The Wonder of Words

   Over the span of just a few short days we went from a handful of words, 4, maybe 5, to a new word every few hours it seemed. And even though things have slowed down a tad since those days I still feel like I'm caught in a tailspin. The wake left behind Bastian's vocabulary boat is considerable and sometimes it is all I can do to keep my head above the water... because, crazy or not, every time a new word escapes his little baby lips I forget to paddle for a second. I can't help it. I can't do anything but stare in wide-eyed bewilderment. I turn into Bambi, who I'm pretty sure didn't spend much time in the ocean. All the things I expected to feel when he rolled over on his own for the first time or made his first cooing noise? They seemed to have just stored up in my gut until this moment in time. All to be expended over words. Glorious words. Each and every emotion. All at once.

   My baby is talking. Not in full sentences... or even the stringing together of two words. But there are so many individual words, and for each word understanding. Acknowledgement. Recognition. Even compassion... the way he says "Momma" now vs. the way he said it two weeks ago? Umph...

...My baby isn't a baby anymore.

   My baby is a little boy. A toddler, yes. But he has been "toddling" around for what feels like forever now. In my mind he skipped toddler altogether and is now all of a sudden a little boy. Not completely. And, yes, the emotions are clouding my perception, I am acutely aware of that... but, still. A. Little. BOY. A tiny person. Not just a tiny human. A person. A person who apparently really likes the colors purple and yellow. A person who says "nigh-nigh" to inform us that he has become tired. A person who stubbornly repeats "boo-" over and over and over again until you read him that darn book. A person who knows what you are asking for when you say "can I have a kiss" and obliges... sometimes. A person who has a strange fascination with tacos seeing as he has never consumed one. I still can't quite figure out what he is trying to say there. But he sure is saying it. Loudly.

   ...And I? I am a wreck. A happy, weepy, sappy, emotional wreck.

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