My First Words

According to my mother, my very first words came in sentence form: "Don't put my big blue dog on the brown sofa." Amazing verbal child!

Well, it's not like I collected adjectives. That stuffed dog was always called "the big blue dog," and the couch was "the brown sofa." What would've been truly amazing is if I'd said, "Don't put my large, furry dog on the high sofa."

Plus I was probably talking before that. My mother at age 27 already had a 6-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 4-year-old. Who in that situation has time to listen to the toddler? I was probably already entertaining myself, listening, biding my time. And my time to speak up has always been on behalf of creatures who can't speak for themselves...