Words of Love on Tiarnan's tongue

Last night, as I was putting my middle son, Fintan Nadym Cawley, 3, to bed, Tiarnan, nine months, spoke, in the semi-darkness of the room: "I love you." he said in words quite clear, though not perfect: they were the first time I had heard him say these words.

In the dimness of the room, those words were as lightning, so sharply did they sound, so suddenly did I see them in my mind. His words were addressed to me, since he was turned towards me. I was touched. So, I moved to pick him up and then he said, his head on my shoulder, what could be nothing else but: "I'm baby Tiarnan."

It was like a little miracle unfolding before me. First he recognizes his love for his father - then he recognizes his place in the world: the baby, Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley, nine months old.

Tiarnan's voice is small and piping, the modulation of sounds quick and subtle - and one has to listen closely to understand him. It is easy to miss his speech if you are not attentive - or expecting it. But, in that darkness, with no light or sound, it was easy to attend to his speech, with nothing going on to drown him out, in a usually ceaselessly noisy environment. Tiarnan's words had stood out clearly against a backdrop of almost nothingness.

I put them both to bed. That night I held in my heart a renewed appreciation of the wonder that children are - and can bring. If you haven't got one, try having one: they bring you a whole new world.

(To read more of Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley, or my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley and his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html thanks.)