Listen Close - He Speaks

Part of hearing him would be that like always my parents were right, and part of it would also be all of the time we have been spending together these past two weeks. By my parents being right I mean that when they were in town at the start of December they told me he was speaking English, but Appa and I just weren't listening. I had a brief talk with CJ's teacher at the start of last week and she told me she was working with him on opening his mouth wider when he speaks. She, like my parents, mentioned how he is very quiet when he talks. I have also realized that he tends to only say part of the words.

On his list of most common words and phrases would be: hot, again, like this, this one, mine and no. Hot is missing the "h" sound and again is missing the "a". No sounds more like "nana" while mine is "ma". The last one is very confusing and forces us to listen super careful to hear when he is saying "ma" and when he is saying "omma" because the "o" tends to get lost.

Last night he said "pa" as he was reading/looking through his bible. I had just read a few pages and then past the book on to him while I started the ABCs book. He said "pa" a few more times so I figured he was trying to tell me something. I wasn't sure if he was saying "pa" or "ba" so I tried both and could tell from his expression that "pa" was the right sound.

I asked "What is pa?"
He let out a giggle.
I asked again, and he got frustrated.
I said "Do you mean Appa?" and he touched is forehead.
I asked "Do you love Appa?" and he finished the sign of the cross - three taps on his chest.
I said "Does 'pa' mean prayer?" and he giggled again, hid his eyes, and shook his head yes.
I said prayer a few times and he repeated after me each time with "pa".
I got out the prayer book his godparents gave him and we read a few prayers.

The lesson learned is to listen very carefully as you never know when God might be talking to you.