Hi! If you’ve travelled here via the Statesman or The Seattle Post-Intelligencer welcome! Special thanks to Paul Nyhan of the Post-Intelligencer and Joe Gross of the Stateman — I appreciate the mentions and the well writen articles! Also, while you’re here, please feel free to disregard the spelling mistakes, you’ll find it makes for a much happier experience!

It’s official, Hayes is saying full sentences — and it’s been confirmed by a non-family/friend third party. He even waited for Father’s Day to bust it out. Yup, that’s the kind of good son I’ve got. Oh, and did I mention it was really funny in that inappropriate but not knowing kid sort of way? Yes, this was one I’m gonna be telling his kids about.

So, let’s set the scene, shall we? We’re at the check out line at Target and Hayes is playing with his two new $.99 trucks (I mean, how can you pass up $.99 trucks? They should be outlawed. They’re so cheap, they’re evil.) The kid at the check out, one of the better kids I’ve seen with youngins, politely asks for the trucks so he can scan them/ At first Hayes is hesitent, but after the first one beeps on the scanner and the kid quickly hands it back to Hayes, Hayes is intrigued and give him the other one, which he also quickly gets back to Hayes. Hayes thought he had a new friend in the smiling kid at the counter.

Flash back to Starbucks, daily, for, say, the last couple of months. Hayes and I are there, I’m getting my coffee he’s eating those high-calorie breakfast treats that they cut up and leave up hoping to entice you to buy a whole one. The girls there a gaga (forgive me) over Hayes. They’re always trying to get him to talk to them. “Bye,” they’ll say, “bye!” But, though Hayes can say it, he’s reticent. “Are you gonna say bye?” I ask. Nope. Then, invariably, he says it to no one as I clip him into his car seat.

Ok, back to Target and Hayes’ new friend. The only way Hayes knows to show he cares is to say “Hi” or “Bye” to someone. He gets an immediate reaction, and he glows. It’s great. So, he tries this trick on his new friend behind the cash register.

“Bye!” He says, “Bye!”

The kid says nothing

“Bye!” he tries again. Still nothing.

“Are you gonna say bye? Are you gonna say bye?” Hayes yells.

The woman behind us, now at the checkout says to the kid,”He’s asking you if your going to say bye.”

The kid blushes. “Bye,” He says. “Bye”

Hayes smiles. His work here is done.