The Mes and the Nos.

"Just wait until you get into the 'mes' and the 'nos' phase," I remember Camden's pediatrician saying at his 18 month appointment. Of course, he was referring to the todder-asserting-independence-phase when everything is "Me!" or "Mine!" and the answer to every request or question is "No!" At Camden's 18 month check-up, he was mostly non-verbal, and so this phase seemed very far away back then. Rather than dreading it the way many parents of toddlers might, I hoped and prayed for it, knowing that its arrival would mean my child was talking.

And you know what? It's here.

So much has happened over the past month in the speech department. At around 23 months, Camden started adding some new words and sounds, and as he got closer to 2 years old, he added a few more. I hesitate to say he's had the textbook language explosion, because I don't think we're there quite yet. Describing it as a small blast would be more appropriate. It's exciting and encouraging, all the same. And I credit his progress to his SLP who is, without a doubt, the right fit for him and is excellent at what she does. I'll hand a tiny bit of credit to Matt and myself because we work hard with him at home too, in the form of flash cards, daily fill-in-the-blank dialogue, and play. But I'll give most of the credit where it's due-- to my generous parents who have funded Camden's speech therapy and to the power of prayer.

Camden surprises me every day with his emerging verbal abilities. His favorite words right now include: Mom, Dada, Nan, Pop (pah), car (ah), duck (duh), dog (dah), cat (at), goat (oat), me, no, up, out, in, ball, baby, bubble, bye, blue (bu), green (een), yeah, go, pee pee, and more. Most of these he uses on a daily basis without any prompting from me. He also has countless words that he can say or approximate from his therapy flash cards or during therapy itself. You know what else? I've even heard him combine 2 words a few times-- today it was "moh duh" (more ducks). This is coming from a child who was pretty much non-verbal 4 months ago.

My favorite words? Without a doubt, the mes and the nos. I had to hide my smile during speech therapy today when his SLP asked him if he wanted to play with a certain toy and he responded with a very firm, "No!" And we both laughed when she was pushing a car around and Camden excitedly yelled, "Me!" before taking the car from her. You can bet I won't be taking this assertion of indepenence phase for granted.

And, finally, I have to share this story from therapy today. I've always believed that people are brought into our lives for a reason, and I've felt this way about Camden's SLP from day one. I just knew she was the person we were supposed to find to help Camden, though I couldn't explain it beyond an intuitive feeling. At the end of today's session, his SLP asked if she could talk to me. Immediately I got a nervous feeling in my stomach-- is she quitting? Is she ready to diagnose him with apraxia? Instead, she surprised me by saying that she and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for a year and a half, and she is getting ready to start an IVF cycle. She was telling me in case she has to cancel some upcoming sessions. Of course, I filled her in on what we went through to conceive Camden and I could see the relief on her face right away. Then I asked her where she was going for her treatments-- same practice we went to. And her doctor in the practice? Yep-- Dr. P, my beloved RE. And since she's been such a tremendous help to us with Camden's speech, I'm hoping I can somehow return the favor as she goes through the grueling infertility process.

Funny how life works, isn't it?