Say what?!?!?

Griffin has been in speech therapy since he was about 1.5 years old. He has been in a WONDERFUL program called Early Steps. (I highly recommend this program to any and all who have children with any sort of developmental delays) We hit the jackpot as far as therapists are concerned. Ms. Shelia has been coming over to our house to work with him once a week. Trust me when I say that they have a mutual love for one another. Griffin has been known to wake in the middle of the night and look out his window and say, "Sheila where are you?" Yeah.... he loves her!

Griffin had major issues with his ears. Honestly, I lost count of the ear infections. Every time I brought him into the doctor for any reason his ears were infected. He is very hard on pain. He showed none of the typical signs of infection. He never tugged, ran fever, or complained. I guess he was used to living with the pain. We tried our hardest to avoid tubes. I sought out alternatives to help the ears. I brought him to a chiropractor 2-3 times a week to stop the infections. He appeared to be on the road to recovery. We were hoping that once he turned 2 his Eustachian tubes would grow and the infections would stop. We finally stopped fighting the battle shortly after his 2nd birthday and went into surgery for tubes.

We were thinking that his speech was delayed because of his ears and possible lack of hearing. Immediately after his surgery he showed a little improvement with his speech. Shortly after that we were stagnant again.

I believe that God knew exactly when to step in. Griffin was starting to act out which I now realize was due to a lack of communication. The poor child was acting out of frustration. I also had many days that he pushed me to my wits end. Needless to say it was a lack of communication and frustration on BOTH ends.

I can honestly say that in the past few weeks he has finally started to reach his stride. He is now REALLY talking. My boy is a little parrot! We had no idea that he had that much to say. He has quite an extensive vocabulary. Ms. Shelia always told us that a speech delay has nothing to do with intelligence. He is now doing a great job of combining words and is constantly cracking us up! Here are a few of my favorite things that he has recently said.

*Last Sunday we went out to lunch after church. Griffin came with me to the restroom. As soon as I opened the door he started to dramatically breathe through his nose and proceeded to say VERY loudly, "tinky Momma, pooooo wooooooo TINKY." Indeed it was not so fresh smelling, but really?!? (I do not condone this, but it was pretty funny!) I will mark this as a first and DEFIANTLY not last time that his words will be a bit embarrassing!

*I was working on a project in the utility room and he walked in and said, "watcha doin momma?" All of this coming from the little guy who said few words days before!

*He was playing with MiMi outside in his pirate ship. MiMi said, "Griffin where are the pirates?" He responded, "Pirates r ewerwhere." (I can't get enough of him saying everywhere. It melts me EVERY TIME)

*We were playing in his bedroom last night before bed time and he was singing his ABC's. Granted his letters may have been a bit out of wack, but I loved it just the same.

*He also dances around the house singing Ba-ba-black sheep. Yes, oh so cute!!

*He was playing with Al-Dog our 13 year old lab yesterday and he said, "Al smell like poo." What can I say, the boy has a point. Al just about knocks us out with his breath.

I am so proud of Griffin and the strides that he has taken. I know that we still have a long road ahead of us, but we are so encouraged by his progress! He went from not wanting to "preform" to talking non-stop! Keep up the work Griff and thanks for the smiles...