Chatting with Yoda

Owen has been talking more and more lately, which I guess is to be expected. He saves all the talking for home, and still prefers to stare blankly or glare at people at church. At the park, he'll get within inches of another child and then stare at them. Eventually he'll say 'hi', or something off the wall, like 'peekaboo', but often he just stares.

He'll now string together 3 and 4 words in a sentence. He's got his own style of grammar, which sounds a little like Yoda. The subject (often himself) is usually at the end of the sentence, so much of his speech sounds like he's giving commands. 'Pet the cat Owen'. 'Pick it up Mommy.' 'Down the stairs Owen'. 'Put it down Owen'. The last one is reserved for times when he is intentionally playing with something forbidden and knows he's getting ready to be told to put it down. He'll peer at us to see if we're watching, say 'Put it down Owen', and then set the off-limits item down. Then he'll try touching it with one finger, or on the side of the object, to see if this is allowed.

He's also good at repeating, so we had a couple of rounds of 'Happy Fathers Day', which was somewhat understandable. He wished Travis, my Dad, me, Furry Lewis, and his sippy cup of milk a happy father's day. We do have to be careful though as he repeats anything we say. Today at the park, he learned the word 'stupid' when he was listening to some of the older children. Hopefully he'll forget this one.