Back at the NICU

We went to a NICU reunion this afternoon. Honestly, it was mostly so I could reclaim some of those negative memories from when Leon was born. I dressed Leon in a dorky sweatervest in preparation for possibly having to make small talk with other uncomfortable parents.

But the reunion was grander than I expected — it was essentially a carnival with popcorn and bounce houses and face-painting and a snowcone truck. Leon didn’t care about anything other than the balloons, to be honest. We spent five minutes letting him bat at two balloons by the water station before we got bored and took him to the bounce house.

But it was surreal to be back, from circling through the parking garage to sauntering down the hallways I used to speedwalk through to to get to my OBGYN appointments. It was kind of nice to come full circle and be back with a healthy child. Not that Leon isn’t sick every other week and permasnotty, but you know…

Leon’s been working on his vocabulary lately. He can say/recognize about 20 words and will respond to simple sentences (“let’s put that back,” etc.). I made a list of what he knows now, just because I don’t want to forget the cute ways he says everything. Note that mama is “dah.” ?

All done – “ah duh”
Ball – “ba”
Balloon – “ba ba”
Banana – “na na”
Bye bye – “buh buh”
Clock – “dock”
Dada – “dada”
Dog – “dahg”
Grass – “ga”
Head – “ehhhh”
Hello – “hewwo”
Hi – “hi”
I love you – “ah yuh yuh”
Light – “yight”
Mama – “dah”
Milk – “muh”
More – “muh”
Outside – “ah duh”
Phone – “hi”
Sock – “dock”
Tree – “hee”
Uh-oh – “ungh ungh”
Water – “bah bah”
Yeah – “yeah”