First Conceptual Sentence

The grammar might not have been pristine and some of the words might have been missing, but Troy said enough today for me to understand his first conceptual sentence. We were upstairs playing, and I noticed the time was getting close to noon. So, I told Troy that it was time to go downstairs to eat. Not wanting to be pulled away from an activity that he obviously was enjoying, he started running away from me. So, I started walking down the stairs, watching him through the bars of the bannister, and calling to him, "Ela, ela." He reluctantly came to me, but stood on the other side of the bars, refusing to come to the stairs.

It was at this point that I decided to try to reason with him, telling him that it was time to eat and that we needed to go downstairs. I was hoping that with a reasonable explanation as to why we needed to pause the "fun" that he might agree to accompany me. He stayed put. So, I just kept repeating, "We need to go down and eat." After the third or fourth time, he looked at me through the bars and said softly, "Go down and eat."

I was so excited that he had put together his first conceptual sentence that I forgot about the food, ran back up the stairs, whisked him into my arms, and twirled him around in circles, kissing him and telling him how smart he was. Who knows if he understood entirely what he was saying, but it was a start. My boy is so amazing!