the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

the GOOD Aiden has added new words to his vocabulary list! He now says "meow" (without the /e/, so more like "mmmmow"), "hah" (hot), "buh, buh" (boat), "dah, dah" (duck or quack), and "En" for his classmate Ben.

He has even attempted to say his own name, is sounds like "Ay-en"!

Aiden continues to try to walk. He's going further and further, but just is not taking off. He can walk clear across the living room, will look at us, then fall to his knees. Frustrating but good that he continues to try.

He is trying to blow ... bubbles, a piece of paper across the table, my hair, anything. We've been working on this to help him with his "oo". It's hilarious! He either lets out a big ol' raspberry or has a wide round mouth blowing out, like sounding out the letter h.

He is trying to imitate us more, but mainly just the number of syllables. For example, for banana, he will say "ah-ah-ah" or pumpkin (and open and many other two syllable words) he will say, "uh-um" or "ah-um" and with each one he inflects his voice.

He's trying out /p/. I have been working on p since last summer! He's been saying "uh, uh, uh" (up, up, up) for some time, but I've heard it with that /p/ a few times now. We've been blowing a lot of bubbles lately too to help that /p/ POP!

His receptive language is growing. I really need to sit down and write a list.

He doesn't cry anymore when I drop him off at school! He smiles! This is HUGE!

the BAD Aiden is still stuck on the same consonants and same vowels. We have m, b, d, and sometimes n (although it seems we've lost it). Then put these with the his vowels of "ah" and "uh", and so consists his vocabulary list.

Even with all the HallOOwEEn sounds of /oo/ and /e/, still nothing. For /oo/ we get a deep, nasally /m/ and for /e/ we get that gasping for air sound.

Buh-buh (bye-bye) is just that and has been replaced with da-da. No clue.

We've completely lost the long o and long i that we'd hear every once in awhile.

The only Lings he'll use are /ah/ and /m/. Period.

He's still on the bottle. This is supposed to be only right before bed, but when Aiden wants a bottle he goes into the fridge, climbs up, and gets his own. I often find him sitting on the couch drinking his bottle. We had to put a lock on the fridge.

He's still not walking.

and the UGLY

Terrible twos 6 months too early ... the boy is out of control.

He's stopped sleeping through the night. Again.

He screams. Either a deep throat gurgly all out "AHHHHHH" or a shrill high pitched "AHHHH". His AVT thinks it's the boy in him. I'd like to take this part of the boy out of him.

We're working on the term "inside voice".

He's still not walking.

I have to say though that my little monkey makes me smile all.day.long. He has such a great personality, so much spunk, is such a little comedian, and truly is always happy (even when he is screaming, he laughs at himself when he's done ... he thinks it's funny ... I don't).

So there you have it ... so glad the "good" list is longer than the others! Although I have concerns with his expressive language and his maps, I do believe he's doing amazing. I look at him everyday and can't believe my baby is deaf. We have an appointment Wed. with our Hopkin's audiologist to hopefully clear up these mapping issues ... hope this adds more to our good list!