Ben playing piano and singing

Memorial Day Part 2

Memorial Day

Old MacDonald

Breakthrough!

Ben has had a major breakthrough with his speech.  He is saying 1-2 new words almost every day.  We are up to 29 words and I'm not counting words where he just says the vowel sound!  He frequently drops the last consonant but most of the words are pretty close.  He has gotten so much better at mimicking although there are some words he won't attempt.  It has truly been amazing to see how far he's come in such a short amount of time.  It was just 3 months ago that he started to say vowel sounds and just 3 weeks ago his only words were Dadda and yeah.

The best part is that he can share some of his thoughts with us.  Last night he put two cheerios next to each other and said "eyes".  Then today we saw a friend of his who has twin baby brothers and Ben pointed at them and said "doo!" (two).  He was making sure I realized there were two babies and not just one!  He also has his first phrase - "help me".

More words

Ben has had a burst of new words this week.  He's trying SO hard to say more and it seems like he's really enjoying trying out new words and sounds.  This week he's started to say:

Help (helwf)
House (hou)
Uh Oh (he says this very nice and clear)
Apple (aa-uhl)
Eight (eigh)
Meow (ow)
Hot Hot Hot (ha ha ha)

There are many more where he just says the last vowel sound.   I heard him counting to himself today (I didn't realize he was counting until he got to the eight).  He will also sing along to Hot Hot Hot and Josh heard him singing along to the Ooh and Aah song (monkeys that used to be on Playhouse Disney).  The "i" sound has gotten very clear.  Now we need m, b, p and t!

New word!