F is for Fish

The past two days I have seen a whole different side of Wesley.  While reading a book to Wesley yesterday morning, we came to a page with a fish on it.  Wesley immediately climbed out of his cube chair, ran to the other room, threw all the toys out of his toy box, and came back with a little blue plastic fish he had received as a prize from the dentist a few weeks back.  I didn't even realize he knew this fish existed, much less that he was able to make the connection that it was a fish, just like the fish in the book.

For the rest of the day yesterday (and continuing into this morning), Wesley would run up to me every five minutes or so, tug on my arm, show me his fish, and say "fff".  When I responded with, "Yes, Wesley, that is a fish!", he would give me a huge smile, say "fff" several more times, and run off to play again.  Other times, he would run up to me, put his arms in the air for me to pick him up, say "up" after a verbal prompt, and once in my arms show me his fish so that we could say "fish" (or "fff") back and forth a few times before he would squirm back down again.

Watching Wesley's joyous grin and seeing the twinkle in his eye as he would exuberantly run up to me to tell me about his fish has been delightful.  How I pray that this is the beginning of him seeking to initiate verbal communication with us rather than just speaking words when prompted.  Maybe as he realizes how much fun it is to tell Mama about his fish, it will click with him that he can tell me about other things too.

Please join us in praying that this will be the case!