Speech Progress Report

Kiddo is in a speech surge!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!  I don't even know if it's a real term or not, but I've made it into one, because seriously, it's like he plateaus or makes painfully slow progress on his speech for sooo long, and then all at once, for a few weeks, new sounds, new words just flow out of his mouth.  But the big thing is, he's speaking in phrases now!  Wahooo!!

Here's some of his most common phrases:

• Baby cry (he calls Little Brother Baby)
• Daddy work
• kick/throw ball
• big burp (thanks for letting everyone know that Kiddo)
• big boom
• I need help
• I want ____
• Go potty
• Wake up
• Mommy book 
• All clean
• Brush teeth
• Baby don't touch!
• No Baby!
• I'm four
• Play Lego
• Play game
• Eat apple (his new fav fruit, and he says the "p" in apple now, I'm so proud.  Before it was "ah-oh")
• open door (he now puts the "p" in open.  Before it was "oh-eh"  Consonants are good!)  

And some of his newest words:

• Bible
• star
• brush
• shorts
• hiccup
• puppy (he is mastering these "p" words! Wahoo!)

Now, I haven't included the pronunciation for most of these words, because sometimes they change based on if it's a word said alone or if it's in a phrase and based on where it's at in a phrase. I still have to translate for him a lot to others.  Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what he's saying and I have to rely on context, and him using sign language.  But we're making progress folks!  We're even having conversations!  Here's a few conversations we've had this week:

Kiddo: (Burps for a loooong time)  Big burp!

Me: Yes, it was a big burp.  What do you say?

Kiddo: Thank you.

Me: (trying not to laugh) No, what do you say after you burp?
Kiddo: Excuse me.  Big burp.

While eating some Nilla Wafers, Kiddo and I were looking at the back of the box, which were covered with those cute little minions from Despicable Me.  
Kiddo: (Pointing) One eye!

Me: Yes, he does have one eye.  Some of them have one eye and some have two.

Kiddo: (Proceeds to tell me 'one eye...boo (two) eye..." for EVERY SINGLE ONE.  Seriously, this takes a minute or boo two.)

Me: Good.  Ok, how many eyes does Mommy have?

Kiddo: (looks at me) Two eye.  

Me: How many eyes does Little Brother have?

Kiddo.  Two eye.

Me: How many eyes do YOU have?

Kiddo: (Pauses then puts one of the Nilla Wafers in between his eyes)  One eye!

Haha, I had no idea this kid was so darn funny!

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Little Brother's words are coming too!  He will be turning two later on this week, I can't believe it!  He had only two words (go and da da for all done) for the loooongest time, and so we got him evaluated for speech by our beloved Ms. Blessing and she has been working with both kiddos once or twice a month.  She's amazing, seriously.  Anyway, within no time of her working her magic, Little Brother was making the noises of animals and slowly adding new words.  He no longer qualifies for speech therapy anymore, as he's made so much progress and now his speech is within the normal range for typical development, yippee!

Now, I'd guess he has about 50 words, plus his animal sounds, which I've read is the magic number before they start putting them into phrases.  Here's some of his most common words and their current pronunciations:

Goka = cracker.  His all time favorite snack.

Tizza = pizza.  His all time favorite food.  Hubster and I have to spell it because he seriously hears that word from wherever he is and runs to the oven looking for it.  If I drive past a Little Caesar's or Pizza Hut and he spots it, he'll let me know.

Baba = banana.  His all time favorite fruit.  He asks for this the second we go to get him in the morning, as he always has a banana for breakfast.  Well, good morning to you too, kid.

Go go go! = anytime we are going to go anywhere.

Teetee = TV.  He asks for this ALLL the time.  He hears no a lot.  

Dee = drink

Da da = all done

Mo = more

Hep = help

Tuck = stuck

Opeh = open

Pwee = please

Kookoo = thank you

Deedee = outside   This sounds remarkably to me like drink and TV and since he's realized I assume he's asking for a drink or TV first he's learned to just go to the door when he says it

Mama

Dada

Ball

Up

No.  Or oftentimes No no no!

Boo = book

Bubba = bubbles

Gapa = Grandpa

Gaba = Grandma

Poopoo yuck!  = no translation needed.  His only phrase so far.

Puhpuh = potty.  Hmm, I'm wondering if this kid is going to be potty training soon.

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I know there's a lot more I'm forgetting, but man oh man, I am cherishing all these sweet apples of gold!   I plan on recording and posting speech videos of both of them sometime soon.  I keep meaning too.  Eventually I'll get around to it. ;)

Progress Report

Speech: Kiddo surprises me more and more with the little things that come out of his mouth.  Here's some examples, all from today:

• We were heading out the door to go to preschool when he told me "Grrr packpack!''  Oh yes, how could I forget the beloved Angry Birds backpack?  Thanks for reminding me Kiddo!
• Hubster, Little Brother and I picked Kiddo up from preschool and were driving into town to get some lunch and go shopping.  As we drove down a big hill we heard him exclaim "Wheee!"
• Kiddo was playing with bubbles outside and he spilled quite a bit of the bubble solution on our porch.  "Oh no!' he told me.  Never heard him use that expression before on his own, ever.  
• Seconds after the "Oh no!" incident he stepped in the puddle of bubble solution and then started walking around, admiring the footprints they left.   "Look at your little feet," I told him.  "Bubba ee!" And he stepped in the puddle and left "bubble feet" over and over and over again, proclaiming that phrase every single time he took a step.  I should have gone to get my camera to take a video for you, but honestly, I was just savoring the moment and didn't want to miss any of it.
• Kiddo came running to me in the kitchen, crying.  Normally, when this happens I have to run through a list of bazillion questions to find out what's wrong.  "Did you get hurt?  Was it your head?  Your arm?" etc.  This time, however, I asked him, "What's wrong?"  And he told me.  "Toe hur".   He pointed at his little baby toe and I gave it a kiss all better, and I told him how very proud of him I was that he was talking to me and telling me what was wrong.
• I had laid all our couch cushions on the floor in a big square for the kiddos to walk across and play on.  Kiddo's foot slipped in-between the two cushions and he fell over.  "Uck!" he cried.  And I helped him get his stuck foot out from between the cushions.

This kid is blowing me away with how quickly he is learning new words and phrases.  I hope this speech surge goes on forever and ever, because I hate those speech plateaus and finally having a glimpse of what he thinks about and is experiencing is such a treasure.

Little Brother's Speech: Little Brother (18 months) has had speech therapy with our beloved speech therapist once a month since January and we're seeing great progress.  He now makes lots of animal noises (my favorite is his quacking noise for the duck) and is repeating some of our words and phrases.  "Bye bye" and "Do aga" (do it again) are a few of the phrases we've heard, as well as the "go go go" and "da da" (all done) he's been saying since around 15 months.  As for individual words, don't have a lot of those yet, except for "titi" for TV and "ti" for eat.  (Apparently I'm raising a kid that wants to eat and watch TV all day.  He hears no a lot).  Occasionally he'll say "Mama" and "Dada" but it is always whispered and he signs it while he's saying it.  I have heard him say "gaff" (giraffe) a few times and "go" (goat), and "tiga" (tiger) once or twice.  This kid ADORES animals!  He still seems to prefer signing to speaking for now, but he LOVES to babble.  "Goolioolioolio" is my favorite babbling phrase we hear from him, and if you say something back to him in response he'll continue the babbling like he's having a conversation with you.  Kiddo never babbled and I've been enjoying hearing baby babble.  I'll try to get a video of the babbling and also his animal sounds for you soon.

Kiddo is Potty Trained!  Yep, that's right, Kiddo is potty trained!  Check out my previous post if you want all the fun deets about the potty training process.  We've been accident free for a week now and though he needs help pulling his pants and underwear back up, he can now pull them down by himself.  He is willing to sit on a toilet when we go out in public, but at home he prefers to use his potty chair, though I've sat him on the toilet a few times and he didn't complain about it.  He's been going to the bathroom at school with no problems, which his teacher and I are both thrilled about.  He also is staying completely dry through the night!  We've been putting a pull up on him every night but the last four nights it has been dry in the morning.  I've been amazed how quickly he has taken to potty training once he was ready, and the fact that he is night trained already blows me away.  So proud! 

New Therapies: I've been trying to figure out what we're going to do therapy-wise over the summer since Kiddo didn't qualify to get physical therapy/occupational therapy (PT/OT) through the summer and can only get limited speech over the summer through his school.  I wasn't really looking forward to going back to the clinic we have gone to previously, because although he did make progress there, it was slow.  So, a fellow apraxia mom/friend of mine recommended I check out this children's clinic because her son has had great progress there.  So I called, expecting a long wait list, but was able to set up a PT/OT appointment, and had our evaluation this past Tuesday.  This therapist was ah-maz-ing.  She was pointing out things about Kiddo that I never noticed, or at least didn't realize what they indicated.  She explained to me that the majority of his gross motor struggles stem from the fact he has "poor postural control", and once we strengthen his core "he'll become a really active little booger".  So we'll be working with her twice a month and I'm optimistic about what both Kiddo and I will learn from her.  The clinic also has a speech therapist, and I immediately asked to be put on the wait list to work with her.  Should be to the top of the list by May they said, and I was so impressed with the clinic (it has an awesome sensory gym and an indoor playground that the speech therapist uses too!) I was sold.  Kiddo's making great progress with his speech therapy where he sits on the floor or at a table, but I've noticed he gets a little more vocal when he's moving (common of most kids) and so this therapist uses that approach for building speech and I want to see what that's like for Kiddo and how he responds to it.

Anyway, I'm sure there's more I can report, but that's all I can think of now.  Loving all the progress I'm seeing in both of the boys.  I love my little blessings so much and am so proud of both of them! :)

"Cheese!"

Progress Report

We've returned from two weeks of visiting family and friends from where we used to live, and the kiddo had a blast with his cousins and his friends we were able to catch up with.  We went to playgrounds, the farm, the air and space museum, and had plenty of opportunities to relax and hang out with family.

The kiddo playing with his cousin/bestie. :)

I think the kiddo blossomed into more of a little boy while there: he was very cautious and quiet before the trip.  With all of his male older cousins to wrestle with, and his bestie, his cousin who is only 3 months younger than him, he had lots of boys to play with and learn from.  He now loves wrestling with Daddy (before it was just pillow fights with lots of giggles. The giggles are still there, along with screams of delight).  He now climbs on things he wouldn't even attempt before (he climbs up onto our bed now, onto our couch from the side arm, and is much more confident at the playground.)  He throws so much better and harder too.  It's fun to see him much more active.