Bubbles!

It seems these days my favorite thing is bubbles.

Ezzy has always been motivated by bubbles. One of her first object related sounds was a blowing noise for “bubble.” She started doing it around Christmas. At first I thought she only did it when we were playing with bubbles, you know, to ask for more. But I realized that she really got the concept when she was faced with a giant Christmas tree covered in shiny gold, silver, and red balls. Ezzy and I went to check out the tree and as we got closer I heard her making that sweet tiny little blowing sound: She thought the Christmas balls were bubbles!

More recently I have been using the bubbles as motivation for her budding crawling. If I blow a line of bubbles in front of her, she will try to reach them in her painfully slow comando crawl: Inching forward, POP! Inch, Pop! Inch, Pop!

But, get this: Now she says “Bubble.”

Alright, it is more of a “buhbah,” but, still! It’s a BIG DEAL.

She wakes up from her naps saying, “buh buh bah bah bub bub!” (It used to be “Ma ma mah MAMA,” but I’m ok with the change!)

Every time she makes the “B” sound clearly and emphatically I offer her bubbles. I say, cheerily, “OH! Bubbles! Ezzy wants bubbles?” And every time she rolls onto her belly and looks at me expectantly until the bubbles fly her way.

I have never felt more connected to her. I mean, of course I have always felt close, I have always felt the world-altering love you feel for a person whose heart you know inside and out, who you would do anything to protect.

But Ezzy has never been able to tell me the thing she wants in such a straight-forward way…there has never been so little room for misunderstanding or my poor guessing.

I know Esmé understands me, but it is such a gift to start to understand her better.

“Buhbah.”

Bubbles.

Has there ever been a more beautiful word?