Thursday, October 13, 2011

la La la

The boy monkey is "developmentally delayed...." this is old news. He's not crawling, he's not talking, and he's not been babbling as long as "they" would like. Yesterday, that boy baby of mine got himself from his tummy to sitting. My sister and mother cheered him emphatically, congratulating him on such a stellar achievement. He looked back at them and blinked as if to say, "what's the big deal?"

These babies...they get so many "I love yous" in the course of a day....They are so wildly loved, and they love to hear about it. They always respond to an "I love you," with a quick snuggle, a pause in a tantrum, or just an endearing gaze. Tonight, in response to my "I love you," that boy monkey of mine said back to me "la La la" in a rhythm identical to mine. He loves me back, and wants me to know. -swoon-

1 comment:

  1. As I am reading back, I just wanted to say this - I know that you are concerned with your son's progress a lot, and you are doing everything you can to keep things going with physio, etc. But I wanted to add that my oldest son, who had/has no developmental disorders that we know of, did not crawl until he was almost 12 months old, and did not walk until over 15 months old. Everyone commented allllllllll the time on how he 'couldn't' do this and couldn't do that and it drove me insane. I was concerned deep deep down, but my gut was telling me that he was just so easy-going, he didnt really feel the need to get up and wander around the room. You could give him a toy and he would play with it for ages and ages. He was chilled, relaxed, happy - and didn't mind if something he wanted was across the room because he would just play with something else instead, or stare at something lol. In the end, he walked finally and that was that.

    His sister was a different story. She was born nosey (she turned her head and was looking at nurses while the cord was still attached to her! laying at the base of the bed between my knees lol)... She was NOT happy if she came to find that a cupboard was locked (she would figure out how to open it). She crawled before 5 months and walked between 9 and 10 months. She was much more curious, just like your daughter sounds lol. And that seemed to push her into crawling and walking at a much faster rate. She was nowhere near as easy-going and chilled out as her brother.

    Now onto my preemie - he surprised everyone by walking one month after what should have been his first birthday, 14.5 months from actual birth date. I was shocked too. But he is also a nosey-posey and more wild than big brother. I am convinced that if he had the temperment of big bro instead of big sis, he would not have walked for much longer. As it happens, he stood up and walked 3 steps on his very first day of daycare, after watching all the other 'little short kids' running around. I nearly fainted!

    But while excelling in his physical development - he was far behind 'the norm' on speech. By two years old, he still rarely even said Mom or Dad. I had been in a panic about this for a year by then because both my older children were speaking words other than mom or dad by 10 months. Things like ball, dog, etc. Mine wouldn't even say 'mama' more than maybe once a month. He had visits from various speech pathologists, but my personal decision was to wait and see... When he was 28 months old, we went on a holiday and stopped at a Rest Stop to stretch our legs. A bunch of semi-trucks were driving past and he was mesmerized. Suddenly, the words from his favorite movie - Cars - tumbled from his lips ...."MACK - where are you?"... It was not very clear, but since all of us had seen the movie with him dozens of times already, we recognized the inflection and tone from that exact part of the show, where Lightning is search for his pal Mack, the semi, and we were stunned. That moment lit up the connection in his mind about speech and language and we were off to the races. He became excited about talking and just has to work on a few things now like pronunciation of certain letters, and a couple of language-grammar issues. It is shocking to think that a little over a year ago, he would NOT speak. He wouldn't even say 'woof' or 'moo' or anything. Nothing. Just some strange alien babble-speak that seemed to contain a repetition of the same sounds over and over. Today, he talks in massive long sentences and all of that was before he actually started speech therapy. He is classed as being far below developmental levels, but I work with preschool children (including him) every day for my job and he is not that far off at all. He will get there. We will get there. And it's been quite the journey. Hugs to you and your little ones :)

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