Precious Words

"I yo, Mommy" followed by "wo-ah, wo-ah, wo-ah!"

These from M, after she woke up from nap today. She came downstairs and started dressing up. In between, she was going over to turn on music for F. My little girl, now such a good big sister! I gave her a hug and said, "I love you, M!"

To my surprise, she responded back with "I yo, Mommy". I wasn't sure I'd heard her right, so I said it again, "I love you, M!" and added some kisses. Sure enough, she responded again with "I yo, Mommy" followed by "wo-ah, wo-ah, wo-ah!" She just told me she loves me for the first time! This realization brought joy to my heart so we repeated this back-and-forth game a few times, smothering each other in "I love you's" and kisses.

M is 27 months and has limited sounds and words, so we've been working with a speech therapist since July. Putting 2-3 words together into sentences started happening about a month ago. "Yo" is a new one she added about 2 weeks ago and it means "you". "Wo-ah" is her word for kiss and she will use it in a sentence now, almost always in the context of asking if she can give F a kiss: "A wo-ah, baby?"

It's exciting to see your child make progress in an area of struggle, and even more exciting when that progress rewards you with such precious words.