Tell Me

Bah! Up! Ber and Be. Mama, Daaahhhhh. Uh huh and yup. There are endless variations on these words and countless others. These "words" are usually augmented with some insane pantomimed hand or head gesture intended to clarify what it is exactly, that the Giant is trying to convey. My boy is in the throes of learning how to speak and it is potentially by turns, the most wonderful, hysterical, ridiculous and frustrating thing we have encountered in our journey together thus far. My son is a little life mimic and he has a mind like a steel trap. Seriously. The child does not forget ANYTHING. He can watch where I put something just once, and from then on, he will go to that place and wreck havoc with his little hands and beautiful diabolical baby mind. So the learning to talk thing has been a riot. He copies sounds, tries to sing in his one toned hum and has full blow conversations with Rufus and I and then, just with himself. It is a sight to behold.

When you have a baby that is growing this quickly, each phase seems to be both amazing and amazingly trying in the same breath. In the beginning he was simply in a very rudimentary way, trying to gain control of his body. I would watch him for hours as he just lifted his arm or tried to touch his hand to his face. His sense of depth perception and crude motor function frustrated him. As the months whizzed by, his development has accelerated at a phenomenal clip. Holding his head up and rolling over, getting up on his hands and knees and rocking his butt back and forth like he's getting ready to ambush us. Pulling up to standing and then with pride and fear, those first tentative steps that tested his independence. Now he is finding his voice. His first voice. I can hear the birdsong sweet cadence trying to find its way out of his mouth and into the bigger world. I can't wait to hear what he is going to have to say. My boy and his words. His mama and her words. We are both a work in progress.