The Best Gift of All

This is one of those stories that seems to only happen to other people. Or in Movies.

You all know that my precious child has been taking his sweet time to start talking. Almost 21 months and not one distinguishable, recognizable word.

He could say ma-ma and ba-ba and -ice, but it was never in direct relation to the actual object. For example, he would imitate my "baba" in the presence of another baby but wouldn't volunteer the word himself - and I am not one of "those" mothers who insists that that means my child is forming independent words and therefore talking. I refuse to be one of "those" mothers who thinks their child is a genius simply because they did this or that 3 seconds before another child. (Of course, I am confident in this high-road because I secretly know that my child is gifted and that I therefore do not need to flaunt his giftedness to other mothers with the misfortune of non-gifted children...)

For the last 6 months I have had child care "professionals" looking at me out of the corners of their eyes and over the tops of their noses each time they have enquired about this particular milestone. "No," I have repeated endless times, "he doesn't talk gibberish or baby talk." "Yes," I insisted, "he understands 3-phase instructions." "No, I know he doesn't have a hearing problem" (How do I know? Because he hears aeroplanes taking off from Heathrow, dammit). "Yes, I'll seek professional help if he hasn't said anything by 12 18 20 24 months."

The last few days has finally shown us the light at the end of the tunnel. He has started to say "Daddy" (although I will go to my grave insisting he said "mama" coherently first), "de" (for "there", and the generic answer to "where are we going?", "what do you want?", "where's mommy?"), "Bobby" (the dog down the road), "o-w!" for "no!" (of the reprimand version rather than the shake of the head "no" - not sure where he gets that one from!). "O-W!" normally accompanied with frantic finger wagging (again, really not sure where he gets that from...).

And then for the first time this morning, on Mother's Day, this little angel looked up at me, held out his hand, and said "Mommy". It doesn't get any better than that.

Happy Mommy's Day to all of you out there.

Here is what I made for my Mom for Mother's Day.