I Love You

Today Daddy had to work, and whenever that happens on the weekend, he will request lots of pictures of Abby. Now, since I have gotten in the habit of pushing my phone in Abby's face and saying, "Look here, Abby!" she will sometimes see me grab my phone and say, "No, Mom! No pictures!" Today though, when I saw her start to protest, I would say, "This is for Daddy," and she would immediately be good with it.

This evening, as she was busy writing "notes" I thought it was time to send another picture. I told her to tell Daddy she loved him and this is what I got.

This reminded me of all the signing we did with Abby before she was verbal. She had quite the signing vocabulary when she was small. I still am amazed at how well she picked up on signs and how much she could tell us. Since she is now very verbal she has left most of the signing behind her (although there are a few times when I don't respond as quickly as she feels I should, and then without thinking, she will use a sign to punctuate her words). Despite the fact that we've moved past that, there is one sign that we still use often - "I love you."

I remember many a day when little Abby would climb on the bus to preschool and we would sign to each other out the window. It always made me feel a bit lighter that she was reminded of my love as she pulled away. We even used the sign yesterday when I dropped her off at school. She'd already marched into her classroom when I remembered that I needed to tell her teachers I'd be picking her up after school. I popped my head in and told them, and sent Abby an "I love you" sign on my way out - she promptly returned it. 

There isn't too much sweeter to my mother's heart than that.