Let's talk

Em and I had so many wonderful conversations during my recent visit, and I am thrilled that she will one day share such moments with her own child. But these talks are nothing new, since we started them before she even developed language. I remember Em at less than a year old: she'd make very deliberate eye contact, don a serious let's-get-down-to-it expression, then chatter on and on, testing her newfound voice, experimenting with sounds and inflections and even a few hand gestures (thanks to the Mediterranean side of the family). I witnessed the beginnings of her amazing humor when she'd babble a bit then giggle at her own baby jokes. Her voice would rise in the shape of a question, and she'd await a reply from me. We'd converse like this for hours, like two old friends over a prolonged afternoon tea. I understood her every burble, and she, I'm sure, mine. Still.