I Love You

This is not my original blog or even my second blog. I'm an idiot blogger and for some reason deleted my first and second post!
I hope this one works.
This is my baby telling me my favorite words in the world. I had to prompt her a bit as she was mad at me. She wanted to eat and I was putting a camera in her face instead.
These simple words are so very precious to me because this is the first baby that I have had tell me "I Love You". My first baby, my son, who is now six years old, didn't speak until he was almost three years old. When he finally began to speak, I didn't hear these words for awhile. Oh, how I ached to hear "I Love You" from his little lips. I can't tell you what happens to a mom's heart the first time she hears "I Love You" from her first born.

About the time my son started to speak, my daughter also began to utter her first words. So I would hear "I Love You" from two little children. It was delicious! Neither said it too often. My son was just too shy and had so many other issues that kept his focus at that time. My daughter, my fiercely independent daughter, could be bothered with something so simple.

Almost as soon as the words began to flow from my son's mouth, it stopped. (it was devastating) We were living in Beijing, China at the time and I was dropping my son off at school for the morning. He attended an international school with mostly Asian children. He said to me, "I Love You Momma" and I said it in return. A Chinese boy was standing there observing us and says to my son, "why did you tell you mom that". My son was quite mystified and so I replied because we love each other. I don't know what transpired at school that morning, but after that morning, I no longer heard "I Love You" from my son.

I would prod and prompt and beg to hear these simple words from my son. He didn't budge, his lips were sealed. As it goes with siblings, once he stopped, so did daughter. After awhile, he began to say I Like You and then daughter as well. This lasted for a year. We had returned to the USA and I was close to delivering baby number three. Timidly and quietly I heard "I Love You Momma", followed closely with "I Like You". Oh, you have no idea how hard it was not to make a HUGE deal of this simple little sentence. I took that sentence as the gift it was!

Then began the "I Love You & I Like You" phase from son and daughter. It became a wonderful game to play and eventually the I Like You has been dropped. I do hear it occasionally, but mostly just "I Love You" and with great regularity. No less than 200 times a day ~ in threesome. It is awesome!

My house sounds like this all day long:

"I Love You" "Love Ya" "Love Ye" "Love You" "I Love You Momma" "Mom" "Yes?" "I Love you so Much" "Mom" "Yes?" "I Love you more than anyone in the world" "I Love You" "I Love You"

I will never hear these words enough and I dread the day that I only hear it once a day per child!