A sign of love

Sometime last year, during our "youtube time," Oliver stumbled across this video showing the alphabet using sign language. We had done a little signing when he was a baby, but just some basic words like more, thank you, and all done. My alphabet-obsessed son started watching it again a few months ago, and because I happen to know how to sign the alphabet, we worked on it from time to time when he'd ask me to. By Christmas time, could pretty much sign the whole alphabet. So cool! When we'd sign the alphabet together, I'd often end by signing "I love you," which he eventually learned to do back to me. Well, tonight, we were sitting and playing with his magnet board, and he stopped and looked at me and signed, "I love you" with a sweet smile. While he's been saying "I love you" for a long time, there's something about him signing it without prompting for the first time that felt like the first time he said it, or the first time he smiled. And my heart melted.