Thursday, May 10, 2007

More than I give him credit for...

Deep down, I know that Levi understands more than he is able communicate back to me, but sometimes in my busyness I forget to notice that he does understand.

I realized this again when Levi and I went to school to pick up TRIP today. As soon as I opened Levi's door he started making an animal noise. Levi has a distinct sound for a duck's quack (pretty accurate) and a dog's bark (not so accurate, but we know what he means), but for the rest of the animal population he has a generic animal noise. At first I thought today's sound was the "goggy" (doggy) bark, but like I told Levi, there were no dogs visible in the vicinity. He kept at it though, determined to make me see that he knew what he was talking about.

Once I got him out of the car seat, I let Levi get down to walk around in the parking lot. He started walking toward the basketball hoop that was a parking space away from the van. He was pointing at the net, so I figured that was what he was talking about. Usually when I figure out what he means, Levi gives me some indication that I've gotten it right, but no such luck with the basketball net. Then I looked again and finally saw what Levi had been seeing the entire time...there was a bird sitting on the basketball hoop! As soon as I said "Oh, you see the birdie up there!" he started smiling and made an even more excited birdie sound.

I am reminded again that Levi is like a sponge soaking up EVERYTHING around him and that I can learn a lot from him. Every day, a new discovery and a new adventure. What a way to live!