CeCe wedges herself in the tightest space between Justin and I, looking back and forth from his face to mine.  After a few bedtime songs, and a few prayers, (and usually a few giggles because this is when she is the silliest) we say goodnight.  I tuck her in her crib and I look down at her and say “Sweet dreams.  We love you so much” and she snuggles in with her three blankets, her puppy dog, and her two baby dolls and sometimes her plastic dinosaur “BeBo” and in my head she says back “I love you too”.

One night in the video monitor, we heard her talking to herself.
“Eyes”
“Mouth”
“You”

She and Justin are always working on learning new words.

Again she said, very slow and deliberately . . .
“Eyes”
“Mouth”
“You!”

I looked at Justin and he looked at me.  We looked back at the monitor.  What was she doing in there?

Over and over again she repeated it, each time with more confidence and more excitement.  Faster and faster the words strung together . . .

“Eyes…Mouth…You…”
“Eyes.  Mouth. You!”
“EyesMouthYou!”

A rush of understanding hit us both at the same time.  Eyes_Mouth_You was her way of repeating “I love you”.

And she is right.

Love is the way you look at someone across the room and have an entire conversation. (Eyes)
Love is the way you speak to someone with understanding. (Mouth)
Love is you . . . the real you.  (You)

When you don’t know quite how to say it the right way. . . Eyes. Mouth. You.