Stacking

Today, we were in a stacking sort of mood.  Sorry to say, we have no blocks to stack (Santa might have to remedy this soon!)  We do, however, have plenty of stackable items in our household.  We stacked spices, we stacked rigatoni pasta, and we even stacked chicken nuggets come lunch time.

Our target words for the day:

• Here
• Uh Oh
• Yay
• Up
• Down

I emphasized each word with an action.  I said 'here' when handing him items to stack; I said 'Yay' when stacking was successful; I said 'Uh Oh' when our stack fell over; I said 'Up' as we built up our towers of spices, rigatoni and chicken nuggets and 'Down' when then came tumbling down.

Stacking rigatoni.  The Fruit Loops were meant for stacking too, but they ended up
getting eaten instead.

Adding a little spice to our lives.

Overall, today's activities were a huge success.  I feel that by constantly engaging him in these language-rich activities, we are making progress.  We are winning the battle to take back the words he has said in the past and seemingly lost!

Spoken Words Today:

• Here
• Uh Oh
• Yay
• Again (so proud of this brand new unintentional word - he wanted to keep stacking and started repeating this when I asked if he wanted to do it again!)

Tractors & Trucks

Trash Day.

Today was trash day - always an exciting day in our house because my son loves watching the garbage truck drive down our street.  Since we started out our day watching the garbage truck, I made 'Trucks & Tractors' our theme.

Today, we focused on the words:

• Tractor
• Garbage Truck
• In
• Out

Every activity we did today was centered around tractors or garbage trucks in some way.

We broke out the toy tractors and the sensory tub and worked on putting beans 'in'
the dump truck and then dumping them 'out.'  We watched YouTube videos of
tractors and garbage trucks.

We broke out every tractor and/or truck-related book in our arsenal and read
them over and over again, repeating and emphasizing the words 'tractor' and 'truck.'

We tried our hands at 'Dump Truck' still life.

We took apart and put together our tractor-themed wooden peg puzzle,
naming the tractors as we went.

Today's spoken words:

• 'Gar' (I'm giving him credit for garbage truck, here) 
• 'Bye' (said to the garbage truck as it left our street)
• 'Hi' (which tanslates into 'high five' which he was playing with Daddy).

Ground Zero

I am a bad mother.  I am a lazy mother.  I am the reason my 2-year-old son is still not talking.

The pediatrician is just wrapping up the 2-year-old Well Visit with kindly-meant words that include 'speech therapy' and 'early intervention,' but those three things are all that keep flashing through my head.

I am a bad mother.  I am a lazy mother.  I am the reason my 2-year-old son is still not talking.

I blame myself because there's no one else to blame.  I'm the stay-at-home mom.  My job description is simple.  Take care of my house, take care of my husband, and, most of all, take care of my child.  I have failed somehow.

I've never been one of 'those' mothers whose every waking moment is spent reciting nursery rhymes and quizzing with flashcards.  I've never felt the need to be that mom because my son is brilliant.  He understands everything we tell him.  He's a good listener and generally does what is asked of him.  And he knows words.  I know he knows them.  I've heard him say them.

'Banana'
'Yay'
'Uh oh'
'Milk'
'Hello'
'Hi'
'Bye'
'Apple'
'Thank You'
'I love you'
'Here'

I've heard all of these things from my son, but he always regresses back to babbling and gibberish as though he had never discovered any of them.

I've told myself to be patient as I watch children months younger than him excelling in expressive language.  I've told myself that every child develops differently.  Somehow it's different now.  He's two now.  So in the absence of noticeable improvement, I have decided to become THAT mom.  This blog will serve to track our progress as we delve into piles of board books, wade through stacks of flashcards and embrace repitition.  Repitition.  Repitition.

Two Years Old.