19 Months Recap

Baker is growing up WAY too fast and we are about to leave the "teen" months - eeek! Nah, we are SO excited for what's to come and we really can't wait until Baker starts seriously communicating and telling us things that are on his mind. He is saying words approximately 10-12 but not enough according to his doctor on Ft. Jackson so she referred us to Babynet for Baker to have an assessment done to see if he qualifies for assistance.

At first, I was a little taken back. Why does my child need help? He seems to excel in everything he does, he's a social butterfly, and is a healthy toddler. He crawled late, walked late, and we all assume he'll talk late. What can I say boys are late bloomers, right? Well, after I got over the shock of "my child doesn't need that!" I accepted the thought that it really could help him and why turn down free assistance when it is offered to you? I got his assessment with the state scheduled and we waited 2 whole months for it to get here. His appointment was July 13th and I took off the afternoon from work to take him to the appointment. I was unsure of what the appointment would entail but was quickly explained everything when we got there. The building was a little scary as it was the Richland County Government Building but it made me have flashbacks of a horror movie since I didn't see a single person in there walking around -- bright fluorescent lights, white walls, doors and blinds closed, a single receptionist at medical records typing slowly and echoing off the concrete block walls. Yep, it was very strange. We finally made it to the case worker's office and she quickly sat us down in an observation room. It was a small office filled with lots of toys, a table, and chairs. They made us very comfortable and Baker found himself right at home playing with all the toys to his heart's content. The assessment was partially me filling out some paperwork and her observing Baker for his social skills, communication, fine motor skills, etc. She had a score sheet and was scoring him based on their charts and at the end would tell me how he scored and if he qualified for help. She said by his age, he should be saying 20+ words. He definitely isn't doing that but is communicating in his own language. He was very comfortable (surprisingly) in babbling and talking to both of us while we were there. She definitely got to hear what I was talking about as far as his communication where he will ramble on and on but in baby talk. Sometimes he will throw in real words but mostly it doesn't make sense. But you can tell he is really telling you quite the story or wanting you to talk back to him. The appointment lasted about an hour (thankfully not any longer since our meter money was only for 1 hr 8 minutes! phew!!). In the end, Baker was scored and he was really far above the cut off on all the categories except for 2. Communication (talking) he was right at the cut off and another category that I can't remember he was 2 points below so she is going to get our name referred to an early intervention specialist to come out to our house and help Baker. So now we wait to hear from them. I'm actually very excited about this opportunity so I'll share more details when I have some.

Other than that, Baker is doing outstandingly well. Here are some milestones for 19 -

• Said the word "Debel" interpretation is devil. I'd prefer him to learn the word Jesus but I guess this one is my fault. He didn't want to eat his dinner. He started to play with it so I was spooning it to him and he kept turning his head, smiling, and cutting his eyes at me. I told Gordie "Look, He's deviling me!" and Baker then looked at me and said "debel", grinned, and laughed!
  
• Said the word "Chi-chen" interpretation as you imagined...chicken!
• Took off his diaper while sitting in the crib and when I came back he was completely naked, waving his diaper over his head and above the railing just smiling and laughing hysterically!
• Growing, growing, growing. Every time we meet someone they always comment on how tall he is. He sure is growing like a weed. I have noticed carrying him, putting him in his car seat, and heaving him over the baby gate at daycare is taking much more effort than it used to.
  
• Some of his 24M outfits are getting small
• He loves his new favorite shoes and currently wears them daily w/o socks of course and his crocs are now in second place.
• He knows how to work the iPad - scary! He understands technology so well at such a young age. He knows to turn the TV on that he has to give me the remote. :)
  
• He reaches doorknobs now with a breeze. Time to baby proof those!
  
• Lastly, he loves to say buh bye and mmmmmmmmmmmmuah when we leave someone or somewhere. Sometimes he waits until we are in the car all buckled in to say them instead of saying them on command when the person or place is actually in front of us and we are saying goodbye.
• He is still VERY independent. Would rather do everything on his own than request or get help from us. I'm sure this reminds my mom of me when I was little. I heard tons of stories from her that I was this exact way when I was young.
  

We hope to have another great month full of new things Baker can do and say! Bring on 20 months!