For quite some time, I have been very worried about Noah's speech.
*collective gasp/eye rolling/blissful ignorance*
No seriously. I know you're all like, "uh, dude? Not even two."
And I'm all nervous mom, hand wringing, um-ing and ah-ing about it all. And then I kinda do the whole cocky well-my-kiddo-was-walking-at-8-months thing in that way that’s being an asshole but pretending not to be an asshole, even though I’m totally being an asshole.
Now he’s nearly two. I am genuinely worried now. I didn't make a big deal of it before because exactly that; he's only nearly two. And I'm all "well he's been busy walking and um, being uh, physically developed, and uh, that's been his priority and stuff". You know, in a not so assholey kinda way.
But he’s done all that now. He walks, runs, jumps, spins around, falls over, tumbles, gets up, climbs up, climbs down, do all that crazy shit Sportacus does...and it’s all so easy to him and he’ll do it again and again.
But he’ll point to a light in a room, and say “UH”. The same noise he made when pointing to lights last Christmas, some nine months ago. He’ll make that same noise for most things.
Noah’s current vocab:
Dada, Mama, Nana, teeth, twenty, Isaac, no, Lee.
Aaaaaand that’s it. Of those 8 words, the first four are clear as day. The last four are identifiable because we understand him. No one else does. He said hiya a few times. We haven’t heard that for a while. His sign language, however, is impressive in my opinion. Sometimes we only have to use a sign once in context and he’ll remember it.
Noah’s current signs:
Please/thank you, yes, no, eat, more, biscuit, milk, sorry, brother, duck, chicken, monkey, teddy bear, hug, baby, car, wheel, hot, smell, beep, noise, sleep, cry, drink, elephant, star, hello/bye bye, fish, medicine.
There are more but I can’t even remember them right now (he knows more than me).
Noah’s animal sounds:
Dog, cat, chicken, monkey, elephant, lion, zebra, horse, frog, cow.
He’s only 20 months. ACK. He’s ONLY 20 months. But you know what? I worry. I worry a LOT. Can you tell I’m worried? Because I really am worried.
I want to blame it on his dummy. I hate that thing, and I want to get rid of it. Hell I wanted to get rid of it ages ago, but my spineless self couldn’t face the tears and tantrums that would follow. Having said that of course, he’s going through so many fantastic tears and tantrums these days, I often wonder to myself what difference it would make.
But the fact is, we tell him to take his dummy out to speak to us and the exact same noise comes out. Also, I say again, when he does say some of his words, they’re as clear as day. The rest, well, I haven’t a clue. There’s rarely a change in inflection, his babble is minimal and usually revolves around the words he already knows.
I’m in danger. You know that
webpage that makes you an instant doctor, qualified or no? You know, where all your heart's desires are fulfilled,
every question answered? Well at the moment I’m doing all I can to make sure I don’t try to become an expert in verbal communication.
D and I sat and had a very long talk last night. He’s worried too. We’re on holiday at the moment, and we’ve decided that when we get back, we’re going cold turkey on dummy elimination. It’s gone, it’s over, time to let it go. We wanted it gone by the time he was one. I failed. Then I said 18 months. I didn’t even try. So now, it has to be by the time he’s two. We just cannot face him still having it when he’s 3. I appreciate some people let their children have their soothers until they’re 5, 6 sometimes maybe 7 years old.
I also appreciate when people say “Ahww but it makes him happy! Other babies still have theirs...” D’s response was “Ok so if feeding people cocaine makes them happy, should we also do that to our child?” I love his way of thinking, and oddly enough, that makes sense to me.
I’m nervous. We’re both nervous. Noah still seems awesome somehow.
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