I've mentioned before that Jonathan is highly verbal, especially for a two year old boy. I hate stereotypes and the judgement of individuals by the average characteristics of a class they happen to belong to, but people will insist that boys aren't verbal creatures, so I like to mention the obvious counterexamples.
In Jonathan's case there are clearly both environmental and genetic factors. His parents have always spoken to him pretty much as they would to anyone, no baby talk allowed. Sometimes you think he couldn't have a clue what they are talking about, but it's amazing what he picks up, and his vocabulary has always been extraordinary.As for genetics—let's just say he reminds me a LOT of his Aunt Janet. His play is often accompanied by a long, running monologue about what the characters are doing, be they people, animals, vehicles, or Power Rangers.
[An aside on the last. Jonathan has no Power Rangers of his own. I couldn't tell you what they are, other than they clearly relate to some TV show or other, and I'm not about to try to win favor in his eyes by buying him anything of the sort, for which Heather is grateful. But a good friend of his is lending him two Power Rangers and two motorcycles while the friend is out of town—that's a pretty amazing friend—and Jonathan is enthralled. They are the toys of the moment, whether he is making them ride around on the coffee table, or dropping them on me to wake me up when I pretend to nap, or bending their limbs into impossible poses. (Whatever the Power Rangers actually do as superheroes, they really should have gone into ballet.) I wonder if part of boys' reputed preference for sound effects over words is due to the nature of their toys. Each of these characters "speaks" when you push a button on its belt, but only one of the utterances is speech—"Let's go, Rangers"—the others are just noises.]
Another way in which Jonathan is like Aunt Janet is in his incredible memory for detail in a story. For example, the other day I asked where he got his cool Spider Man hat. (A red knit cap that actually has nothing to do with Spider Man, but it does to him—he pulls it down over his face as a mask. When he's older and knows about the Swallows and Amazons it could easily be Nancy's or Peggy's cap.) Heather mentioned the names of the people who had given it to him, and Jonathan piped up with "We went to their house, and they gave us this, and that, and made us dinner, and...." (He actually named what they gave him, but my memory is not as good as his, apparently.) This was not a recent event, but probably half a year ago. He can go into great detail when telling a story, although that detail might not be what adults would consider the important parts. He treated me to a lovely, and for the most part quite accurate, description of what happens when they go sailing: the details (which I can't remember now) of backing the trailer into the water, and getting the boat ready, and parking the car afterwards, and landing at the dock and getting the boat out of the water, and back on the trailer, and driving away. This is what he described when I asked him to tell me about sailing. Of the actual sail on the water I heard not a word.
