Nine Fish

Oh, tonight was another one of those perfect nights where I wish I could replay it over and over.  It started out routine enough...Owen spent the day at Tracy's today and will be there again tomorrow.  Monday nights are fairly hectic when Steve is gone.  We get home at dinnertime and then it's run - run - run until bedtime.  Hurry and eat, hurry and clean up, hurry and take out the trash because it's garbage day tomorrow, hurry up and pack for Tracy's tomorrow, hurry up and go to bed, etc.

After dinner and before bed, we had enough time to sit down for 10 minutes and play.  He was saying his numbers (one, two, five) and I started saying the rest when I realized, he could probably say "nine" if he really wanted to.  I said, "Owen, can you say NINE?"  He looked at me and said, "Nigh?"  I screamed and hugged him saying, "YAYYYY!  GOOD JOB!  NINE!"  He laughed and said, "Nigh!" and then cheered for himself and hugged me. 

Then we were reading a book about fish and I showed Owen how to sign the word "fish" with his hands.  We've tried this for months, but he's never picked it up.  Something about tonight though, he copied the sign right away.  I screamed again and hugged him and he loved it.

The rest of the night, we said "nine" then screamed and hugged...followed by signing "fish" with more screaming and hugging...nine - scream - hug...fish - scream - hug...repeat, repeat.  I was so proud of him but the best part was, he was really proud of himself.