Parenting continually

Our oldest wants her son to talk. He is is 15 months old and can jabber with the best of them. She wants real words. So we talked about ways she can encourage speech and word recognition. Cait listened and, I think, will apply some of the things we discussed.
Afterwards I looked back at when she and her siblings learned to talk. When her sister started, she never stopped. Her brother's favorite word was "actually". Still is for that matter.
Language and communicating has evolved in this family. Certainly we talk - always. There is texting, emailing and sometimes yelling at full voice. (We won't go into that last one right now).
Sometimes the words come as gifts.
I got such a gift today.
A foster daughter of ours wrote to me this morning. She wanted to let me know she was a good person and a good mom. That she felt blessed to have had us as parents. I sat here and wept. That she is a good person does not surprise me. She was strong. Had to be. She knew she would make it in this life. But to have her write as she did....
The gift of language is presented in so many ways. We learn those ways all through our lives. Not just when we are young. Sometimes when we are middle aged and sometimes when we are old.