Are you even listening to me?

Yesterday at twilight Isaac and I walked out of a shop, and we immediately saw three things of great interest.

Isaac identified them in quick succession with increasing excitement: "Bus. Mailman! Moon!!"

Would you have understood what he was saying? Perhaps, although it sounded like: "Buh. May-mah! Mmnn!!"

Sometimes even I am caught off guard by Isaac's eagerness and ability to notice and name. I was feeding him yogurt a few weeks ago, and he kept pointing at the container and saying, "Baby!" I patiently kept telling him it was yogurt, but then I caught a glance of the label. Oops. As he was trying to tell me, there was a baby on it. Another day he was making an unusual whinnying noise to which I paid little attention. He kept it up for quite a while before I noticed he was also pointing at a plastic model of Misty of Chincoteague. Duh. He was making a noise like a horse.

Finally, on Monday a friend gave us a copy of Good Night, Gorilla, and Isaac was looking at it as I buckled him into his carseat. "Cckk," he said as he pointed to a page. "Yes, baby, that's a book," I said absently, even though I should know that cckk means clock. "Cckk!" he repeated with greater insistence, so I took a closer look. Sure enough, there's an alarm clock on the zookeeper's nightstand, and he was pointing right at it.

The poor kid keeps trying to communicate. He must wonder sometimes if anyone is listening.