Our boy has been a talker since he figured out he had vocal cords. He's incredibly clear and articulated when he speaks, with a vocabulary like no two year old I've ever met. There isn't much mumbling, mis-using words, or just plain babbling. When he has something to communicate, he says it, and gets his point across (especially "I want a cookie!")
Which is why to Elizabeth and me, it can be pretty confusing and disheartening when he says something that we just don't get. It's happened twice now. The first came a couple of months ago, shortly before Christmas. It was simple enough...
Whole Life
I get home from work, "Hi Quin! How was your day?" Quin would respond with "People whole life!" It would come out completely randomly. He would answer questions with this phrase. He would call me from downstairs, "Hey daddy! People whole life!" It went on for weeks, and we hadn't a clue what he was talking about. We would ask him about it, and just couldn't get a straight answer.
Until one day, when it finally hit us. We all sat down a few days before Christmas to watch Quin's favorite (at the time) movie, The Polar Express. Near the end of the movie, one little boy exclaims "This present's for me! And I know what it is! I've wanted one of these my whole life!" Quin immediately beamed "People whole life!" The mystery was solved.
The River
Often times nowadays if you ask Quin a question, you're likely to get a totally irrelevant answer. "Quin, why were you naughty?" we ask. "Because the river's gone" he'll reply. Huh? What river? He usually says it with a sad sort of look, pointing to the front of the house. We have no idea what he means by this.
When I was in college, one of my favorite classes was Psychology 101. In that class, we learned that young children often don't quite get the idea of their own presence. The child didn't leave the toy, the toy left that child. It's a totally narcissistic brain wiring that we all have from birth. We only learn to get over it with age and reasoning (though many people go through their entire lives that way!) But I thought Quin was probably getting too old for that. But know I wonder.
You see, we spent nearly a year living up in Poudre Canyon, the land of the Poudre River. He was quite taken with the river. He loved it. He loved to look at it while we drove, he loved to listen to it. Most of all, he loved to play in it. Not only that, his Papa and GG lived with us for several months, at the river.
So maybe to Quin, rather than him having left the river, the river has left him. Maybe the river is just his brain saying the log cabin/river/Patches and Chloe/Papa and GG. Maybe when Quin acts up and tells us "because the river's gone", he's saying he's bummed out that we moved away from Poudre Canyon and all that he knew and loved for nearly a year of his short life.
I'm still waiting for the day when we have that sudden "Eureka!" moment. But I'm not sure it will ever come. Most likely one day Quin will just stop using that phrase, and we'll forget all about it (except that I've captured it here for eternity).
I'm sure he'll find some new way to confuse us soon. There's really no way of knowing from which deep recess of his mind it will come from. One tiny neuron of millions will light up and cause him to latch on to some obscure phrase.
And we'll try desperately to figure out what he means. Why? Simple, because the river's gone.
We did manage to get a couple serious shots. But to be honest, I'll always cherish the outtakes much more than the serious photos. They show Quin's personality, and that's something a posed portrait will never show.
