gently down the street

Tonight Tucker asked for noodles and meatballs for dinner, and I realized I'm not really sure when he quit calling them meatbulbs.
Yesterday in the bathtub he said, Mom, you know all that water goes down the drain into a big underground resev-water?
He talks regularly about his friend Little Molly, and shows off the carton-wheel maneuver he learned from her.
It took me three days to figure out when he was telling Tolliver about the old crows bones he was referring to the flag in his pirate book.

Despite these malapropistic examples, Tuck has a firm grasp on language.  When he turned two Tucker was talking in paragraphs.  Tolliver, still several months shy, kicks balls and jumps over buckets, makes colanders act as catcher's mitts and turns branches into bats.  If the developmental rate of his motor skills has seemed fast, he runs faster.  And now words are coming quick from him too.  He says multisyllabic things like mosquito and octopus, and words for stuff he dreams about, like chocolate and juice.  Last week he saw officers on horseback and talked about the mounted oh-pees all day.  He repeats phrases he's heard Tuck say, like I did it! and iPad game? and I know.

And I know Tollie's toddler skills may never translate to success on a field, and Tuck's proclivity to speak doesn't mean he'll always say the right thing.  I know we probably shouldn't make comparisons between them, but the observations come anyway and are not at all critical.
The boys won't always be in the same boat, but I sure hope wherever the tide of their time together takes them, they'll mostly row together.