My Little Songbird

It's officially here; Antonio has discovered his voice. More and more he babbles. My father is convinced that he will be a very talkative baby like I was. I have heard all too often that as a child I talked A LOT. My mother jokes that I started talking at eight months and never stopped. I must admit I do like to talk. When I was in elementary school we had a system to correct bad behaviour in which each time your behaviour needed correcting you had to "turn your card". Each student was provided a set of cards in an envelope. The cards were taped to a wall or the back of the classroom door. The card set included Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, and Unsatisfactory. Everyone started out on Excellent. If your behaviour needed correcting you were asked to "turn your card", demoting you to the next level. Once you reached unsatisfactory, you were sent to the Principal's office and your parents were called. Let's just say I made it to Principal Paris' office every week. Well there are only four cards and five school days in a week. Every day I had to turn my card because I was caught talking when I shouldn't have been. I actually still have progress reports from elementary school and I swear I made all E's, back in my elementary days we earned E's for excellent instead of A's, but under behavior it says either needs improvement or unsatisfactory. Under the teacher's comments it reads "Cassandra is very smart and participates well in class; however, she talks during learning time and disrupts the other students". Of course I disrupt the other students; I can't talk to myself. I never got that under control and quite frankly I have no idea how I am going to handle my child if he has the same problem. Honestly, I think he might. Antonio will lay in his crib talking to the animals on his sheet or mobile for as long as we let him. We often lay in bed listening to him through the baby monitor. We find it to be absolutely adorable. Well, as of recent Antonio enjoys making this extremely high pitch noise. It almost sounds like screaming. He literally will spend the entire morning making this noise and laughing at himself. This past Sunday, Easter Sunday, he was very conversational. As we dressed for church, the husband and I joked about what we would do if Antonio decided to share his new talent during service, particularly during prayer when it is dead silent. Perhaps we jinxed ourselves. It all started after the choir finished their selection. I don't know if I have shared this but the cub is extremely musically inclined. He absolutely loves his Baby Beethoven and Baby Mozart DVDs and the only way I can calm him when he is in a fit is by singing or playing Aladdin's A Whole New World or Pocahantas' Colors of the Wind. It's something about music that soothes him. He becomes completely absorbed in the melodies. Well, back to the choir. Antonio was entranced the entire time the choir sang. As soon as the song would end, as if to encourage them to continue on, he would squeal out his highest note and as loud as he could. Then he would smile and laugh to show his delight in what he'd just done. You would think it was a coincidence but he did it after each song and only after the songs. He settled for his babble during other parts of the service. I could be one of those parents that read into every little action but mark my words my cub will be a singing cub.