM, but he connected the label to something you use to swipe your card and that was certainly what we were doing at the grocery store. In his mind, they must be the same thing and, therefore, the contraption at the grocery store was an ATM.

Yes, I wrote this post partly as a gushing mom proud of her little guy's accomplishment. But, I also wrote this as someone who, as a mom, now has a deeper appreciation for how powerful a little one's mind can be. I'm finding myself stunned each day at how much learning is happening in there. I'm a believer of just how much listening has been happening this whole time. I'm a believer that although he hasn't always been able to reciprocate through dialogue, that he did in fact understand what I was saying. That he was making connections. That he was storing all of this information to use for when he was able to talk. My advice to all the new mommies out there is to listen to that advice you've been reading about - talk to your beautiful babies! They really are listening and processing what you're saying. It may seem silly to talk about things they don't yet understand, but eventually they will. Eventually, they'll prove it to you and you will be THRILLED!