Interpreting Joey

So speech has been one of those areas that we have been most concerned about in terms of Joey's development. He has been making great strides in gross and fine motor skills but speech has been the area in which Joey has had the most delay.

He communicates with sign language, and has a vocabulary of 30-40 signs. He did not babble or talk much until recently. Now he says "da da"

"pa pa" (for my dad)

"gah" (go)

"buh buh" (bubbles), "ball"

"kitty," "blah" (for "blake" our baby sitter's son" and a few others. But like all Moms...I have been dying to hear him say Ma Ma...and this week he did! It took so long to interpret this because unbeknown to us, he was substituting a "b" sound for the "mm" sound. Instead of ma ma, he was calling me "ba ba." I thought he wanted a bottle (maybe I am a little slow) And looking at me like "Duh!" when I would keep saying "ma ma." He totally believed he was saying it. But this week he did it for real! I have been waiting to hear those words in that little voice for over two years now! I am sooooo proud of him.

(Here we are on the gondola going up to Heavenly on a recent trip to Tahoe.)

It is funny though how it all of a sudden clicks for us ... the meaning of the "words" he is using... For instance for months we thought Joey was saying "kitty" all of the time...and he does say "kitty" when he sees our cats or a picture of a kitty in a book...but what he was really saying when we thought he was randomly saying "kitty" (with no kitty in sight) was "Joey" but pronounced "gheey." Silly us... who knew! We just needed to learn to interpret Joey. He will now fill in the blank when we say "who does Da Da love" ...he points to himself and says "gheey" I will have to get a picture...it is too cute!

In other news we have finally moved! (hence the unintended blog pause of over a month here) It is soooo wonderful being out of that two bedroom condo and into a 5 bedroom house...

and it could not have happened at a more appropriate time because I am pregnant again! It is still early...only 6 weeks...but I am sick as a dog and my HCG levels were really good so we are cautiously optimistic that this one will take....Prayers for us please...and more to come soon!