Miracle

**Linking up with MamaKat today: Share something your child did that made you smile.**

Sometimes I forget that it’s pretty much a miracle that Olivia can talk. She has so many words. When we’re together, it’s a constant barrage of conversation. I love it. I never get tired of the way she says things. How years of speech therapy have taught her to say her “th” words with a little shower spray for the listener. Or how she says “rolls” so it sounds more like “rohs”. Or “Crimass”. They are countless and they are all gems.

Olivia loves to sing. Her favorite thing is to take her ipad and listen to music. It can be annoying as all get out for those around her because she will listen to the same ten-second portion of a sound over and over again. Who knows why. Maybe she’s trying to learn a new word. Maybe she just likes that part. But when I hear her sing? It’s like my heart is going to burst with happiness. The cutest part? She’s always about 3 seconds behind the song. She can’t get her words out fast enough. It’s quite adorable.

We went to see Frozen on Thanksgiving day and it was wonderful. We all loved it but Olivia just lives for animated movies. If there’s singing? Double whammy of excitement. The music was so good that I bought the soundtrack right when we got home. I have to confess I listen to it even when the kids aren’t around. On Tuesday, we took Gabe to basketball practice and turned on the soundtrack in the car. Olivia and I drove to a couple of stores to get some Christmas presents and sang at the top of our lungs along with Elsa and Anna and Olaf. She gets so excited that she starts laughing hysterically and can’t finish singing. That’s my favorite part. That same night, we got home and were getting ready for bed while listening to the Frozen music. She looked at me and said “Will you dance with me?” So we did. On a Tuesday night, we stopped everything and we danced and sang.

I was making dinner last night when I heard Olivia singing. I caught her in the basement, sitting at the foot of the stairs, surrounded by her pals (as she calls them) Anna, Elsa, Sven the Reindeer and Olaf. Anna and Elsa even talk. She was playing a song, pausing it, then squeezing Anna or Elsa to hear them talk. Then she’d find another part of the song and do it again. She was trying to find the part of the song on her ipad that would match what the dolls say when you squeeze them. It was amazing to me. Many times, I don’t really know what goes on inside of her head, but that time I did. What a clever girl. She sat at the bottom of the stairs, surrounded by her pals, and sang at the top of her lungs. I was too mesmerized to grab my camera and I didn’t want to spoil the moment.

For that moment, I was just a mom, watching her daughter fully immersed in something she loves, appreciating the miracle that is my Olivia.