Playing with Bradley

It's interesting the way life hands you things...or perhaps I should just say that it's interesting the way Bradley hands us things.  We've always been slightly amazed by him, often bemused.  We would laugh because every hospital stay would elicit a new skill from him.  The first time he spent the night in a hospital he came out holding the bottle on his own.  He never ceases to amaze us with these kinds of tricks.  Like he means to temper our concern and worry with our great pride and utter joy at his incredible feats.  He's good like that.

He had the seizure, and then the next few weeks he seemed to throw out more whispered words and he started to repeat counting: one, two, four, five.  He didn't like three, nobody likes three.  Sydney didn't like it when she was little either. ;-)  Have I mentioned yet how very alike they are?

We moved him to a Toddler Bed last week, we haven't slept in a week!  ;-)!  Haha.  After the first couple of nights, he is staying in bed more hours than he's out of it during the night.  Every night he yells to us at 3 am in case we thought he'd left the house or something.  Rock him back to sleep and not another peep til after six when he fusses and we find him sleeping on the floor, or sitting in his rocking chair.  This morning, when I got to his bedroom door he was in the rocker holding a book.  He looked so cute I stood yawning and watching for a minute.  Then he leans forward slightly, lets go with a mighty wind; impressive in one so young.  So it's pretty early so my five year old side quietly giggles.  In the meantime, Bradley leans forward again and here comes the cat, beleaguered and a little flat; out from underneath him.  She was sleeping in the rocker and he climbed up and sat himself down using her as a pillow.  After gassing her, she bailed for higher ground and cleaner air.  As for me, yeah I announced my presence by laughing out loud!

After speech lessons, he decided to ham it up for the camera: here are three of my favorites...

 

His sense of comedic timing is not his only development amazing us in the past couple of days.  As we played last night, Bradley told Daddy he wanted "blocks" but then he told him the colors he wanted.  He stacked and then he pushed them down, all the while signing: block, again, blue, red, ready, or, careful... And with his voice he counted 1-6 repeating us and adding three which comes out as an adorable "free" and four that comes out as a lovely "pour".  But he had more to say, trying to copy words like: steady and careful.  When we were reading his bedtime book, my guy signed the animals he knew even copying the sounds of a pig, an elephant, and a frog.  He loves to make sounds like an elephant, but my favorite was the frog.

Did I cry at the sound of my son's voice?  Yes.  Bradley's sweet voice surrounded me with its warmth, like magic wrapping around me.  I was overwhelmed by how much joy I felt, how proud I was of him, how happy I was for him.  After I pulled myself together and stopped being a wimp - our time with his book was incredible.  We just had so much fun with his book because Bradley was having so much fun giving all the signs he knew and trying to copy every new sign I showed him.  So much fun!

Our little boy is growing up, we knew he would.  We know he's going to catch up on his own time.  It just amazes us when he decides to accelerate his own timeline and pack so much learning into small, powerful bursts!