Speech, language and a 3 year old

It's 8:30p on a Friday night. I'm in my jams with a cold Diet Coke and a granola bar. Benji is in the bedroom reading a Thomas and Friends book with his Mamom and I've got American Idol on. The first two shows have been waiting for me to find time to sit down in front of the television. This is the first time all week that I've watched something besides Blue's Clues or Tom and Jerry. I feel good.

I thought I'd take a few minutes to update you all on how things are going with Ben and his words. Let me take a moment first to say that yes.. I'm going to vote next week in the Massachusetts Senate special election to fill the seat left open by the late Teddy Kennedy. But I am going to rip my telephone out of the wall and crush it into a thousands pieces and then put those pieces into the microwave until they explode in a wheezing flurry. The reason? The phone has been ringing off the hook for days with election polls and "last minute" attempts to swing my vote. Between that and the fact that both Bill Clinton and President Obama are making trips to Massachusetts to support this race while there are other things that could use their attention (Haiti?).. bothers me. greatly.

Benji is laughing.. one of those classic baby belly laughs. :)

Ok.. back to Monday.

Benji had his initial consultation with a speech and language pathologist at Boston Children's Hospital. It went really well. Ben's hearing has fluctuated over the past few years with his ear infections and tubes. We know he can hear.. and hear quite well.. he can hear airplanes in the sky that I have to struggle to hear. He can also tell.. just by the sound.. whether the flying vehicle is a jet plane or a helicopter.

Anywho.. we've watched his speech forever. We've always been on the line.. is his speech delayed.. is it a normal "boy" thing.. is it a bilingual thing.. is it his personality. The little dude is me all over again.. when faced with the option of interacting socially with your peers or playing with legos/cars/trucks by yourself.. the legos win every time.

We learned a lot. The speech therapist's suggestion is to start Ben in speech therapy for 1 hour a week and reassess in 6 months. His language and speech was solidly in the 24-27 month old development stage, but could be more advanced. There's only so much one can get the little man to talk in a 3 hour period of time. He very clearly told her that he didn't want to read her books.

Since his appointment.. he's gone through a communication boom. I don't know if it's that she performed some magic during the games she played with him.. or if we learned ways of communicating with him better.. or if he was just ready for another jump in skills. All of a sudden he is talking with us.. we still have a lot of screaming and hitting.. but he's talking.

Some new Benji quotes:

"Mommy, that scare me."

"Mommy, don't touch my head."

"Mommy, why?"

"That's not an airplane, it's a helicopter.. Mommy funny!"

"I want Grampa. I want watch TV with Grampa."


...and tonight when we were trying to buckle him into his carseat he says:

"Ouch.. that hurt my pen.is"