True Professions of Love

When Toby started stringing 2 word sentences together it wasn’t long before he melted our hearts with “I wuv oooo” in our arms each night at bedtime.  It has got to be, hands down, one of the most euphoricaly-drug-simulating moments that parenthood gives you.

And once again, we fall victim to sibling-assumptions.

Mia, who has been stringing 2 or 3 words together for months now, absolutely REFUSES to indulge our parental cheesiness.  Each night when I put her down to sleep I say, “night night, Mia, I love you!” to which she replies with an offhanded wave of her hand and a gruff, “BYE BYE.” 

Rob has even started practicing with her, “Mia- - I LOOOVE YOU!!” he’ll say in his most endearing voice only to be met with her dead pan stare and the now humorously predictable, “BYE BYE.”  Apparently she thinks this is the logical response to someone’s confession of love.

But this weekend I finally duped her.

Mia has a very busy social life.  She attends dance classes, swim lessons, gym, music, rhythm and rhymes at the Early Years center, the gymnastics club at the YMCA…I really cannot keep up with her busy weekly schedule.  Somewhere, during ONE of these groups, she heard the song Skinnamarink – you know the one – that ends each verse with a heartfelt “I LOVE YOU!!!!”

Shelly informed me of her new obsession with this song and the bait was on the hook.  By the end of the weekend she was humming the tune and eventually I actually heard, for the first time ever, those 3 sweet words come out of her mouth.

“I love BUUUU!”  She said with so much genuine love I felt instantaneously jealous for the recipient of her very first pronouncement of love:  her beloved blanket.

She still says BYE BYE as I kiss her lovingly good night and tell her how much I love her each night, but I now KNOW that she can say it and one day, when she realizes that I’m JUST as great as her beloved blanket, I’m going to hear it for real.

…I’ll keep you posted.  Until then - -BYE BYE.

I will conclude this post with a video of something Mia DOES share willingly: The singing of Happy Birthday with the delivery of a Lego Tower Birthday Cake.  It seems to be her newfound obsession.  As you will be able to tell from this short clip, she is missing 66% of the words to the song but the message gets across crystal clear.