little by little

It all started with an exclamation of "Bob Marley!" on vacation in Jamaica (or, probably more accurately, "Ba Bali!").

Then, little by little, more simple words started coming ...

"Whoa!"

"Wow!"

"Pop!"

"On!"

"Off!"

"Moon!"

"Ball!"

Add to that, just about every letter in the alphabet ...

I know it isn't much, probably not where a nearly 27-month-old should be according to doctors and books (and other mothers), but it's something.

Definitely progress from a mere month ago.

Exciting and different and new all at the same time.

And, interestingly enough, while the "real" words are beginning to leak out, the signs just keep increasing, too ...

There are various made-up signs to represent family members and real signs that he joins together (like "baby" and "cookie" to request the small sized cookie from his play food set). And every now and then he'll come out with a sign that I don't even recognize (luckily my husband can fill in some of the gaps with the ASL knowledge he acquired when he needed some language credits in college).

All in all, witnessing this growth of both verbal and nonverbal language is absolutely amazing. It makes me wonder how we even knew what he wanted or how he was feeling before the signing and talking began ... It makes me wonder how the next kid will be, and how our communication with him/her will be different the second time around.

Maybe we will incorporate the signing earlier (or not at all).

Maybe we'll have an early talker instead of a late one.

So many possibilities that I never even considered before I became the parent of a toddler.

I'm sure my mind will be blown when he starts asking questions and speaking in sentences ... But we may have a little while to wait for that!

But, then again, with Malcolm, you just never know!