As you all know, we had a certain 4/20 holiday recently...
I'm talking about Easter, guys. Don't do drugs.
Anyway, as parents, Nate and I were most excited about how Vincent was going to experience Easter (although I think that for Nate, getting pumped up for Vincent's first Easter egg hunt only barely overshadowed the anticipation for my mother-in-law's annual lamb dinner).
I didn't particularly love the idea of a one-and-a-half year old consuming record amounts of sugar, so for his Easter basket I only purchased squeezable applesauce, little bunny-shaped grahams, and fruit snacks - however he did have some candy as well, from the Easter egg hunt the day before.
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| "Check out my loot." -Actual words from Vincent's mouth I promise |
We've been teaching Vincent some ASL, just for a few words here and there, to ease communication - and he's recently gotten the "thank you" sign down. So, after he receives something, we tell him to say thank you, and he responds with a modified version of thank you in sign. I always assumed that he signed thank you whenever he was told to, and thought no more of it.
Well, after he'd opened up his first plastic egg (with bunny grahams spilling out) and seen the candies in his basket, he looked up at me and signed thank you, thank you, thank you over and over again.
I was ecstatic! I realized that I had been far underestimating his comprehension. Not only does he understand when it is appropriate to say thank you, but he knows how to express himself when he is feeling genuine gratitude. He is growing up so much faster than I had even begun to imagine. Even as I'm typing this, I am touched at how sweet and thoughtful he naturally is. I was expecting him to act like whoa, I'm going to see how much of this I can stuff in my mouth before mom takes it away and instead he stopped what he was doing to thank me for giving him treats.
I think that was the best Easter gift I could have gotten!
