One of my all time favorite Messy Mom blog posts is The Littlest Christmas Star which I wrote this time last year . If you haven’t read it I would encourage you to check it out.  It’s about SJ’s first Christmas program at her deaf school. Her line last year was to say I love you mommy, daddy, and her brother’s names. She could barely muster out I love you mama. It wasn’t much, but it meant a great deal to me because she tried. She’s come a long way since then. I had heard her practicing saying her lines at home. “I love you mommy, daddy, Zion, Ezra” Sometimes she would even talk about whose turn it was and also recite her classmates lines.

When the day of the Christmas program arrived we headed to the school and I heard her practicing in the backseat, but I also heard her say “I want Minnie Mouse”. I could tell it was part of what she would be saying in the program and not just random chatter because children tend to sound like zombies when they recite lines (to quote Gru from Despicable me 2). I almost cried before it even started because in that moment I realized she was going to say more than just I love you to us! It might not sound like much, but this meant she was able to memorize more, speak a lot more, and most importantly it meant that she has made advancements since last year that her teachers deemed ready to take to the next level! 
Sure enough SJ approaches the microphone and it’s not intelligible to everyone, I get that. To me as her mom though, I understood every. single. word. And for the first time I got to hear her say
“Santa I want a Minnie Mouse for Christmas. I love you mommy, daddy, Zion, and Ezra.” 
She nailed it. All the mothers in the auditorium that know us and know how far SJ has come all looked back at me to see tears flowing down my cheeks. I tried not to cry, which is worse, because that just equates to an ugly contorted face, but whatevs. Some of them were crying too because it was such a beautiful moment. 
For the record she DID get a Minnie Mouse for Christmas.
 Ezie got Mickey too so they love to play together with them. He actually calls him Minnie because he hears that from his sister so often. I don’t know if Mickey’s name has ever been uttered in our household.
The mouse presents continued when we went to Texas and she got a Minnie Mouse outfit 
and a Minnie Mouse Puzzle. 
All of which she has announced to many people. She says “I have Minnie Mouse toy. I have Minnie Mouse coat… pants… puzzle. I have four Minnie Mouse.” 
So that may have been her favorite gift of the year, but mine was just hearing her be able to ask for it. It is a wonderful life.