Just say "Yes"

Oscar seems to be a bit behind his sister in his development of language. Don't get me wrong, the kid never stops blabbing. We just have no idea what he's saying. For the longest time he has answered "No" to every question thrown at him. It got to the point where Jay and I knew which "no" meant yes and which "no" meant indeed no. When he wanted something, he would often answer with an emphatic "No!" with a tilt at the end to convey his excitement. Or, he would answer with a "nah-uh," meaning, "Of course, I would LOVE some banana." It was getting out of control. So finally, over the course of four days, evil mom took over and I held whatever object of desire about a foot away from him and would stand there saying, "Do you want this, yes? Yes? Do you want this? Yes, yes? Yes!? YES!!??" Finally, he got the picture. His mother was crazy. Also, he learned to say yes. It sounds more like "sess," but I'll take it. I may have gone a little overboard, however, because I think my Pavlovian training was so strong that now he's answering yes for things he doesn't want. So I guess you can lead a horse to water but you can't understand whether or not he wants to drink.

On a lighter, more spring-driven note, Annie loves her ballet classes and we are often treated to bedazzled performances. I caught the most recent one on tape. It's dedicated to my mom, we all hope she makes a speedy recovery. We love you, Nana.