Pride Part 2

I'm sorry for the silence. The end of the school year is always crazy, and with the added emotional drain of my friend's retirement it has literally wiped me out. Plus, I am the social coordinator at the school (that makes me sound like a cruise director or something) so I have been putting together a memory book and a retirement survival kit for her.

The good news is that I only have one more wake-up until the end of the school year! Whoot. I simply cannot wait to have absolutely nothing to do. Well, with twins there is always something to do, but you get the idea.

But giving you an update on what I am doing is not why I am posting. Oh no. I want to tell you about something far better than that. It's about my little go-getter Shawny Bonny!

One of my biggest fears has always been that Sh.awn's rough start and later very dark days would mean that my little guy would have trouble speaking (an especially scary thought for me when you take the trouble he has with his hand into consideration, which in my eyes made the idea of signing as a form of communication that much more of a challenge). Plus, Sh.awn's major bleed was in the language area in his brain. Yes, I know that a baby's brain is resilient and capable of making new pathways when original pathways are damaged. Still, we were playing a game of wait and see. The longer we waited to see, the more scared I became.

I try to tuck the fear away into a small corner deep in my heart, but it still rears its ugly head on occasion and takes my breath away.

But this week, Sh.awn has once again renewed my faith. It may be scary at times, and the road may be bumpy, but my baby is going to be okay. I truly believe that!

So what has brought this revelation?

He has added four new words to his vocabulary this week alone! Whoot!

He now says:
cookie,
baby (and points to babies in his book),
airplane (and will point to the sky),
bye-bye,
mama,
dada (although he won't say it to Is.aac),
hey,
hi,
no (and shakes his head before he reaches for his glasses. hmmm...),
bottle,
go,
what's that (when he hears something outside),
kiiiii - kitty (and looks for them),
Gracie (when his brother says it first),
night night, and
book.

This, my Internet friends, is huge. HUGE.

From my research, boys should have about 10 words for "normal" range at his age. Did you notice that my guy has more than 10 words? You didn't? Well, let me clarify the number for you. My baby has 16 words.

16!!!!!!!!

Did you hear my contented sigh? I am just so, so proud of my Sh.awn Bon. :-)