Bittersweet

My kids have never been fast talkers.  Sunshine being the earliest talker, was still behind by many people's standards though not so far behind she needed any kind of early intervention (I know this because we had her tested).  Monkey started saying a few words around 15 months but stopped around 18 months.  At this point he began walking (all 3 were a little late on walking as well).  We were told that late walkers are usually late talkers since their brains can only handle one major skill at a time.  So Monkey began his speech therapy at 2 1/2 with a whopping vocabulary of 20 words.

It wasn't a big surprise when Bug didn't begin walking until he was 15 months and is very limited in his speech.  So off to speech we go to get him evaluated and have what we already know confirmed:  Bug is going to need some speech intervention.

The thing about having a late walker and then a late talker is you keep them a baby longer.  You coddle them a bit more and when you look at them, you don't see a 2 year old throwing a tantrum,  you still see "your baby" who doesn't understand.  Now let me tell you, Bug?  he understands what you're telling him.  He will do things (when he feels like it), but make no mistake, he understands you.  He just can't talk back to you.  Yet.

Because of his lack of speech, he has made up some of his own hand signals, aka sign language.  One of those is clapping.  At the end of his nighttime prayer.  We say our prayers and instead of saying "Amen" he does 1 clap.  Sometimes 2.  It is the cutest thing.

Or at least it was.

Now he's learning to talk.  He's beginning to stop all of these adorable little signs and gestures that are still such a baby thing to do even though he's certainly not a baby.  He is growing up and I'm not ready.

Vicky