Gimme, gimme

Nathan is talking to us.
Sort of.

The last two days have been the best of the last 2 weeks because I have been able to leave the hospital at 5pm, pick my boy up from day care and spend the evening with him. Last night I watched him swim with his dad and fed him a huge and varied dinner. (Who doesn't like roasted butternut squash with cinnamon sugar? And Cheerios?!?) Tonight we played and sang and snuggled.

And he talked to me.

At first I didn't realize he was doing it. I was carrying him around getting his dinner ready and he was waving his right hand. Fist closed. Hand going up and down and up and down and up and down. Pediatrician-mommy was starting to think he was having a partial seizure. I fed him some dinner and cleaned him up and palyed on the floor with him. The whole time he was intermittently waving that little fist.
Fist wave. Food in mouth.
Fist wave. Crawl into Mommy's lap.
Fist wave. Rubber duck into mouth.
Fist wave. Belly scoot over to music cube.

And I still didn't get it.
But finally, I wised up.
Dave and I were sitting on the floor eating dinner and to distract Nathan from our oh-so-attractive bowls of pasta I brought out a bag of Cheerios.
Wave, wave, wave went the fist as he lunged at the bag with mouth open.

Light bulb above Mommy's head.
Ah Hah! He's trying to tell me something!

The path through Mommyhood is paved with good intentions, but I never have managed to buy that book on baby sign. I have made an earnest effort to teach him "more" and "all done", the signs I know, but the fist wave was new to me. It was also news to me that the ladies at day care try to teach them baby sign, a fact that Dave confirmed.

We had to look it up, but we found out it's the sign for "milk". To Nathan, however, it seems to be the sign for "give me that please". Or just "gimme".

I am thrilled that my boy is talking to me.

He's so smart!!!