Conversational Biscuit

When people ask me questions about Biscuit's verbal-ness, I tell them the truth when I say that he went from being non-verbal to verbal. There wasn't really much of an in-between.

And he talks and talks and talks now. He talks to Jeff and me. He talks to people in line at stores. He talks to other little kids (and I'm always surprised by how many kids are either freaked out by this or are mean to him). He talks to my co-workers when he gets to come by the office. He talks to everybody.


We're starting to have stranger-danger conversations with him now. I tell him that as long as Jeff and I are with him, he can talk to anyone he wants. But if Jeff and I aren't there, he shouldn't talk to anyone. I think it will take us a while to get that message across because he doesn't see the danger in it.

Tonight, we met a sales lady at a women's accessory store. The store is arranged by color, and because the store isn't exactly Biscuit's cup of tea, whenever I make him go in there with me, I give him a job to do.

"Her favorite color is purple," I said. "So let's find something purple."

He's so preoccupied with his duties that he forgets to be bored and forgets to ask me if being in this store is going to take FOREVER!

Biscuit and I were talking, and a sales lady came up behind us and asked if we needed help.

"No, thank you," Biscuit said. "We're just looking for something purple."

"Wow," the lady said. "He speaks well." Then she walked away to check on some other customers.

When Biscuit and I were heading for the checkout, he asked the same question he always asks me.

"Mom, do we have everything we need?"

"Yep," I told him. "Let's go."

We walked up to the counter, and even standing on tiptoes, Biscuit could barely see over.

"Excuse me," Biscuit said to the same sales lady we encountered earlier. "Was I so little that you looked right over me?"

"Almost," she said, looking at me with her eyebrows raised.

"Can you introduce yourself?" I asked Biscuit.

He told her his name, then he asked her name (it was Rhonda), and then he said, "This is my mom, but some people call her Kim."

After that store, we went to get Biscuit's hair cut. He was in major hippie form and needed a good trim.

When the stylist called him back, he looked at me, held up his hand and said, "Mom, I can do this by myself."

So I sat down in the little waiting room. Biscuit had a big mirror in front of him, and I realized that if I moved my chair over a little, and I could see his reflection by looking into a different mirror.

I struck up a conversation with another mother there. Her 15-year-old was getting bangs after letting her hair grow to just past her shoulders. The mother was clearly freaked out on the daughter's behalf. The mother wouldn't dare say anything to the girl. She was letting her do what she wanted. But I could tell that she was anxious to see if the girl liked the bangs when the stylist was done. (She did, by the way.)

The whole time this lady and I were talking, Biscuit was chatting up a storm with the girl who was cutting his hair. 

He told her to make sure not to cut his ear because he couldn't hear if he was missing an ear. He told her that he didn't like the hair dryers because they were too loud, but if she needed to use one on him, she could put it on low, and it wouldn't hurt his ears. He told her all about the cars he was carrying and asked her what cartoons she liked. He explained to her that he was a boy and she was a girl. And his Dad is a boy, and his Mom is a girl, and his Mom is sitting in a chair over there waiting on him. Then he asked her how the chairs moved up and down. And she took the time to show him. Then he called me over so he could show me.

She gave Biscuit a great haircut, and most importantly, she talked to him like she would talk to any other client. She didn't talk to him like he was a baby.

That really means a lot to me, when people treat him with respect, even though he's still a little guy.

By the time we left, he had said at least a few words to everyone left in the place (two female stylists, one male stylist and three customers).

Right before we left, the stylist gave Biscuit a lollipop and said, "You look so handsome." 

He just looked at her, smiled and said, "Yeah."