He said, she said

For some reason, some of the most gratifying moments I have as a parent come from when my children advance their communication skills. Perhaps this is because communication is such a fundamental part of living and survival.

Ava is getting to the age where she says words and phrases that I didn’t even think she could say, let alone put into context. I need to be better about writing them down to remember and laugh at in the future. But I did remember a funny one from this week … Mike got home from work one night while the kids and I were finishing up dinner, so Ava had a little food on her hands. Naturally, Ava immediately ran over to Mike with her arms spread wide, offering a hug. Mike said, “uh, wait, please don’t touch me yet, you have dirty hands.” Ava ignored his request, gave him her bear-hug anyway and responded, “and now YOU have dirty work pants!” Ha!

Liam is getting to the point where you can practically see his wheels turning and things clicking. This week he starting waving and signing ‘eat’ and ‘milk.’ (Just as we did with Ava, we are teaching Liam baby sign language so he can communicate with us before he is able to talk!) And this morning he really used his ‘milk’ sign to communicate what he wanted … we normally eat breakfast right after we wake up, so I went to put Liam in his highchair. Instead of sliding in and getting excited like normal, he arched his back and kicked his legs. I looked around, perplexed, and noticed he was signing ‘milk’ with his had that was behind my back. And, sure enough, when I sat down to nurse him, that is exactly what he wanted! Amazing!

These two bring us immeasurable joy every day. How did we get so lucky?!