Words

Gabriel has been using quite a few words lately. This might be small beans to other moms, but to me, it's quite exciting, since all of our kids have been slow to talk. Once they finally start talking...I feel like I can breath a sigh of relief.

When we had Joshua, we were clueless when it came to how much kids were supposed to be talking by a certain age. But when he still wasn't even saying "Daddy" at 30 months, we knew something was up. He was later diagnosed with a moderate speech delay and an auditory processing disorder, which required 5 years of speech therapy to straighten out. Since then, we've been rather vigilante about our other kids. So our angel has been in speech therapy since he was two.

Our goal for Gabriel is to simply get him using more single words. I made sure to teach him some sign language when he was very young (around 11 months). This has made communicating easier, but we still have tantrums because Gabriel is frustrated and not able to make his wants/needs known. He can sign or say things like "milk," "help," "more," "please," "thank you"...etc, which helps, but ultimately, he has to increase his single word vocabulary.

I am really happy to see an increase in his vocabulary base. Just in the past 2 weeks, he is using words like "walk," "dog," "book," "mine," "hot," "out," "eat," "go," "ball," "down,""night-night," and "up." All of us are working to have Gabriel "use his words." Even Rebecca will ask him to say the appropriate word before giving him something; a toy, drink, snack, etc. I am certain Gabriel has a temper tantrum on some occasions, simply because 3 people are telling him to say some word before fulfilling his request. If I were a 2-year-old, I think I would scream too!

But all this hopefully means Gabriel will not need speech therapy in the long run. Words don't seem so important, but to me...there's a real blessing in hearing your child say, "Mommy" instead of "Ma-Ma." (Gabriel did say "Daddy," first, so I cannot say I got dibs on that one ;-).

I am thankful my prayers were answered and heard...because using words is a major milestone for us..."music to our ears," and a "sweet, sweet sound."