It's happening! He's beginning to "speak"!

I guess this must be kinda normal for most parents, but i have to confess to being rather excited today. Kaelen has begun to make some sounds that really have meaning and intent behind them, mostly in the last week or two - "ow" or "ag" for 'meow' when looking at a cat, "aaaah-aaaah" with dropping pitch for 'round and round' when looking at a fan, "bvvv!" for 'boo!' when playing peek-a-boo, "brrr" with raspberry for 'brrrooom, brrrooom!' when playing with a car - and today he just blew the top off my expectations and "said" 2 new "words" during his speech lesson! For the first time, he copied "woof woof" (including body movement!), and "Go!" as we were rolling a ball between us.

Later in the day, while J was sleeping, K & I played with a spiral car ramp we have - you set up 2 cars in bays at the top, then press a lever to tip them up and make them go down the spiral ramp. We've been doing "1, 2, 3, Go!" with that as a good listening exercise, cos he can press the lever easily. When we played with it today, after i said "1, 2, 3, Go!" Kaelen would make his own little "Go!" sound, and then press the lever! I'm just a bit amazed at how much understanding, purpose and intent there is behind these little sounds!

When i thought about it before speech this morning, as i was preparing to tell our teacher how wonderfully he'd been doing during the week, it occurred to me that by this age (11 months), Jarrah was profoundly deaf due to compounding colds and therefore fluid in his middle ears; think of being underwater permanently, except the water's more like glue. It would be another 5 months before Jarrah would hear anything with any sort of clarity (after insertion of grommets at 16 months), another month before he would make his first sound with intent/meaning, and yet another month before he got his first hearing aids (at 18 months old). Considering Kaelen got his first hearing aids at just 3 months old, it just goes to show the value and effectiveness of that early intervention!!

It does feel a little odd, having a baby who's not yet 12 months old beginning to "say" things, when our only experience has been having been one who doesn't say anything for another nearly 6 months. It's a bit hard to know what "normal" is at the moment...although if it's what we're experiencing now, we are most grateful!

Well, it's nearly the middle of the year, which means a few things: (1) Birthdays (Jarrah turns 3 on June 13, Kaelen turns 1 on July 1), and (2) Appointments! We have regular checkups with ENT & chiro & a few others, and at the moment they're all at approximately 6 month intervals...so July is checkup month! We'll have ENT for both boys, probably Paediatrician for Kaelen, 12 month vaccinations for Kaelen, and possibly chiropractic checks for both too. Think i'll just block out the first week of July on the calendar and call it Appointment Week! Will keep you all posted on any interesting developments...