Look who's Talking Now

dada
wawa            
shoes
socks
teeth
kittycat
juice
apple
pepper
bath
truck
grape
cookie
cracker
choo choo
brush
et.al.


.........and to think that we were worried that he wasn't talking.

Ethan has a new skill now. Talking!  He has really caught the talking bug, and is saying almost a new word every day. Of course he is a little late in his language development (according to the average) and he has a way to go to catch up to his peers. We always figured that his motor skills were so advanced, that he spent the majority of his focus on that, and that he would start talking eventually. That didn't stop Mommy and Daddy from playing the role of overly-concerned first time parents, enrolling him is speech therapy, and getting him a hearing test. The latter of those two seemed to be the most beneficial, because it turned out that he had hearing impairment from chronic ear fluid. Once he got the tubes but in his ears, we really noticed a change in his responses to our speech and other sounds. The first month after the tubes, he still didn't talk much, but his receptive language was developing rapidly. He knew dozens of words and could point to things in books when asked. The next step for language development is the expressive language, which he is really starting to progress with now. It's both relieving and exciting for us now, because it seems like the last year has been spent waiting for him to talk, to no avail. It's so much easier to communicate with him now. Just the simple fact of him being able to say "no", and point and say what he wants, makes all of our lives much easier. We can't wait to see hear what words he may say today!