mama

everyone kept asking me - "is he saying mama" yet?  i had not ever really thought that he would be saying it yet, just because mama is harder to say than dada.  he says dada a lot and we hear dadadadadadadadada from sunrise to sunset on a daily basis.  i loved hearing him say dada and it always lit up will's face to hear that word.  but, there hadn't been any mamaing yet, and i only tried to get him to say it a couple of times.  i've been working on things more like - love you - Jesus - welcome - how are you - etc.  he's mustered through some of those and we think we hear him say "wel-com" quite a bit after we say thank you.  it's just a matter of time before these words just start sling shotting their way through our ear canals.

however, yesterday was a magical day.  it was the first time that he ever said "mama" and he said it twice in one day.  you know the first time you hear something you always think its a fluke, so you kind of brush it off like maybe you just did not really hear that.  still, i kept it to myself as some sort of little victory that the ever elusive word had actually been spoken.  i did not tell a soul.  but, then at dinner - he said it again - and this time there was a witness.  will heard it too.  then, this morning - he said it again.  i told him he was right, i was mama and he was dax.  he smiled and i melted.  it really happened.

see that word "mama" it's a powerful word.  it's a word we've been waiting on like a confirmation that yeah i am the mom and you are my son.  it's like daxton acknowledging that he knows and accepts this fact.  it's a word he'll use when he falls down and gets a boo boo, or when he wants my attention, or when he's trying to proudly show off something he's done.  it's a word, that now, once its been said will be said over and over again in repeated fashion - just like dada.  and every time i hear it my heart will melt just a little bit more.

it's like just last night after dinner (a dinner that dax actually ate at the same time we ate - eating real big people food - normally will feeds him his dinner first while i am still cooking the adult dinner) i was thinking how perfect this life is.  how, you never even know when you wish to be a parent how much treasure you're about to receive.  we adore cleaning up his sippy cup spills and smashed kidney beans that he rejected from his dinner tray because that means he's growing and trying new things.  we love being able to share things with him - rolling his ball back and forth and watching his face light up because that means he's having fun playing.  and we cherish the words that are coming out of his little mouth - even when he does say something that sounds like "aww gaaahd" because we know his vocabulary is expanding.  it's the little things to us that seem like such big things - even those two syllable words like mama - those are the things we're treasuring and absorbing.