The first 'I Love You'

I received a very special gift from my son over the last few days. Though it has been our tradition since he was born to say 'I love you' whenever he goes down for a sleep, the words were never spoken back.  At almost 21 months now his vocabulary has really taken off! Anything Momma or Dada say around him is generally now repeated back (we've got to watch ourselves!) and he has even begun stringing several words together. It's amazing to see the knowledge that he has absorbed about things we never realized he was paying attention to!

Thursday morning had been a little rough for me. I went to my 38 week prenatal appointment expecting to hear words of progress from the doctor only to be disappointed. Nothing was happening with my body to really signify that labor would be happening in the coming days or weeks. She couldn't even do the planned 'sweep' to try and help things a long. I left a little grumpy, only to then come across a parking ticket on the windshield of the car. Fantastic. That certainly wasn't helping my mood!

After some lunch it was time for Goobers nap, which he decided he didn't want. I go in to check on him almost an hour later and find one extremely messy diaper. Certainly explained why he wasn't sleeping! I begin taking it off and he instantly grabs his bum with both hands, covering them in the mess. Yuck! To make matters worse, he looks at his hands and starts saying 'chocolate' and as if in slow motion, I see his fingers move towards his mouth. I quickly grabbed his hands away and in turn, the poop ended up all over me. At this point I was exhausted and just feel like bursting into tears. But I managed to hold it together and clean the both of us up. He yawned and as I carried him to his bed to give the nap another go he looked right at me smiling and said, "Momma, a la loo. A la loo!" It took me a moment to register what he was saying, but once I did it immediately brought a huge grin to my face and happiness just welled up inside of me. I repeated back to him, "I love you too hunny" over and over as we snuggled for another minute til I laid him in his crib. As I pulled his bedroom door closed, I could still hear him saying it over and over, a la loo... a la loo... Five minutes later, he was fast asleep.

Isn't that timing wonderful? How many people can say they got their first I love yous from their child right around Mothers Day? After all, he is too young to really make me anything with his hands, or buy me flowers. But he found a way to tell me, even at such a young age. How wonderfully special!