Word Usements

This post is basically going to be about a couple of interesting word usements Kiernan structured today, so I start it with the above photo, which has nothing to do with any of the rest of the post. I took the picture while Kiernan was watching an NFL game with his Gammy and Grance. Gammy is explaining that she wants the guys in the red shirts--the Cardinals--to win, and is providing her own four-year-old friendly play-by-play as the game progresses. Earlier in the day Aunt Amy was doing the same thing in the beginning of the Patriots/Buffalo Bills game.

But I've gotten off the point of this post, which is to simply record a few of the more interesting things Kiernan said to us today.

1. Earlier in the day, Aunt Amy and Kiernan were hanging out and playing, doing something or other together. Kiernan said to her, "I love you Aunt Amy."

Aunt Amy replied, "I love you too, Kiernan."

And Kiernan came back with, "Yes, but do you love yourself?"

Yikes. Seriously?

2. After Kiernan arose from his nap, Wendy decided she was going to do a little shopping. I gave Kiernan a choice. He could go shopping with his mother, or he could stay here at Gammy and Grance's house and play. Hmmm. Tough choice. He obviously chose the latter. Before leaving his mother kissed him goodbye and asked, "Is it okay with you if I go shopping?"

Kiernan replied, "If you insist."

3. Wendy returned from her shopping excursion and grabbed me, Kiernan, and Amy and swept us into the car so she could take us around the neighborhood and show us the Christmas lights. Years ago we made a point of driving around the area and looking at the Christmas lights. We would pile into Rance's pickup truck--before it got stolen, obviously--and tool around ooing and aahing at the yard displays. We forgot to do that this year, which is understandable. It's harder to squeeze everybody into a single vehicle, mainly because a car seat always has to be in the equation. So Wendy decided she'd get as many willing souls as she could and run out and look at the lights, even if it was after the fact.

As we drove around the neighborhood, Kiernan started asking Amy questions in the backseat. The first question:

"Do you believe in Jesus or God?"

Now, this little query was not preceded by any segue that I can recall. There was no warning. No preamble. He just busted out with the question.

Amy basically took the question in stride, answering, "No. I don't."

Kiernan came back with a clarification. "No. Do you believe in Jesus OR God?" We laughed inwardly, realizing that Kiernan was removing 'neither' as a choice.

Wendy and Amy quickly decided that since Jesus was at the very least an actual historical figure they could comfortably say that the answer was Jesus.

Kiernan came back with, "I believe in God."

We rode in silence for a bit, before Wendy and I asked Kiernan where this was coming from, where he had gotten all of this. He didn't answer for a bit. We asked again, with curiousity, where this "I believe in God" statement had come from. He finally said, "I don't want to talk about it right now."

Fascinating.

Before I could really form much of a thought about what had just happened, Kiernan asked his next question.

"Mom, do princesses and angels not die?"

It took a bit to suss out what the question was. It was hard to understand at first. But finally Wendy and Kiernan worked out that he was asking about the existence of princesses and angels. Wendy said she had heard of princesses. He pressed her on angels, asking whether she had seen one, and she said that no, she had never seen an angel. Then he asked,

"What about fairies?"

God I love this kid.

4. On the last leg of our Christmas light tour we stopped in front of a house with a lively yard. Wendy asked Kiernan, "Do you see the American flag lights?" A flag had been fashioned out of the lights. Kiernan answered in the negative. Wendy and Amy pointed out where the flag was in the yard.

At last, he said, "Oh. I was confused because there wasn't a pole."

Wendy said, "Oh. Okay. I see. You missed it because there wasn't a flag pole."

Kiernan: "That's why I didn't recognize it."

Those of you who aren't used to little kids will probably find this shrug-worthy, but I was just so tickled by both of these last statements, by the way Kiernan expressed his thoughts here. "I was confused because there wasn't a pole," and "That's why I didn't recognize it." That's why I didn't recognize it. He just uses words and concepts like these so easily, and I don't understand how he got to this point from his more rudimentary use of language, excitedly pointing at flags and calling out from the backseat, "Pole flag! Pole flag!" I am fascinated by the whole process, moving from that to "That's why I didn't recognize it." Said as naturally as can be. With a full grasp on the concept of the word 'recognize'.

There are other ways he could have gotten that across, but he said it that way. I just love it. I just love how he uses words.

That's all. I meant this to be a brief little post with a few quotes. I got carried away. Sorry about that.

Moving on...