look who's talking!

This little guy is talking! A lot! And for those of you who know us well - you know what an accomplishment this is.

I started getting concerned about his speech when he was around 18 months. He had only five words and used "eh, eh, eh" for most of his communication. But it wasn't until his two-year checkup in July that our pediatrician agreed that something was probably not quite right. We had a speech evaluation done and found that he was about a year behind where he should be. He was displaying classic signs of Childhood Speech Apraxia. His brain was fine - his mouth was fine - but being able to form the words proved to be difficult for him.

We began weekly speech therapy in September and were blessed with the sweetest speech therapist in the world. Her name is Vicki and Ethan and I adore her. She was basically training me to help him break down words into individual sounds and then getting him to practice them. We also taught him some sign language to help alleviate frustration until the words came.

We are seeing results! In the past couple of weeks his speech has just taken off! He will repeat almost any single word. And he has begun putting two or even three words together. Amazing! For instance - he knew the word "bye" and he knew the word "Dad" for a long time but he could never say "bye Dad" when Patrick would leave in the morning. Well now he says it! When he's being told to do something, he now responds with "Yes, Mom." And when the kids and I were running some errands this week, Ethan decided he was done being at Target. He whined "want to go" all through the store. And I couldn't have been happier!

We get so excited over every new word or phrase. This is a huge answer to prayer. And we look forward to many, many more words in the future!