Speech

I know, I know, I neglect my blog. I need to get back into this, because it's good for me.

At Noah's 18 month appointment, I mentioned to the pediatrician that Noah was really only using 3 words (Mama, Daddy, and NO). The books all say 18 month-olds should have 8-10 words, but the pediatrician felt Noah (who has always hit milestones WAY early) should have closer to 25 words, and he suggested we get him evaluated through the regional center. I knew then that Noah would probably catch up on his own, but the evaluation and therapy are free, and that's an awfully good price for peace of mind.

So we went through the process, and Noah was diagnosed with a 50% speech delay, and we started taking him to speech therapy once a week. By the time we started therapy he was already saying 10-ish words, but in the last few weeks he has really taken off. I don't think it actually has anything to do with the "therapy" (which consists of a very nice lady playing with him for an hour and enunciating like crazy). I think he just didn't want to talk until he got it right. We're not there yet, but here's what we have:

• Amma (Mama)
• Addy (Daddy)
• A-bye (Bye-bye)
• NO!
• Yeah
• Eh-pahle (Yes, please)
• Leeees (please!)
  
• Taaajuuu (Thank you)
• Dyyycheen (Diaper change)
• Poop
• Toot*
• Og (dog)
• Cow
• Moo
• Itty! or Eee-ta! (kitty)
• Ball
  
• Car
• Ruck (truck)
• Tree**
• Br (bird)
• Coh (cold)
• Ot (hot)
• Toes
• Owie
• Uh-oh
• Mo (more)
• Jooos (juice)
• Baba (bottle)
  

*Noah has started telling us when he's poopy and needs a change by grabbing his butt and shrieking "Poop! Dyyycheen!" Freaking. Adorable. The other day he farted - forcefully - then ran over to me and said "Dycheen?" I told him, "No, I don't think you're poopy. You just tooted, dude." He pondered this for a minute, looked up at me and asked, "I toot?" "Yep, you tooted." His eyes lit up, and for the next hour he ran around the kitchen, chanting "Toot! Toot! Toot!" Definitely a boy.

**We were in Target the other day, and when we passed by the Christmas tree section Noah FREAKED OUT and pointed and kicked and said "TREE!! TREE!!! TREE!!!" and he cried when we left the area. I've been thinking about it... I think I'd freak out too if I didn't know what Christmas was and I walked into I store I'm very familiar with and suddenly ran into an elevated sparkly indoor forest. Just wait till we set up the tree IN OUR HOUSE, kid. The world will never cease to amaze.

My favorite thing these days is the "counting" and "spelling". Whenever the kid passes me his magna-doodle or a crayon, I always write his name and say the letters "N-O-A-H". He started saying it with me, and now he'll just spontaneously say "ehhh, aaaaah, ayyy, unh!" Not even close to the actual letter, but with perfect inflection. Love it. And if you start counting, "One..." he'll usually chime in with "oooo, eeee", which just melts my heart. Love this kid.

And here's my current favorite picture-- on the slide at Hillcrest Park. The amount of static electricity on that playground is astounding!