Peanut's adorable vocabulary

Some of you may or may not know that Peanut has been undergoing speech and occupational therapy for the past 2 months. In July he was diagnosed with severe speech delay and a possible motor planning disorder. This was a very scary diagnosis for us and I haven't been able to blog about it. I remember hearing the speech pathologists tell me that while he was 15 months old, he was only at a speech developmental age of a 6 month old. I remember their words and their faces and what I remember most clearly is thinking, "No, you are wrong. My Peanut is perfect and happy and the most wonderful little boy so you have to be wrong". Well they might have been right at the time, but Peanut is a superstar and he is turning it all around and just for the record, he is more than perfect no matter what developmental issue he may have.

In the beginning of August he couldn't say any words and had hand signs for 3 and 2 months later he can say 9 words and has signs for at least 15 other words. I suspect he can say even more than he lets on but is impossibly stubborn and likes to do things in his own way. Over the past week one of his favorite words has been Mama and I just can't hear it enough! He also loves to say hi and peeks around the corner or out from a blanket to say hi at any and every opportunity. The speech therapist comes weekly and we work on prompting, articulating and just generally helping him figure out how to make the sounds that he wants to make. Some days he loves it and other days he hands the therapist her shoes and waves bye - but we just keep working at it with him. The most successful reward to getting him to talk is food - big shock there!

There are other challenges to overcome. He despises all of the occupational therapy that he has to do and making sit-ups fun for an 18 month old is difficult. He is near-sighted and may need glasses at an early age. We won't know the extent of his diagnosis for a while until he is older and can communicate a little better but I have come to the conclusion that as far as I am concerned, his diagnosis is easy : Peanut is a happy, loving and perfect little boy who enjoys torturing/playing with his big brother, running as fast as he can at all times and climbing to dangerous heights whenever my back is turned. He has the most beautiful little voice when he chooses to use it and the most wonderful way of getting us all to do his bidding no matter how he communicates. In my book, Peanut is everything I could ever want him to be.