Kiddo came up to me while I was loading the dishwasher and demanded "Eat beer."
At least, that's what it sounded like. So I asked him "Eat peanut butter?" He shook his head and repeated "Eat beer."
After running through a few options of what "beer" could be I then resorted to our usual, "Show me." And he might need some prompting, but usually he'd point at the fridge or the cabinet or the pantry or whereever it was the item he wanted was.
But instead, tears formed in his eyes, and he simply repeated "Eat beer." He then indicated he wanted me to pick him up, so I did, thinking he'd show me what he wanted. Instead he yelled really loudly in my ear "Eat beer!"
"I heard you!" I yelled, putting him back on the floor. "But I don't know what it is you want! Show me what you want!!"
Tears again, and instead of feeling guilty, instead of praying for patience, I simply turned and continued loading the dishwasher. I was mad.
But then, I realized the anger wasn't at poor Kiddo who wanted something that sounds to me like beer. I'm mad that it can take 10 minutes to figure out what my child wants and sometimes I can't figure it out. How is it that other kids his age can communicate entire stories and mine can't one simple word?
I still don't know what "beer" is. But Kiddo is happily munching on popcorn while watching a movie, snuggling against me while I write this.
I'm glad he doesn't hold it against me. Hopefully I will figure out what "beer" is. And I will work my hardest to get this precious child talking clearer. I want to not only hear those sweet apples of gold, I want them to be crisp, clear, delicious for all those who hear it. I want to know what it is my child thinks about, what it is he wants to do and eat without tears. His or mine.
Update July 2015. I have learned that "beer" is his way of saying Cheerios. We'll be working on this word for a while I think.
I feel for you. Our son was speech delayed. I remember tears on both sides, and many angry moments, when we would get frustrated trying to get him to speak and he wouldn't. Then we did not know there was a problem (a doctor told me at our son's two year check-up that he was lazy in his speech, despite the fact that he said *maybe* ten one-syllable words); it was just us trying to get our kid to speak and not point and say "da" for everything he wanted. He started speaking more by the time he was three, but he was still next to impossible to understand, and he would get mad or cry when we couldn't understand him. At four, it was finally recognized by his doctor (not the same one who said our son was lazy in his speech) that our son was speech delayed with many articulation issues; later we added frontal tongue thrust and possible Apraxia to the mix. At that time, his younger (by 28 months) brother was easier to understand than him, :\ Fortunately, he can, and does, talk a lot, but unfortunately, if he gets really excited, his articulation is worse and he changes pitches, making it harder to understand. There are still times when it takes him a long time to spit out even a short sentence (like he's foggy brained). It's frustrating still at times, but he is progressing and the tears have lessened. Of course, now younger brother wants to start mumbling and mispronouncing everything and going ballistic when we don't understand him. *sigh*
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