The Boy Who Wouldn't

Seamus is two. Which means he is learning independence. He is definitely a different animal from his sister. I know you aren't supposed to compare children, but, honestly, how can you not? You went through toddlerdom once, you make expectations of what toddlerdom is. Not that one child is BETTER than the other, but you have to compare.
Seamus is not a big talker. He was two before he said "Momma." At two, his communication consisted of a handful of words, a lot of grunts and some ambiguous pointing. This is hard for me because I am all for instant gratification. If I sit down and read a book for the hundredth time, I expect the child to act like they have read it before. Laugh at favorite parts, point to favorite things, make animal noises, SOMETHING to show that they are getting something out of reading. Seamus... not so much. He will occasionally sit through a book. Two is pushing it. Three will never happen. He likes to turn the pages, but little other interaction. So, I've done a lot more block-building, train-pushing, etc. with him. Finally, I realized that if I said, "where is the dog?" he would interact. I can't say, "what is this?" because he won't answer. He just looks at you with those big green eyes for two or three minutes until you give up and move on. The pointing to a named object gave me hope that he was picking up on things. However, the kid is smart. Really smart. And he listens. And he learns. He just has to wait for the right moment to spring it on you.
A few weeks ago, I was counting out Halloween candy for each child. "One, two for Cambria. One, two for Seamus." Seamus took his candy and, whilst unwrapping it, murmured, "three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve." WHAT?! Yes, friends. He can count to twelve. Out loud. Without ever having counted to three or five or any other number. Having never before even SAID all those numbers, much less in order. Since then, he has started counting out loud more (like before jumping off anything), but you will never get him to count with you while reading a book or counting toys, or anything. Just a blank stare. If he is distracted, he might recite four or five numbers and, if prompted, continue on. MAYBE.
Last week, he was playing around with Daddy and the topic of trains came up. Out of nowhere, in his garbled, Seamus-speak, he proceeded to recite the book Freight Train by Donald Crews. The entire book. Without prompt. Will he ever read along? Point to the cars? Finish a sentence? No. But apparently, he knows the book by heart.
Today, I pulled out the ABC puzzle blocks. We pulled out each one, I said the name. Sometimes he responded, sometimes not. Then he put them all back together and got 20/26 right (he said them!). Wow. But, the surprises were not over. I laid them out in order and started singing the song. He put his hand on my mouth and sang the whole song without help. Three times. And then I snuck out to get the video camera. AND.... silence. Green eyed stares. :(
So, to make what is actually a short story into a long one, my son and I need to work on our communication skills. But I LOVE knowing that I haven't failed him as much as I thought I had. The whole no-communication thing is hard for me. I can't wait to see what other surprises he has behind those pretty eyes.