My last post was telling all about our journey and how God opened and closed doors for us to be able to get Sam the best help possible. Now, I want to tell you how far we have come with speech. We are finally hearing his sweet voice use words and it makes our hearts melt every. single. time.
September 27, 2016: This is the day I took Sam for his speech evaluation at Brightsong. He was tested in four areas; gesture, play, language comprehension, and language expression. In the gesture area, Sam completed 2 out of 5 tasks. In the play subtest he completed 1 out of 3 tasks. He was able to stack and assemble toys, but could not follow commands to put the toys away or fix a broken toy. The language comprehension and expression is where I knew we would really have a hard time. On the language comprehension subtest Sam completed 0 out of 4 tasks. He could not choose one picture from a set of pictures when asked, follow novel commands, follow a two- step command, or understand new words rapidly. The language expression is where he scored 0 out of 8 tasks. We were NOT using two word phrases, 50 different words, using new words regularly, relating personal experience, using 3 word phrases, referring to self by name, or using early pronouns occasionally. Once the therapist sent us his report, his overall language was that of a 14 month old. When the test was given, Sam was 21 months old.
October 2016: As of early October, Sam still didn't have words he was using. When he did "talk" to you it was a throaty grunt kind of thing. Think about if you were humming and not opening your mouth. That's the kind of noises we got from him. There was an occasional outburst of some consonant sounds, but no words. He was signing for "more" when he wanted more drink or food and he signed "all done" when he was finished eating or wanted to move onto a new activity.
One thing that we did was always count for him to come give us a hug. "One, two, three!" and he would run and hug whoever counted for him. Eventually, Sam got to where he would say, "three," but still in his throat. Sort of humming it. His speech therapist worked on counting to three like we did and also worked on "ready, set, go!" to race cars. She noted how he was starting to say the words, "three and go" whenever she said them. This was progress!
November 2016: This is the month we saw so much progress with our speech and comprehension! Sam started waving and saying, "ai" for bye when someone was leaving. He would call for "dada" if he needed something. He started comprehending and following commands such as, "give me a high five, throw the trash away, pick up your toys." He would bring me or my mom to our pantries and force out the word "coo-kie" when he wanted a snack. Sometimes he would add a little drama to the word "coo-kie" and place his hands together like he was begging! Matt says he gets the dramatics from me... I don't know though 😉.
He stayed at a friend's house one evening in early November and he even said their little girl's name before we left! He had never said any one's name before!
Then, the best thing ever started happening... He was saying "mama." And he was saying it with meaning! He would come up to me, look me in the eyes, and say in his sweetest baby voice "mama." This is also the month where we heard "uh-oh" all the time. If something fell, "uh-oh." If a dog made a mess, "uh-oh." If Sam splashed water out of the bathtub, "uh-oh." Everyone was so excited every time a word would come out of his mouth that was understandable! Our baby was finally making the progress we ALL wanted to see!
Sam's vocabulary was exploding! He was saying (with meaning), "mama, dada, uh-oh, hi, bye, cookie, three, thank you, aight (for light) and thirteen!" There were more words, but these are the ones that we heard daily. Sam was also doing more pretend play. He learned the song, "The Wheels on the Bus" at school and can do every motion and sound that each character does on the bus. He pretends to be the mommy and "shhh" the babies with his little finger at his lips making the "shhh" sound. He cries like the babies with his hands by his eyes (or ears sometimes). He swishes his hands like the wipers on the bus. My favorite is when he gets to be the bus driver and says, "move on back." He doesn't say those words exactly, but it's close. He makes his voice go a little deeper and points his whole hand to tell everyone to move on back! Around Halloween time he would walk around with a bucket on his head and dance like a robot. He learned this from his show, WallyKazaam. We had many robot dance parties with him.
Sam was also going through the house wanting to turn off and on the "aights." This was something he worked with his therapists and we carried it over at the house. I cannot tell you how many times we have turned off and on the "aights" just to hear him say it again. 😍
On Thanksgiving is where Sam learned the word, "thirteen!" There is an exclamation mark at the end because he has to scream it every time he says it. My mom started a tradition with us last year called, "Dirty Turkey." Pretty much like "Dirty Santa" except she hides gift cards in a few of the little gifts so you may end up with extra gifts at the end and not know it. Anyways, all of the dirty turkey gifts were on her fireplace with Christmas lights around them. Sam immediately ran towards the lights and wanted to touch them. He started counting the lights with Toby. Toby was counting, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13." When Toby stopped at 13, Sam screamed, "13!" So of course we counted to 13 over and over and over that night at Honey and Papi's. And on the way home. And the next day. Every single time, he would wait patiently until you got to 12 and he would scream, "13!" This is also the night when he walked straight up to Toby and said just as clear in his sweet voice, "I lu you" and gave him the sweetest hug. I think we all had teary eyes after we heard it.
November was also the month that Sam started giving out sweet kisses. Matt and I (and everyone else) would give him kisses all the time. At night is when we routinely asked for a kiss and hug before bed. He didn't do it, but we modeled every night what to do. Our routine oriented baby would go into his room every night, turn on his night light and the sound machine, run to Matt to pick him up, turn off his "aights, " reach for me to get him, put his little hands together to pray, and we all pray as a family. Every night. Sometimes he will say, "Jesus" and wait for us to finish the prayer and then end it with, "ee-ee" for 'amen' and then laugh. "Amen" is a funny word to a toddler. Then, before we put him in his crib, Matt would say, "Can mommy have a kiss?" One night our boy looked at me, stuck out his lips, and gave me the sweetest kiss on my lips! Kissy sound and all. The he hugged me with his little arms around my neck. Then, he did the same thing to Matt. He was showing his affection towards us. This was a huge thing! Sam gave hugs, but kisses were a new thing. My mom and I were talking about his hugs and affection one day and she was saying how she remembered that he would just stiff arm hug and squeeze real tight when he was first learning. Sometimes you would just get a little pat on the back. He wasn't quite sure what to do.
Sam wasn't overly affectionate at all. Sometimes, he still isn't which is ok. We do not force him to give kisses. Sometimes if you ask for a kiss and he doesn't want to kiss you he will turn so you can kiss his cheek or put his forehead down to kiss. No one forces us to kiss random people (or even people we are related to). Why should we force him? We are learning to not make Sam do a lot of things if he doesn't want to. If he starts screaming during a picture we just let him go. If he starts screaming while being held we let him go. I know some people will say that he's got to learn to take pictures with people or let others hold him, but not right now. Matt and I are all about Sam doing his own thing and not forcing anything on him. He's learning all these different emotions and we have to let him figure them out. We have to support that. Even though he's two he is a human with lots of emotion. He's learning what (and who) he wants and doesn't want. Anyways, moving on...
This is also when we started saying the word, "thank you." Sam is the most polite little boy when you give him something he wants. Without missing a beat he will look you in the eyes with his sweet baby voice and say, "thank you." I'm telling you, it's the sweetest 'thank you" you've ever heard! He thanks us for everything! Matt and I were just talking yesterday about how much we are going to miss hearing his sweet "thank you" one day like we miss his toothless baby grin.
We were also hearing new words like "bu-bbles" and "ball." I am telling you, we have worked on the word "ball" since before he was one. Sam used to be completely obsessed with a ball. I'm not even kidding when I say we had to keep a ball in the car, at both grandparents house, friends houses, and in our house. We had to make sure there was always a ball available for him to have. It's sweet because Toby painted me a picture for my birthday this year and it was Sam outside with his ball. Our friend's little girl asks for "CoCo, Sam, and ball" to come over to play. Her older sister even made Sam a birthday card with her and Sam playing with a ball. It was like his signature thing to have. Sam never said "ball" or even signed for "ball" until the last week of November.
We also hear this baby jibberish now! I have no idea what Sam is saying, but he sure knows. He jibbers in whispers. He jibbers in the car. He jibbers playing with his toys. I think if he would have opened his mouth when he did all the "throat talking" it would have been all this jibberish we hear now. He also knows when to answer after a question is asked. He answers his shows when they ask a question. He answers Matt and I if we ask him something. He says, "yeah" a lot now. I know he doesn't understand what "yeah" means right now, but I know he knows that it's a good answer to give when someone asks you something.
Also, going back a little to his imaginative play, Sam learned a trick a few weeks ago when he was wearing pajamas that were too big for him. He was laying with me in bed and his sleeve covered his hand. As I was trying to roll up his sleeve to get his hand out I asked him, "Sam, where did your hand go? Oh, no? Where is it?" Then, I slid the sleeve up and showed him his hand and said, "there it is!" Well, Sam thought this was the best thing ever! He started pulling his hand inside all of his long sleeve shirts and saying "where'd my hand go?" Of course, he wasn't saying that full sentence, but his jibberish let you know that's what he was asking. Then he would slide his hand up really fast and wait for your reaction of, "there it is!" I got a note from his old school one day saying, "Sam showed us his hand trick today. We laughed so hard!" He also did this trick at his birthday party this past weekend for everyone! He thought it was great when everyone laughed at him.
Here's a little update on Sam's new school as well:
December 2016: Sam started his new school after Thanksgiving Break. He went on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday he was still at his old school. This is how it will be the rest of December.
On Monday Matt and I both took him. He was excited to see all of the new toys and play equipment they had! Once we started to leave though he was not very happy. Remember me telling you that our boy loves a routine? Well, at his old school, they came in and had snack first thing at their little table. At his new school, he had to go to the table to work on puzzles and motor skills. This was not what he was used to so that threw him off. One of his teachers held him as we left and I could hear his little cry. After we turned the corner I had Matt go back and check on him for me. My heart was breaking. Dropping Sam off was also something new for me. I was always at work and Matt was the one dropping him off at his old school. Matt came back and told me he had already stopped crying and was playing with the toys. I felt better, but I still cried a tiny bit in the car 😁. Oh, remember our tree guy from the last blog? Well, he saw us walking in that morning and couldn't believe it! He said that he immediately called his wife when he left to tell her Sam was in their little girl's class! Like I said, God had put such great people in our story and this couple is one of them.
Sam's teacher sent me a picture later that day telling me he was having so much fun! Seeing this picture made my mama heart so happy.
Wednesday he cried when I left as well. He still wasn't use to everything. One of the assistants held him and consoled him. Friday was a different story. Maybe because Friday was his birthday and he brought cupcakes to share with his class, but he went straight to that little table and started working on stringing animals on a string. He was perfect! I asked for a kiss, he gave me one, and I walked out. About an hour later his teacher sent me three pictures of him eating his cupcakes.
I also got a note that afternoon that Sam showed them his imaginative play and wore a bucket on his head like a hat. Remember those robot dance parties we had in October? Well, he had his own at school on Friday!
My mom and I moved
School was a success last week and we are so excited to see all the progress that Sam will continue to make on this journey. He still isn't where he should be developmentally, but we are seeing new things from him every single day! Progress is definitely noted.
Courtney and Matt
YAY!! So excited for him.
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