Yes, the only photos of my kids and I are the ones I take with my own long, shaky arms

This must be documented, and since I quit writing in Sam's baby book before he was even born, I guess this is the place to do it. Ahem. Drumroll please......... Sam is starting to talk.

**cue happy dances and squeals of joy from me**

I mentioned before (in this ugly post) that Sam had a speech delay and that it was really affecting us all and how I wish he'd just come out and say SOMETHING. ANYTHING. I mean, I knew he'd talk eventually; he is a classic case of I'll Do It When I'm Good And Ready if I ever saw one. He didn't crawl til ten months and didn't walk until fifteen months. People would tell me to "hurry up and teach that baby to move!" and I would look at them like they'd lost their minds. (Why would I want him to become mobile? So I'll never get the chance to shower or eat a hot meal ever again? Noooooo thank you!) He'll do it when he's good and ready. And he did. But the speech delay concerned me. He never babbled or cooed as a baby and the milestones he was "supposed" to be hitting were nowhere to be found. Since he had no way of communicating with us, I was beginning to wonder if there was something else going on. My mind went to dark places about what could possibly be "wrong" with him. It became harder and harder for me to just wait it out and let him reach this milestone in his own sweet time. (Trust me when I say that being on Sam's time is a lesson in patience. This is a child who takes a solid five minutes to eat a single chocolate chip...)

So after doing some "therapy" (we have since stopped because "we're sooooo busy with the new baby!" cough, cough) and realizing that there was nothing going on with him besides just not wanting to talk, I settled back into the mindset of letting him do it when he is ready. I never stopped constantly talking TO him obviously. I've been narrating my days to him for so long that I might just forget what I'm doing if I don't talk about it first. I do believe that the therapist is correct in suggesting I flood him with language. I knew that one day he would direct some words back at me. And it finally happened.

Now I've read other mommy blogs where they document their toddler's words and it looks something like this:

goo-goo: that means he wants his bottle!
bop-bop: that means "I love you Mommy!"
bee-bee: that means he wants his truck
bah-boo: that's his word for nap
And he can recite the entire alphabet backwards in French! (kidding) (sort of)

And so on.

After reading posts like these, I started wondering if I just wasn't paying enough attention to the weird jibber jabber that Sam was spouting off. How am I supposed to intuitively KNOW what words he's trying to say to me? Especially when they sound nothing like actual words? Use some CONSONANTS son; Mommy is no mind reader.

For comparison's sake, my word post would look something like this:

Sam: oqweuhnsdnveourhrwiermlwlqyalzbgjsei
Me: ???

Looking back, I think that all of the vowel-loaded "talking" was just his way of flexing his vocal cords. He never said much, but when he did, it was solely vowels and different inflections of those vowels. And like a good mom, I always responded. But since I had no friggin' clue what he was getting at, I would just enthusiastically answer, "Yeah?" or "Yeah!"

So it's no wonder that his first word is "yeah!" Crap. Mommy fail.

It is fun to talk to him when he gets on one of his "yeah" streaks though.

Is the sky blue?
Yeah!
Was dinner yummy?
Yeah!
Is Mommy the most beautiful girl you've ever seen?
Yeah!
Do you wanna go to bed early?
Yeah!
Stay small forever, ok?
Yeah!

And that's about as far as he got for a while. Some "yeah's" here and there. He would also try to copy our inflections when we said certain things. I can't really convey that through the written word here, but you can just imagine me saying little phrases in a sing-song voice and Sam would copy the inflection with vowels instead.

The other day I was feeding Molly by the front window and saw Steve pull up. And as if I was Ed McMahon saying, "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!" I said, "Therrrrrrrre's Daddy!" And whaddaya know. Sam said, "Derrrrrrr Da-da!" AHA! Am not a total mom-failure after all! I recognize him saying something! And it MAKES SENSE. Who gives a flying fart if he was just copying me?! This is PROGRESS, people.

The other day when I was strapping him into his carseat, I was talking about chicken (we were on our way to lunch). I must have said the word "chicken" a hundred times while buckling him in. And as I was shutting his door, I heard "shicken" mumbled.
I opened the door and encouraged him to repeat it.

"Chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken! Say it again Sam!"
"Yeah? Yeah? Yeah?"
"No, say what you said a minute ago! Chicken! Chicken chicken chicken! Do you want to have some chicken?"
"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"
<bangs head against steering wheel>

As with most things, it's got to be HIS idea to do it. He wants to say things on HIS time, not mine. He does babble a lot more these days though, and it makes me so happy to hear, even though I have no friggin' clue what he's jabbering about.

"Dee dee gee-yo dough dough."
"Yep, we're going to the store."

"Dee dee gee-yo dough dough."
"You're right! Mommy's making dinner!"

"Dee dee gee-yo dough dough."
"Whoa, those horses are, um, hugging!"

"Dee dee gee-yo dough dough."
"I'm going to assume that's poop, not chocolate." (Can almost ALWAYS assume it's poop because I hide the chocolate reeeeeel well.)

And so my friends, that is my gushing mom moment of the day/week/month. My baby is beginning to talk. Granted he's still not really saying anything, but the effort is there and it feels like it's only a matter of time before he'll be saying some legit words and phrases without my constant coaching.