Excuse me? What did you say?

Excuse me? What did you say?
(November 2009)

When Jacob first said his first word at 9 months old (other than Mama or Dada) I was all excited and started watching and listening for all the new words that would be exploding out of his mouth. Little did I know that new words would be added but no real explosion would happen for almost 20 months! Jacob has always followed the "speaking" milestones right on cue. If the milestone says "by *this month* your child should know 20+words" Jacob knew/spoke about 20+ words. When at 2 years old it said that "Most 2 year olds should be able to say 110 words and say 2-3 word sentences" Jacob had about that many and spoke in 2-3 word sentences.

I just assumed that Jacob was never going to have his "explosion" of words like I had been told by NUMEROUS mothers/parents that all kids have. So I was very excited when over the past three weeks Jacobs speech has gone from 100+ words to literally 250+ words! Now about 90% of these words I feel any Joe Schmo could walk off the street and understand what Jacob is saying but then about 10% even I have to get Jacob to repeat sometimes before I even know what he is saying.

Jacob is still having problems with certain letters like S,V, Z and F. He also will replace letters sometimes in words where I know he doesn't need to. Like he can say "CAT" with the K sound but then if something is broke he will say "UH OH MAMA IT BROTE" and then he can tell me the sound of a snake is "SSSSSSSSSSSSSS" but will tell me that a spider is a "Rider". I have been working with him and modeling certain speech problems that I know he has, but those conversations usually go something like this!

Me: Jacob what is that?

Jacob: RIDER

Me: That's right, it's a SSSSSSpider

Jacob: RIDER

Me: Jacob, look at my mouth, SSSSSSSSSpider

Jacob: SSSSSSSSSSSS (loooooong pause) RIDER!

Me: (feeling defeated) GOOD JOB!

What a champ!!!

What a champ!
(November 2009)

This week Jacob was a real champ for a couple of reasons. First Jacob caught a minor cold that ended up with a pretty nasty runny nose for a few days and then today we went and got our H1N1 shot. I am NOT a vaccine person, as most people know, Jacob has yet to even get his 12 month vaccines, but with a 2 1/2 month old I just felt that this year we would have to bite the bullet and get the vaccine. So we did and I got mine and Jacob got his 1st of two doses. Paul unfortunately goes to a different doctor and they don't have any vaccine so he is still susceptible to getting sick. But hopefully we won't have to worry about that.

A few weeks ago Jacob had another cold and it was miserable, as most people with a two year old know that snotty noses don't exactly get blown away with a 2 year they get wiped away.... wiped all over arms, faces, couches, beds, and even my leg!!! So Paul and I decided that when Jacob got his next runny nose that we were going to try and teach him how to blow his nose. According to my "babycenter" emails most kids don't learn to blow their nose until closer to 3 years old, but emails be damned we were going to try. Plus according to my mother, a kindergarten teacher, knowing how to blow their nose is a huge thing for going to school....my mother wishes more kids did!! hehehehehe

So when this cold started we started working with him, and I can happily say that my little guy is a CHAMPION nose blower and he can keep up with the best of adults with his nose blowing! This cold wasn't nearly as bad as the last one because the boogies were kept under control!!