Three Little Words

Over the past 5 or so months, Sophie's vocabulary has been rapidly expanding. It seems like she is learning new words every day and she tries to repeat everything that we say. Her words are becoming much clearer now and she often says 3 or 4 words together to form a little sentence. As she becomes more confident with her newly aquired verbal skills, she has been using less and less of the over 40 signs that we taught her last summer to help our communication go smoother. One of the last ones to go has been the sign for "Thank you". She started saying "Pease" (please) a few months ago-usually with some prompting from Mommy- but for some reason she would often sign but only rarely verbalize " Thank you". Over the past week something marvelous has happened! She has started to say "Thank 'ou, Mommy"! Although I still have to remind her to say "Thank you" some of the time, I have been very surprised at how suddenly it seems that she is remembering to say it on her own. I think that the thing that makes it so special is that she will say it at the times when I least expect it. A couple of examples: #1 I helped her put the cover on her little book while we were reading bedtime stories tonight (mostly because I didn't want it to get ruined, but apparently she cared too) and as I finished it up, she said " Thank 'ou, Mommy". #2 I also helped her to save a bowl of cheerios that went flying off the table during snack time today-in the chaos of the moment, she remembed to say " Thank 'ou, Mommy". I believe that out of all of the words that she has learned and the cute things that she says, " Thank 'ou, Mommy" are the three little words that melt my heart the most and make me so thankful to be a mommy to such a wonderful little girl!