Words, words, words

Today Cas said "map" and "help" for the first time. He is gaining a new word almost everyday... at least the ones other people might understand. His "Norris Code" is growing even more quickly. But I must record a few more memories to catch up:

+ One day on a family walk we came to a little walking bridge, which excited Cas, since his train set has a bridge. "Choo-Chooo!" He yelled out. Jay said, "No, Cas, that's a bridge. Bridge." To which Cas replied adamently, "NO, CHOO-CHOOO."

+ When Cas sleeps, he bunches up the corners of his blanket just so, and fold his arms across his tummy just so (unless he is extra tired). His dad did exactly the same.

+ I'll never forget the day Cas showed me he understood his baby brother's birth. Jake was a couple weeks old when Cas pointed to my belly like he did when it was very large and we would talk about the baby being in mama's belly (have I mentioned being 8 mos pregnant during the hottest month in recorded history?).

"Mama's belly," I said... "is there a baby in mama's belly?"
Cas shook his head and pointed to "Jetch."
We went back and forth a couple times with this. "Where's your baby brother? In mama's belly?" "No, Jetch."
I can't tell you how happy this made me. He totally understood! He was only 20 mos old and I had no idea what he thought about it all. Until that day.

+ Which reminds me of the morning I gave birth to Jake. Our neighbor Heather came over to stay with Cas at 6:30am. We woke him up to let him know we were leaving. He was in Heather's arms, very confused at being awakened early, about to go back to sleep. I got face to face with him and explained that mama was going to the hospital and the baby was going to come out of my belly and then he could come see his baby brother at the hospital. He looked at me like, what are you talking about? just let me go back to sleep. At the end of my explanation, I said "... but I guess that's too complicated to take in at this hour..." to which he quickly and firmly nodded an "uh-huh!" It was so funny, I guess you had to be there.

Oh by the way, we found the ever-loved Pooh.