My Incredible Boys

So, I'm going to be a crazy mom for a moment and brag about my boys. They are, of course, always wonderful, but to today - oh boy!

Buster said "hello." I know, I know. It doesn't sound remotely believable, but he did, he said it clear as day. Actually, he said a breathy, "hellllooooo" then grinned a big grin at me, and then refused to say anything for a few minutes.

He has been stringing syllables together for a few weeks "abagagada" and the like, and he has said "dada" a few times. He only said it around C at first, so I didn't really believe him when he told me about it, but then I heard it one night - "da-da" and then again, and a third time. There was no mistaking it. So I assure you, I know what I heard today.

Don't misunderstand me, I do not think that he deliberately said "dada" to C to identify or name him, but instead repeated the same syllables that we have been making at him for weeks. C tends to favor "dadada" for some reason or another, so Buster strung two da's together.

And the same for "hello." We say hello a lot to him and he managed to string those two syllables together today, and got mad positive feedback for it, I might add. Still it was one of those things where I looked around my empty family room and thought "there's no one here to hear this! No one is going to believe me." But then I remembered that I don't really care whether other people believe, I'm his mother and I'm sticking by my story. My little boy is just amazing.

And then there is Wiggle. Wiggle who took the New Yorker to bed with him today for his nap. I was laughing aloud at a couple of the cartoons in the latest issue, and Wiggle asked to see them and now he carries it around and laughs at everything in it, the ads, the cartoons, the drawings. I think he thinks it's MAD magazine or something. It's pretty adorable.

Also, he is swimming. Like full on swimming. Last week, he still didn't like to put his head under water, and today he was jumping off the edge in the deep end and swimming.

It all started about a week ago when he told me he wants to go off the diving board, and I told him he couldn't because he had to pass a swim test given by the life guards to show that he could swim to the wall from the middle of the pool. He took it as a challenge, when I merely meant it as a statement of current fact. The same day he mastered kicking with a kickboard all on his own. The next day we went swimming, he started putting his head underwater and moving his arms and legs around. The next day he was swimming under water for short distances for one breath. Today, he jumped off the edge, swam with his face in the water, and was able to take one or two breaths. I have not done anything to facilitate him other than be near him in case he needs help and cheer him on. I am in just in awe.