Progress

My "normal" is tough sometimes.  It involves being at the playground and listening to every kid talk besides your own.

It involves reading facebook status after facebook status about the cute things everyone else's kids are saying.

It involves dropping my baby at daycare and seeing the looks when he can't say goodbye to me.

It involves the constant texts from his therapists while I am at work about if he had a good day or bad day, was frustrated etc.

It involves picking up this little red composition notebook every single day from daycare and making sure to write and comment on each part of his day.

It involves realizing my own child is going to have an IEP.

It involves being scared to death about the next eval, a stranger coming to judge my sweet little boy.

BUT.... most people take things for granted.  Their child could say mama by 15 months, could imitate easily, they don't teach any sound productions and new words are just picked up.

There is a sweet joy in knowing that I could teach my son to say a sound or word, knowing how hard he is working.  There is joy in everyone saying wow he is making progress, or how much he tries.  There is joy in knowing that he will get the help he needs and it won't fall on me all the time.  There is joy in hearing Landon say "I do" as loud as can be, looking right at me, smiling, knowing he said it correctly.  You can't take that away from me.  I love that kid more than life.

Landon just finished his second session at Gebbie, which is a clinic at Syracuse University.  I go once per week for 45 minutes.  I get half off since I take student interns from SU every day, so that makes it worthwhile.  Landon went from a high of 18 approximations last semester, to a 50 this week.  Although higher unintelligible and maybe /du/ for book isn't what you would count as a word, for us, it shows wonderful progress.  I am proud of my "not so typical but absolutely perfect" boy.