Warning: This post is pure brag, without even a hint of modesty. (So what's new?)
Last night I was sitting with Ben on the family room floor. I said to him, "Can you go to your nursery and get the book called Hug from the basket by your crib?" He gets up and heads down the hall. He's taking awhile, so I chat with Neil about other things. I've almost forgotten about Ben's mission. After a minute or so, he strides purposefully back into the family room, carrying the desired book.
It just seemed like a very complex set of instructions for him to understand and carry out. (Keep in mind, there are a couple of places where books are stored in his nursery, so the bit about the basket was important.) I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd had trouble with it. On the other hand, I wasn't all that surprised that he aced it. He's been doing a number of remarkable things lately.
He has the /h/ sound down pat. He has also mastered "no," thus signifying his ascendancy into toddlerhood. He loves daycare, and talks about Miss Pamela, her house, her dog, and the other children there. He also knows a good portion of the alphabet.
The other night he was choosing a CD to listen to, and he was saying "Aaaa paa" over and over again. It took me awhile, but then I realized that he was requesting the CD "Action Packed". Yes, our deaf 16 month old is asking for Jonathan Richman CDs by name.
In other news, after a couple of months of blissfully quiet nights, last night Ben woke up right around 1:00 am. We each took a turn at going in and comforting him a little, but no go. Nothing to do but let him cry for awhile. Now, this is hard enough when all your child does is cry. But the guilt and stress are greatly magnified when he's calling out "Mommy! Daddy!" I'm lying there thinking, "Why exactly did we teach him to talk?"
(Actually, when it comes to that, I remember last summer during a period when Ben was having Sleep Issues, checking him out on the video monitor during the night and seeing him frantically signing "more" over and over. He can pull the guilt strings just as well with sign as with speech.)
Why is a mindset still there?
2 months ago
6 comments:
oh my gosh, i love it. those lil buggers are SMART!
Wow- that was a complicated set of directions! Ben is really flying- all that hard work is really paying off. He sure is a smart little guy!
We're seeing some articulation issues in Nolan all of the sudden. Not sure if it is hearing related (always a worry that he might drop again) or if it's just a phase of toddler-speech. I'm trying not to get stressed over it!
That's amazing. You should be proud. I wanted to get back to you about the cause of Lucas's hearing loss. We do have PA Dutch heritage, but his loss is not due to Connexin 26. It's still "unknown", I guess, but he has enlarged vestibular aqueducts, which aren't directly linked, but definitely related. Good luck with that research! If you decide to head to Lancaster County to do any research, let me know!!!
Congrats! Isn't it amazing how he's learning? That's a complicated set of instructions to follow!
While not a huge fan of Jonathan Richman, I'll take "Reno" over the 800th repetition of "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps" any day. There's only so much Silly Songs with Larry one can take.
~Jess
Oh geez, our lives seem to be thoroughly infused with Larry, Bob, and Archibald these days. Ben is a total YouTube junkie. On the plus side, I'm intending to play the Monkey song for my discrete math students (we've been studying logic!).
Hi, Julia,
Yo' Mama, here again! Just took some time to catch up on the blog!
Wow! Proud Grandma here! What a kid! The old Communication Soup is really working!
My hat is off to all of you parents of children with HI! You know, I found, in my teaching, what is good for children with special needs is really the same as what is good for any child: Just more and more and more: Just ask Ben, he'll sign "More" for you!
I really love reading the blog and all the comments from the other parents, too!
Hug,
Julia' MOM!
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