Benjamin was more of a talker, at this age, than Liam is.  We’re constantly being surprised by the differences in our kids as they grow and learn.  Benjamin definitely was an early adopter in terms of language, while Liam has developed all kinds of physical skills (especially small, detail oriented ones) that Benjamin didn’t have until much later.  Kids are just different, and what we came to see as “typical” in Benjamin is not Liam’s own “typical”.

Liam does talk — he says a bunch of words, but almost never a sentence other than “Car, go!” or “Ready, go!”.  (Although, he said “Mama” with correct discernment much earlier, which was heartwarming for me.)  As with Benjamin, I understand more of what he says than anyone else does, but there’s still a lot of what he says that I don’t get yet.  He’s got a definite head start on one thing, though — he recently started asking us, “Why?”

He asks it now in response to almost everything we tell him.  “Don’t feed Bailey your dinner.”  “Why?”  “Time to rinse off!”  “Why?”  “You can’t climb on the table.”  “Why?”

Because he doesn’t talk as much as Benjamin did — Benjamin spoke early, often and in great detail — I think everyone tends to underestimate how much Liam understands.  (I know sometimes I do.)  But really, I know better.  It’s not that he doesn’t understand, it’s just that he isn’t ready to talk a lot yet.  But he does understand.  And he wants to know more.  I’m amazed that of the 30 or so words he’s using so far,  he’s chosen “why” to be one of them.  And it’s so wonderful to watch him listen for the answer.