by Patty Bates-Ballard

Created on: November 24, 2008

I love so many things about my baby boy: The way he winks one eye as he smiles, the way his head feels on my chest as he falls asleep, and oh, do I love the sounds he makes. His baby noises have a strange power over me. As I give him his bottle, his sounds draw me closer until my ear is so close to his mouth that I hear every sweet suck and squeaky swallow. After he had to stay in the hospital with breathing issues for his first three weeks of life, I never felt so grateful to wake up and hear his little putter-snore. I have a real appreciation for his two purposeful and brief cries: one for pain and one for fear. He has a precious little whine that he reserves only for spit-ups, burps, and hiccups, so you know one of the three is coming.

The first time he really laughed, not just a one-syllable coo accompanying a smile, but a true guffaw complete with smiling snort, was the happiest moment of my life. I have learned to hold my laugh until he's finished with his giant, squeaky yawn if I laugh too soon I make him laugh, interrupting the yawn. I never imagined that my venture into motherhood would result in celebrating the passage of gas. But after hearing my child cry in pain and then feeling the pain in my own back from bouncing him up and down to help him release the gas, those little burps and toots of gas are truly sounds to celebrate.

Recently, the sound of my little boy crunching a piece of cereal had me cooing and stuffing piece after piece in his mouth so I could hear the crunching sound again. (It's amazing how much chewed-up stuff he can keep in his mouth without swallowing.) I love the little grunts he makes when he is concentrating on grasping a toy just out of reach, and his happy gasps when air hits his face. He has taken to following a real sneeze or cough with several fake ones because he likes the sound as well as the attention he gets.

No one can deny the precious sound of his "bumble-bee lips" but he can only brush his lip up and down a few times before he has to laugh, and the bumblebee sound doesn't work when you're smiling. I don't know where the term "goo-goo-ga-ga" came from - he's never said that. But his "da-da-da," and "ma-ma-ma" in a whisper-soft baby-voice melt mommy and daddy's hearts like nothing else. A few second later, he is subject to erupt in screams of joy that make me join in.

Alas, there is one exception. I've tried, but I just can't find anything cute about the sound of my baby boy grinding his teeth!

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