I'm so glad to be on maternity leave for the rest of September. It will be a busy time and fly by, but it will be nice to only think about family.
We went down to San Diego for about 24 hours to see Jason and Erin. It was so beautiful! They both live super close to the beach (a few blocks, if that) so we took a few walks on the boardwalk. The kids really enjoyed exploring new houses, but it made us super exhausted chasing them around. It was also very tiring since we didn't really follow their schedule very well. Everyone is a little screwed up on sleep, which makes for very cranky kids.
Charlotte is getting her 2 yr old molars and so she hasn't been a very happy camper for a couple weeks. I feel so bad for her because besides Motrin, there's not much we can do for her. We are still working on getting her evaluated for her speech. The insurance denied our referral to get an evaluation, because her speech delays are not caused by disease or injury. This makes me SO MAD!!! Completely ridiculous policy.
We're going to go through the state's early intervention program since she will be eligible for an evaluation until age 3, and then allowed to receive treatment at a reduced cost as well. We are getting more worried about her. If there's anything I've learned in parenting, it's to listen to your gut instincts, and my instincts are definitely telling me something is a bit off with her speech.
She has basically hit a plateau with her speech. She really hasn't said any new things since 12/14 months. She stares at us with a blank face when we work on sounds and vocabulary. She doesn't attempt to mimic any new sounds or words (or even old sounds. She isn't able to make an 'O' shape with her mouth for 'kissy lips', blowing on food, or to say 'uh-oh'. She still only says a handful of almost words, and her only clear words are hi and all done, although they sound more like 'haw-ee' and 'ah-dah'. It just seems like she physically can't talk--is that even possible??
Cooper is on go mode. The boy doesn't slow down. He is intensely curious about everything and physically tries to master everything he can. He is showing a particular interest in bicycles lately, so I think we might buy him a tricycle or a bicycle with training wheels. He is so tall that we want to get him something that he won't grow out of too quickly.
Cooper is working saying new words, although no true words yet, except for mama tonight! It was so cute to hear him say it. He says biaper like Charlotte does, but we keep working with them both to say 'duh-duh-duh, diaper'. They say 'duh-duh, biaper'. (We'll have to be careful we don't give them a stuttering problem like Michelle did with Abby!) He walks around saying all different kinds of sounds: th, sh, sss, oh, puh. He also sings now (which Charlotte has been doing for a few months). Talking can't come soon enough!!
The next week I'll probably be quiet with blogging. We're going to North Carolina to see Chris' dad, stepmom, sisters, and niece. We are SO excited!!
3 comments:
Hey Salina. I will start by trying to reassure. As a teacher of children ages birth-four, for 20+ years, I Can tell you the the range of what is normal for kids is very broad. It varies a great deal from one kiddo to the next. I have had kids at three years of age who barely spoke and others who spoke like little teenagers. That being said, early intervention can never hurt. There are things that can make it difficult for kids to speak. Sometimes the muscles in the mouth are under developed and can cause problems that way. You can imagine that of you needed to manipulate those muscles for speech, it would be difficult if they were weak. There can also sometimes be processing problems. This is when a child's brain knows what to do and tries to do it, but the information gets messed up or blocked from the brain to the mouth. You could also get her hearing checked, often speech problems are the result of kids not hearing well, which can obviously screw up how and what they hear and so therefore they are unable to mimick the sounds and words. None of these are a big deal and can all usually be corrected with some speech therapy help or medical intervention sometimes in the case of hearing. Regardless, she certainly seemed like a normal 2 year old to me. Try not to compare her or Cooper to other kiddo's, they are all so different and yet it all can be normal. Don't ignore your instinct though, you may be being oversensitive, but you may just have that maternal gut acting for you. Better to be safe than sorry! :)
I had a speech problem when I was young and went to something like 10 years of speech therapy. My case was a little different, but I'm sure that with early intervention, you're off to the right start.
My "niece" had a speech problem and didn't say very many words by the time she was 2 years old. Her parents were very concerned. In the end, they discovered that her ear canals were shut so they put tubes in her ears to open them up. Almost over night she started speaking! Apparently it's a relatively common thing for young kids to need, and as the child gets older the tubes just fall out when they're no longer needed. If she can't hear herself talking, it could be contributing to the issue. Maybe you can look into that?
Oh, I forgot to say that you are so going to enjoy the kids when they can start talking. Ellie is so much fun at this age that I can't imagine how it can be any better. You're going to have it better, though, since there will be two of them at the same time! I'm looking forward to the stories.
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