Words

Today, just now when I opened the boys' door at 6:45 to greet them for the day, Raph came to me and wrapped his arms around my neck.  His language has been much delayed, having about 30 words at age three, far from textbook.  But I haven't worried about it, being a language acquisition scholar, I knew it would unfold when Raph's synapsis were ready.   And now it's happened, the language mechanism in his brain has flickered on, and his vocabulary has suddenly exploded.  Words he's never practiced, or ever muttered, are daily being added to his list.

But this dim morning in the dawnlight, as his small arms linked around my neck, I nearly wept when I heard his warm, heavy morning voice whisper in my ear:  "I wuv you, Mommy."