Kai’s talk / 童言童語

楷維的語言能力在將近兩歲時爆炸式地發展，雖然有時候發音怪怪的，但習慣之後我不免感到驚訝，回想他兩個月前只能一次說一兩個單字，現在居然也能響珠砲哇啦哇啦地講話，我把他有趣的思維記錄下來，以便將來回顧。

Kai’s language ability has taken a HUGE leap before he turns two years old. Though sometimes his pronunciation isn’t precise, he never fails to amaze me. It’s hard to imagine that he could utter only one or two words in a sentence two months ago, and now it’s a piece of cake for him to make a long sentence. I would like to record his childlike ideas so that I can look back on these memories in the future.

一、楷維稱呼各式人偶為「妹妹」，舉凡咕咕鐘上面的小人或櫃子裡陳放的組裝機器人，這些東西令他很害怕，也許他看到裡面的甚麼也說不定。

1. Kai calls all kinds of figurines “mei-mei” (meaning younger sisters), including the small figures that come in with the cuckoo clock and my brothers’ hand-assembled toy figures. In fact, he finds them scary. I am thinking maybe he sees something inside them which is invisible to adults…

二、盆栽掉落的花瓣使楷維好奇，自從我教了他「花落了」，他每次走進客廳來一定要複習，我看著他天真地說出這麼滄桑的字語，感覺非常特別。

2. The falling petals from the bonsai aroused Kai’s curiosity. Since I taught him the sentence “The flowers have withered,” he has got into the habit of reviewing it every time he walks into the living room. It feels very special for me to hear such a philosophical statement from a 2-year-old soul.

三、說要打屁屁，楷維很誠懇地翹起屁股說：在這裡。

3. Whenever we threaten Kai with spanking, he will stick out his buttocks saying, “Here they are.”

四、最喜歡車車的楷維也會指揮倒車入庫，看他比著手投入地叫著：再來再來，我想他在會說話之前一定等很久。

4. Kai, a fervent car fan, has also learned to give commands about parking. When seeing him gesture and shout, “Backwards!” I can’t help wondering that he must have waited long before being able to say these words with ease.