Red spots

"Don't know why they have red spots," Isaac said today.

I knew the last word, which sounded more like "tee-opps," wasn't actually "spots," but I couldn't understand what he was really saying. However, I thought I'd figure out the subject of the sentence first, so I asked, "Who has red spots?"

"Don't know why the tree service guys have red spots," he said.

I thought I had figured it out. I asked, "Did the tree service guys have red shirts? Are you saying shirts?"

"No," Isaac said. I was puzzled. The tree service guys had come on Friday while I was at work, so I didn't know what color their shirts were, but I also didn't have any idea what else of theirs might have been red. Chainsaws? Sawdust? Chippers? (I knew their trucks were green and yellow.)

"Try it again," I said. "What was red?"

"Spots," Isaac said.

"I'm sorry, honey," I said, "but I don't understand what you're saying." He tried a few more times, but he wasn't any clearer, and I had to keep telling him I didn't understand.

"Mama isn't listening," Isaac said. He sounded both sad and accusatory.

- - - - -

This total failure to communicate doesn't happen very often. Even when Isaac was much littler, we usually found a way to understand one another. (In fact, I can only find one other blog post about a communication breakdown -- and it was another situation where Isaac tried to tell me about something that happened while I wasn't present.)

We narrowly avoided a misunderstanding last night. Isaac kept asking me what the cow was saying, and I kept answering "moo." As he continued asking the exact same question, however, I began to realize that something was wrong. I finally answered in the form of a question: "Moo?"

Then he said, emphasizing each word, "What the yellow Beetle is saying?"

Ah. Not cow, but car. (A toy Volkswagen, to be precise.) It's a little awkward that he pronounces "car" exactly like "cow." Maybe we should teach him to say "automobile" and "bovine" instead.

- - - - -

It turned out, according to Craig, that the tree service guys had red straps to attach them to the trees to keep their hands free. Isaac did his best with "straps," considering he can't pronounce S at the beginning of a word, and he can't pronounce R at all.