What's This?

Kiddo now asks "what's this?"  With those two words, a new door has been opened in Kiddo's life.  With those two words, Kiddo has now learned:

• what a scare crow is
• what those "Caution, Slippery When Wet" signs on the floor are actually all about
• how to use a toy he had never seen before at Grandma and Grandpa's house
• and what a tube of diaper rash cream is and what it's used for.

It's amazing how those two little words can make my heart burst with pride.  Because, well, he's always been behind his peers in speech and language.  I've gotten used to it.  It's all I've known for both of my boys.  But what makes my mama heart ache, is wondering what Kiddo wonders about but has no way to express.  I'm convinced Kiddo has a little engineer's brain in that smart head of his.  How many things does he not understand but wants to?  What things does he want to learn more about?  Is he even aware that he has these thoughts and questions, or has he gotten so used to just knowing the things he's told and that's it?  

I should clarify and add that Kiddo has asked questions other ways.  He'll say his usual words or phrases with that raised voice sound at the end to make them into a question.  For example, he'll ask "Go bye bye?" and I might say "Not right now," and he'll say, "Ok.  Later?"  So yes, he was asking questions before, but not using those question words like "who, what, when, where and why."

Well, things are different now. I now have two kiddos asking me the question "What's this?" and a journey of discovery awaits all of us.  I am beyond excited.

My cool, questioning dudes.

Progress Report

Kiddo:

This kid's speech is at the point now where he's singing.  Seriously.  The other night he sang to me The Wheels on the Bus.  I couldn't bear to stop him to get my camera to record it, maybe next time I'll be prepared.  He sings parts of Old MacDonald Had a Farm and Jesus Loves Me and Rain Rain Go Away.  And the most surprising of all, was that he sang this song for me on my birthday.  Way to make this mama feel special, Kiddo.

Conversations:

Kiddo: Mommy go shopping?
Me: Yes I did.
Kiddo: Buy more popcorn?
Me: Yes, I did.
Kiddo: Yay!  Good job Mommy!  High five.
And the kid precedes to give me a high five.  Way to make me feel appreciated, Kiddo.

Me: Who's your best friend at school?
Kiddo: (insert girl's name here)
Me: Do you play with her?
Kiddo: Yes.  Play.  Hold hands.  Learn.
Me: Oh.  Is she your girlfriend?
Kiddo: Yes.

Me: Do you want to be an astronaut when you grow up?
Kiddo: No.  Big big like Daddy.

Me: I love you Buddy.
Kiddo: I love you too, Mommy.

He also has started to say the prayers for us before meals.  We don't catch every word he says, but there's always the words "Thank you Jesus" in it, and every time we hear that little mouth so those precious words, Hubster and I are thinking the exact same thing. :)

Little Brother:

Little Brother has struggled with colors for a while.  He called most colors pink, or at least we thought it was pink, it's possible he was saying paint.  But, he's caught on now, and knows most of his colors now, whoo hoo!  My favorite ones he says are "yeow", "geen", "pupo", and "ooj".

He's also getting the hang of the sequence of counting.  Before we heard lots of "1,2,8,9,8,5" sort of thing.  He's got it down from one to ten with prompting.  Six and seven really seem to throw him off, but he's catching on.

He can identify his letters and is starting to identify them as words.  Every time we stop at a stop sign I hear "S-T-O-P, Stop!"  He's starting to write the letters of his name and will proudly show them off to me with a "Look!"  He also drew a happy face for the first time this morning.  It led to this conversation:

Me: Oh, is that a happy face?
Little Brother: Yes.  Mouth.  Eyes.  Nose.
Me: Good job Buddy!
Little Brother then draws something on each side of the happy face's head.
Me: Are those ears?
Little Brother: No.
Me: Hair?
Little Brother: No.  Cheeks!!
Haha, this kid has such big cheeks, he probably does think they needed to be added on.  The kid scribbled all over it though before I could get a picture of the happy face.  :(

He says lots of two word phrases now.  Eat pizza.  Go play.  More swing.  More drink.  White doggie.  Go away.  Go bye bye?  School bus.  Go school?  What's this?  Okie dokie (pronounced O dokie).  Go shopping?  Ten Monkeys (his favorite book).  Pete Cat (His favorite book series).

Both Kiddo and Little Brother ask questions by using that questioning inflection at the end of a word, but now Little Brother is using "w" question words!  His two questions are "What's this?" and "Why?"  And though I hear them often, they have yet to exasperate me.  I am so proud to have a child who can ask questions and I'm happy to provide the answers.  That may change one day, but for now, I'm treasuring it.

He can jump now!  And he jumps a lot.  Off of curbs.  Down the hallway.  Over cracks in the sidewalk.  For a long time on the trampoline  This kid love to jump.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could report, but that's it for now.  We're making progress, and it is beautiful to see. :)

Asking Questions

The first time I read the above statement, I felt grief and worry wash over me.  That was closer to the number of words my four year old had in his vocabulary, than the number of questions he asked.  In fact, he didn't ask any questions, even though we tried to teach him the sign language for what, where, why and how are you.  I mourned knowing not only what Kiddo was thinking about, but what he wondered about, what he wanted to know but had no way of communicating to me.  And I worried that even though he did only have 400-500 words, shouldn't some of those be questions?  I mean, I work with toddlers in the church nursery who are asking "What's dat?" a bazillion times, and I'm sure they have less than 400 words in their vocabularies.

I remember asking speech therapists about it, and they would tell me just keep modeling asking questions, especially "What's that?" and "Where's ___?" because those are generally the first questions a toddler learns to ask.  One even told me to not even attempt teaching "Why?" until after he had learned to ask at least four other questions, as that's what happened in typical development.  But no matter how much I modeled, how many times we would go through flash cards I made which included phrases like "What's that?" he never asked any questions.

Flash forward to today, Kiddo now asks three specific questions.  He probably only asks one or two questions a day.  Nowhere near the 437 number, but I'll take it.  We're making progress and that's what matters to me.

His very first question was "Why?"  The first time he asked it, was when he asked me if he could "pay Lego game?" (play Lego Movie video game).  I told him no.  Clear as a bell he said "Why?"  I answered without a thought, just told him because he always played the Lego game with Daddy, and maybe when Daddy got home from work he might play the Lego game with him.  It wasn't until after Kiddo went off to play something else that I realized he had asked a question.  And I immediately informed Hubster of it, I was so proud.  This has become his most frequent question, that I hear at least daily, especially when he's been told to do something or told to wait for something.

Kiddo has asked twice "What dis?"  Once regarding my curling iron, another time about a beaded doll from Africa at my parents' house.  He does tend to repeat words we use with a question mark on the end as if to ask "What's that?" and we'll explain it to him.  For example, we use the words 'shopping cart', but he overheard someone commenting about the kiddos sitting in the buggy, and Kiddo turned to me and said "Buggy?"

And he asks on occasion, "Where are you?"  Usually this is in relation to an item, moreso than a person.  For example, I'll ask him "Where is your cup?" and he'll go around the house, his hands around his mouth as he calls out "Cuuuuuup, wha ah you?"  But sometimes, I hear him calling for me.  "Mommy, wha ah you?"

I find all of these questions interesting, because I never worked with him on these questions specifically.  I know he's heard them, but they weren't the ones we modeled over and over, the ones we had written on flash cards for him to practice saying along with the words he was working on.  He still doesn't ask those questions.  It reminds me that he is developing at his pace and in his own way and it's ok.   I now have a better idea of the things he wonders about, and I'm so proud that he figured out how to ask the questions that matter to him on his own.