JACKSON! This month has brought all kinds of interesting new developments where Jackson's concerned, not only in his speech but his actions as well.
Today, we had the fair-haired Angus visiting. Angus is the son of a friend who comes to visit most Friday mornings. His mother, Jenny, is about the nicest person I've EVER met. That's no exaggeration. She doesn't read this blog so I'm not saying that to suck up to her. HA! Anyway, Angus is 3 weeks younger than Jackson, and when he's here, I can't help but compare the two. I know how wrong this is, but it's a natural thing. Please don't give me shit for it.
Angus and Jackson are similar in so many ways. Simlar temperament, similar speech delay, similar developmental patterns. It's really fun (and interesting!) for me to watch the 2 of them together. Right now, a lot of what they do involves parallel play. They do play together, though not often, and they really don't argue much, which is nice. Angus has been in speech therapy for several months now, and it's really helping him. His vocabulary is much more full than Jackson's, though his delay is still noticeable (compared to what many 2 year old's should be at...emphasis on SHOULD). He has a good command of sh- and ch-, and a few other double-consonant combinations, which Jackson doesn't.
Speech-wise, Jackson still has a lot of trouble. One area of trouble for him is the difference between M and B. This is getting better, but today I was trying to get him to say Boom and it kept coming out Moom. He can say Boo, and he can say Moo, but he can't say Boom. I've been trying to get him to say Elmo, which he still says as Eyo (sometimes, it also sounds like How). He can say the 2 syllables separately, but can't put them together. Same with the name Abby (we watch a lot of Sesame Street here!). He calls her Ah-oh. Sometimes, I have a really hard time understanding HOW he gets the combination of sounds that he does.
Jackson's doing a lot more this month that he hasn't done before. He can now reach most of the light switches in the house. So far, he hasn't abused this (i.e. I haven't found lights on in rooms where I haven't turned them on), but he can definitely reach them.
He's also does this funny thing at the dinner table. He sits in a wooden high chair (minus the tray) right at the table. Tonight, he was eating and got something on his hands. He HATES having anything mess up his hands, and I was out of range to wipe them, so he stood up, reached to the lazy Susan in the center of the table, swung it around, and grabbed himself a napkin. I laughed so hard when I saw this! My little boy is certainly growing up!
Unfortunately, Jackson's still hitting me, but we're both getting better about this---I'm learning how to avoid situations where he might feel compelled to hit me, thus he's hitting less these days. He's throwing more tantrums when he doesn't get his way, but we've become quite adept at ignoring those. He definitely likes to have a lot of control over what's happening. Quite often, I'll ask him if he wants something and he'll immediately say no, then turn around and want what I've asked him. This is happening more and more, and I know it's just an issue of control. For now, I'll let him think he has it (or maybe he really does??!).
Every day is a learning experience for me with this little boy. I love him more than my life, and love each new thing that comes along!
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