Progress with Speech!

We have been making some huge progress with speech lately...Russell is finally starting to repeat things to me after I say them!! And I know this may sound like nothing to most Mom's...But to us, this is HUGE!

I just posted not to long ago that Russell would not repeat anything back to me, even words he knows...And I have always thought that once he started repeating words he knows back to me and copying sounds, he would start learning new words way faster because he will be trying to imitate me.

I have waited and waited for this day...

And just this past week he has started doing it! Not only with words he knows, but also with some new words I have been trying to introduce to him.

I took this video of him today which probably wasn't the best day to attempt this as he REFUSED to nap today and was super cranky...sigh...It was a long day...Anyway, I taped him just repeating a few names and words...Again, this is a big deal to us as he never, ever use to do this before.

He talks quietly in the video...And as his Mom I know I can hear and understand each word clearly, but I am not sure others will...Anyway, here is a little clip of a few words, by the time I get to the girls names he is done trying to repeat after me, haha....

I am so proud of him....I am so excited about this!!

If there is one thing I have learned from Russell it is this...He will run on his own timeline...He needs lot's of practice, repetition,  and patience...But he will do it!

Teaching Russell can be tricky. I find when I am trying to teach him something new he pretends to not even listen or pay attention...Often I feel like I am just talking to myself cause he is not focusing on what we are doing. When he acts this way I just keep going as though he is listening...Cause what happens is a few days later out of the blue he does it as though he has always known how!

An example would be when I bought Russell a bag of little plastic animals. He loves playing with them and setting them up. I wanted to teach him the names of each one. We started with the giraffe. I would pick it up and say the name to Russell...When I would put it back down I would ask him to find the giraffe...He ignored me for about two days...Then one day I had all the animals on the floor and asked Russell for the giraffe...He went right to it, picked it up and handed it to me.

So he had been listening and paying attention the entire time!

I find Russell is following instructions way better now, we only have to ask him once to do something and he will go and do it...This is exciting because even for simple instructions we would have to repeat things over and over...I have just been amazed this week at how much Russell has improved with some of these skills. It feels like it came on all of the sudden out of no where!

Russell has also been learning new songs and nursery rhymes. I have held off on taking him to any Strong Start or Preschool programs because I felt Russell was to young and not ready to sit or pay attention.

The other day I let Russell watch some Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes on my laptop...We watched Wheels on the Bus...Russell sat really still and watched it very intently...When it was over I played it again...By the third time Russell started doing the hand actions he saw the other children doing, he even tried repeating some of the words!

So another thing I learn from Russell...He is ready to do things sooner than I think...I need to stop underestimating where he is at developmentally...All he needs is opportunity and he can do anything.

I could go on and on in this post...I am just so proud of Russell.

And if it sounds like I am bragging in this post...It's because I am.

I know some of the Moms who blog are often scared to do posts like this where they rattle on about what their child is doing cause they are afraid they may sound like they are bragging to the Moms whose children are not doing those things yet....

Well, I don't play that game.

If it sounds like I am bragging about Russell's accomplishments, it's because I am.

If I wait for over a year for my child to learn to do something and then he finally does it...You can bet your ass you will read about it on here...Because this is my blog...And on my blog I celebrate my son and the hard work he has done to accomplish something.

I never hesitate to blog about the things he isn't doing yet, so why would I pause before writing about the things he is doing?

So there. 

I am proud as hell of my boy and he deserves to be bragged about :)