He speaks

At least, he does to me. Call it superior intelligence, call it childish intuition, call it genius. Call it whatever you like but I've cracked his code: Mark speaks. He's eight months old today and when I saw him first thing this morning he was lying on his back on mummy's bed having just had a feed. He gave me one of those looks when I came in; a look that said, "now don't think you're going to barge your way into my space, because I was here first and it's first come, first served." I ignored it just the same and was just going to squeeze myself in between him and mummy, when he spoke.

"Aye-eeeeeeeeeeee-sshhhhh." I think I've spelt that correctly. I'm pretty sure it's twelve Es and five Hs but I'm not sure where it's "Aye" or "Aie". In any event, "Aye-eeeeeeeeeeee-sshhhhh" (or "Aie-eeeeeeeeeeee-sshhhhh") is what he he said and that's exactly how it would have sounded to mummy; a nonsense half-baby gurgle, half baby-scream that neither she not daddy, nor any adult would be able to understand. But I know what it means. It means, "No you don't! Stay back! Get away!"

Now let me make one thing clear. Mark doesn't scare me. I'm twenty eight and a bit months older than him and I could beat him in a fight any day. Nevertheless, he can be quite determined when he wants to be, and on at least one occasion, when we were rolling around on the floor together, he hooked one of his fingers through my earring and gave it a real good tug. Thankfully daddy was there to prize his finger away, but it could have been quite nasty because he just wouldn't let go. Of course, Mark made it look like an accident; "he didn't mean to", daddy said, but I know better. Only that morning I'd done the same thing I was planning to do today - squeeze myself in on the bed - and that was him paying me back. So when he said "Aye-eeeeeeeeeeee-sshhhhh" this morning, I thought back to my sore ear and decided instead to go round to the space next to mummy on the other side of the bed.

And that's how daddy left us this morning: all three of us dozing on the bed; Mark kicking a little and saying, "oouish" and "aye-oo" which daddy would have heard as "oouish" and "aye-oo" but which I know means, "see you later" and "love you."