Ah! Da!

...am I a bad mother, or just not taking enough notice?

I have noticed for some time that Malakai wants to communicate verbally and he 'talks' all the time... just not in a language that I understand... He's using signs more often and is learning them at a rate of knots too... But speech? Well, I thought we were still months away from our first word.

Not according to our speech therapist (who we see every two weeks). In this morning's session, the ST was convinced Malakai is actually saying his first words (or approximations at words). And, when she pointed them out to me, I could actually hear them (sort of...)!

What I find amazing is the way that Malakai communicates around his ST. Where most kids don't perform in therapy or evaluation settings, Malakai was the opposite this morning. It was as if I was seeing him through the ST's eyes and his communication that much stronger and more direct.

He was telling us 'more' when he wanted something and 'finished' when he no longer wanted to play a certain game. He was signing 'more' and saying 'o', he was saying 'a' (like 'uh') for 'hello' and waving.

Come to think of it, this morning he said 'ah da' and waved at Darryl - as if to say 'hello dada' (which I always say when Darryl gets home from work in the afternoons).

How could I be so blind? He's been communicating all along and I just didn't see it. In between bath time, dinner time, bottle time, play time and everything else I try to fit into our evenings, I am not noticing that my son is actually making a go at verbal speech!

I'm feeling quite sheepish right now...

So - here I am to say Well Done Malakai! I am very proud of my little monkey boy - he's so amazing and so funny! I love him to bits!