She can talk!!

AS many out there probably know we have spent the better part of the last three years taking Grayson to speech therapy. In November he graduated, and although is tough to understand at times it just about reached average for his peers. Yay Grayson.

Eme has and continues to be the opposite. She, although quieter than her brother tends to have the most amazing vocabulary for a 3 year old. Pronunciation has only been a problem when she is trying to emulate her older brother, as emulation is what little sisters do right? Just tonight she corrected Grayson when he claimed that something was gooder.

Eme: Grayson gooder isn't a word. Good is a word, but then it goes better, best.

Now comes along Anna, and as much as we hate to compare she really seems to take after Grayson in the old speech department. At least now I am confident that all the work I did establishing the best way to get services and who the best therapist are will not all be in vain now that G has graduated.

Not to say Anna doesn't communicate amazingly. Through various intonations, different pitches in screaming and lots of sign language she pretty much can tell us full descriptive sentences. Just the other day, as I was busy playing dinosaurs (see previous posting) she kept saying duck while pointing to a picture. Then she would say "momma". And thinking that she was just trying to get me to validate "hey mom check out this duck" I kept repeating "yes Anna duck". As she kept insisting on "duck" then "momma" I decided to take a closer look at what she was trying to tell me. This is when I noticed the picture she was looking at was indeed a duck, and a momma one at that. Good job Anna. Then she said "duck" and did a sign for baby. Never say I'm not quick to catch on - yep sure enough with the momma duck was a baby duck. Good job Anna. Then she said "agua" (water for those non Spanish speakers). Yep the momma and the babies were on a little pond. Good job Anna. Then as I figured we had to be at the end of this conversation by now, as she is only 18 months old (or at least she was at the time), she surprised and impressed me by then adding one last comment. She made her sound for swim (which happens to sound a lot like the alarm that goes off when the door to the pool opens and says "fault pool door"). Wow no comprehension nor communication problem with this girl - alas only a person with a PhD in Dawes baby signs could actually have understood this conversation but I don't hesitate to state the obvious: SHE'S A GENIUS (okay maybe I am a bit biased)!

But my favorite yet which has sparked this blog this evening was the look of surprise on everyone's face when I was carting her off to bed and she looked up at Paul and as clear as day said "bye-bye dada" as she waved her little hand. Maybe there's hope for her yet and maybe I should start looking for a consulting gig to sell off my speech language knowledge.