Not Fast

Aaron surprised me yesterday. We were reading his Shapes book and he was pointing to the picture of a pillow (on the page with squares) that has a cat and dog on it. He usually says "pillow" (or at least his approximation of this word) and then says "animals". Then I say, yes, there are animals on the pillow, a cat and a dog. After that, he said "sew". I said "sew?", not understanding what he meant. So he said "SEW" - louder, the way he repeats a word when I don't understand and he's starting to get frustrated. We went back and forth a few times, with him getting more frustrated, but I had no clue what he was trying to communicate.

Now, usually if I don't understand what he's saying, he'll go find something to point to to make himself clear. Like last week when he said something that sounded like "quack" while I was singing a song about ducks. After failing to make himself understood, he got up, ran to the other room and pointed to a toy truck. "Truck" was what he was trying to say. And he had pronounced it the way he normally does, but it was so out of context at the time, I didn't understand.

But this time, he wasn't saying the name of something he could point to. So finally, he said, in a somewhat impatient and strained voice "not fast". Aha! He meant "slow", but wasn't pronouncing the 'l'. I still have no idea why the pillow with the dog and cat evoked the thought "slow", but I was impressed with how he figured out how to communicate with me.