Manny says

Manny: "Cloud"
Mama: "Where do you see a cloud?"
Manny"  "Right there. Up in da sky."
Not bad for a 26 month old, huh? 

I have a million conversations like this with him.  Always amazed at his vocabulary and he's even working on the syntax. 

Or how about this ... the other day the Neurologist was in trying to assess his mental state.  Manny was playing with a vehicle.  Doc asked, "What is that?"  and Manny answered "Tractor".  (His articulation is poor due to muscle weakness so the doc didn't understand but I did.)  The doc asked again, "What is that?" and Manny said more slowly and deliberately, "Trac-tor".  Doc was like, "Did he just say TRACTOR?"  I nodded with a proud Mama smile.  He says, "Not just 'car', but 'tractor'. Wow!"  I then handed Manny more vehicles, "Bus", "Truck", "Car", "Train", by the time we got to airplanes and helicopters, the doc was in shock. 

The Doc reminded me that he's never seen a child with such extensive white matter brain involvement that was cognitively intact.  He said, "If you see his brain scans, you'd just know that this child was in a true vegetative state, not talking."  Manny is defying all the odds apparently!

A little later, the nurse was talking about the electronic fish aquarium that Child life let us borrow.  There is a clam, 2 fish and a star fish.  We had NEVER talked about it.  She said, "How many fish are there?"  He looked at all of them, pointed to them "One, two ... two bish".  I said that I doubted he knew the starfish was a fish.  So she said, "How many stars?"  "One tar". 

The other day we were at a resort and he was relaxing on the lounge chair.  He looked up and saw coconuts in the palm tree.  But what he said was, "Applesauce".  What??  "Applesauce up in the tree."  And then I had to make the association.  Oh... he calls all things in trees "apples" usually but this time he got confused and called it "apple sauce".  I find that especially funny because, well, he can't eat! So food is a little "Mysterious" to him. 

Tonight, Dan took him in the backyard to explore.  He came in with flowers in his hand and he said (as clear as day) "I have flowers for you."  In the other hand is a little berry from a tree (he is back to calling them "apples") and says, "I have apple for you."  I think those are pretty darned good sentences! 

Daily, this little guy shocks me.  If you see Manny on paper, it's "Tube fed, oxygen dependent, non-ambulatory, complex special need child".  That conjures up a certain image.  And I guarantee that image would not be any where close to reality. 

Manny is continuing to teach people about life.  He is defying logic.  He is a Miracle. 

And me?  I'm the blessed one who gets to snuggle with him every day.