Did this 4-month old really just say 'I love you?'
When Carolyn Valdez was filming her then-4-month-old baby boy and told him to say "I love you," he appeared to listen.
If it isn't amazing enough that a 4-month-old seems to repeat after his parents, it's even more incredible because of baby Noah's story.
"Noah was born with a birth defect called craniosynostosis,” Valdez told "Good Morning America." “Basically, it’s when the sutures in the baby's skull fuse together prematurely, which we were told they are not supposed to fuse till the child is about two years old. The only way to help this condition is to undergo surgery."
Valdez had had a difficult pregnancy, the 26-year-old mom from Harlingen, Texas, said, including preeclampsia and, eventually, an emergency cesarean section at 36 weeks. Noah had a heart murmur that resolved itself after birth.
The family decided to move forward with Noah's surgery when he was 4 months old. Dr. Michael J. Burke of Renaissance Hospital in Edinburg, Texas, performed the craniotomy for synostosis surgery.
"The day the video was taken we were actually in the hospital," his mom said. "He was about one week post-op. Everything was going good and he was healing perfectly. Unfortunately, he was having a reaction from a medication he was taking, so we took him into the emergency room just to be safe.
“While we were waiting for the blood work and test results my husband [Rene] and I were just playing with him and I was also texting my mom, sending pictures and videos."
And then it happened, she said.
"We always talk to Noah and tell him, ‘I love you’ and we always tell him to say momma or dadda or bubba," Valdez told "GMA." "But just in that moment I was taking a video for my mother when we asked him to say, ‘I love you’ and he actually said it.
“I'm so happy and blessed I was able to catch it on video. Not believing what I just heard, I quickly stopped recording and saved it. I just couldn't believe he actually said it. I kept replaying it over and over."
Valdez said it isn't the only time Noah has said, "I love you." Since then, she has caught it on video another time, Valdez added.
"I was so ecstatic he just blew us away,” she said. “My family and friends were so surprised as well. I'm happy I got it on video because I'm sure they wouldn't have believed me."
Noah's mom hopes the video will raise awareness about craniosynostosis, a condition she had never heard of before he was born.
Noah is now 6 months old and is "surrounded by family that loves and adores him," she said. "Even close family that are miles away do everything they can to stay part of his daily life."
Valdez hopes the adorable video "sends good vibes to everyone" who sees it, she added.
