What do you say?

Posted by Kevin......

Several nights ago, I was reading bed time stories to Henry before putting him down for the night. Stace was down stairs....gasp!....watching TV!

In all fairness, Great Performances was on PBS. It was CHESS......you know, the musical. ("One night in Bangkok...." )

Anyway, between books, I asked Henry for his full repertoire of words he can communicate to me. It usually starts with:

Me: "What does a cow say?"
Henry: "Mooooo."

"What does a monkey say?"
"Oooo, oooo, oooo!"

After a few more animals I say, "Up." and he points to the ceiling and says "UPah!"
"Can you say BOOK?" Instead, I get the sign language for book....his hands pressed flat together, then opened like a book. "Yea Henry." I say, and now he claps.

"What does a big truck say?" "Varoooom" is the response."

Then I have him point to body parts: eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, toes, fingers, and of course BELLYBUTTON! I'm surprised to discover he knows the different between his fingers and his hands, and his toes and his feet.

He loves to say oh-oh and uh-uh, but now he signs "yes" a lot too. He also says "tank" when you give him something.

For over a month, he's been repeating the word "a-Latoya". I assumed he was wondering whatever happened to Janet Jackson's older sister. Well who doesn't.

But it dawned on me Henry might be saying a phrase. Yes, it's something he hears frequently in our house hold.

While he was flipping quickly through the pages of a book, I said, "Henry, can you say I Love You?" He did not respond.

I leaned away for a split second to get another book and, when I looked back, Henry was leaning toward me with his lips puckered! The look on his face said, "Well, I'm WAITING!" I gave him a big kiss and yelled "Yea Henry. I love you too!"