Daffodil

We have lots of daffodils in our yard,* and they've been blooming for the past week or two. We went to a playdate this week and on our way out to the car, Isaac stopped to pluck one for our hostess. When he presented it to her, he apparently told her what kind of flower it was.

"Did you hear that?" my friend asked in surprise. "He said daffodil perfectly clearly."

I was busy getting Laurel out of her car seat. "Oh yeah," I said distractedly and a little dismissively, "he's known that word since he was 18 months old."

A few minutes later I realized I hadn't been particularly modest or tactful about Isaac's language skills. (And not for the first time, either. Do you remember when I irritated people at another playgroup by insisting that my 20-month-old son should learn the word reservoir?) So I tried to explain that we have a lot of daffodils in our yard, and that it would have been strange if he hadn't learned what they were.

(Then I went home and looked up "daffodil" in this blog, and I discovered that although Isaac could identify one when he was quite young, he couldn't pronounce the word. At 18 months, the word he used was da-doo, but he and I both knew it meant daffodil. What do you think? Should I clarify the situation with my friend?)

My friend has three kids aged 16 months and under, so perhaps she's not used to listening to bigger kids talk, but sometimes Isaac's language takes even experienced people by surprise. I don't like it when people make a big deal about his word choices, however, and I especially hate it when people marvel at him like he was a trained parrot. Like all of us, he is a human being doing his best to communicate, and he deserves to be taken seriously.

Because of this, I was irritated by his teacher this week. We arrived at school on a rainy morning, and the teacher asked Isaac if he had gotten wet.

Isaac considered this question for a moment, and then answered, "No, actually, just a little damp."

His teacher repeated, "Damp," and then had the bad manners to laugh. She laughed! I know it was partly in surprise at Isaac's precision of language, but it really isn't cool to patronize your students, even if they are three years old.

I want him to be treated with respect. I want his love of language to be cherished and nurtured, not held up as a parlor trick. All too soon he'll start dumbing down the way he talks, purposefully using slang and incorrect grammar, just so people don't think he thinks he's too smart. How do I know? I did the same thing when I was 11 years old.

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* That's actually an understatement. Not only do we have many hundreds of daffodils, we have at least 30 different varieties. The previous owner had a literal mania for gardening, and she had in recent years channeled her enthusiasms into daffodil cross-breeding.

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Photo taken yesterday of Isaac posing with a big bouquet of daffodils we had just picked. And with a length of PVC pipe, of course.