River Speaks!!

This little stud has been making some big progress! When we got back from Florida I was actually a little discouraged because while there he wasn't trying to talk at all! He had been trying to make word like sounds before. Shortly after we got home we had a meeting with Linda from KOTM. I expressed my concerns of his lack of making word little sounds and that he actually had started talking a weird shibberish. She was discouraged too, but then she started working with him on an animal app he likes and I can not even tell you how amazing it was!! He all the sudden was trying to make every single animal sound on the app! He has never done that!! Maybe a sound here or there and that was with coaxing! This time it was all him and he was trying to make every sound!! It was like he was going to prove me wrong...well he did! I was so thrilled!

 Linda almost got a little chocked up. We couldn't believe it and we still have no idea why? But I don't care why!

Since then River has been trying to say more and more words. He actually called me Mama!! I almost cried, it was the greatest thing to hear. Most of you reading may think, great he is talking now, and unfortunately that is not totally the case. This is progress though! He is actually saying words now and that is big. He is also getting better about using his signs.

A lot of the words he say sound a little strange and I am hoping that his speech therapist can help with that. The word that he is BEST at and it actually sounds correct is Cookie (of course)!

So here is a list of some of the words he is attempting:

Cookie *

Grandpa/Grandma

Mama *

Bubble *

nose

eye *

head

cheeck

dog

drink

baby *

Milo

car*

no*

yes

eh uh

*These words actually sound really good!

Those are most of the ones I can think of now, but I will post more as I hear them.

Another big step is he is starting to interact better with kids. After I picked him up from Transition class (@ KOTM) after Florida his teacher said how well he was interacting with the other children and was really trying to participate! Such progress!! He has done just as well at his following classes. He is actually starting to interact and "play" with Milo too! It is really cute and I can tell Milo LOVES it.

 

We are still trying to work on Rivers eating habits. He is especially struggling with protein in his diet. (He gags on meat, and just doesn't like most protein items.) And also struggling with variety in his diet as well. He really hates trying new things. He has a list of about 5 items maybe less that he will eat, if that. I had an eating specialist meet with him from KOTM and she has instructed me to no longer let Riv graze through out the day on crackers and milk. ( I have only done this out of concern for how little he was eating.) Instead he is to eat 6 meals a day with 3 tablespoons of protein, carb, and a fruit of veggie. He is also only allowed to drink his milk at meal time, which is every 3 hours. I am supposed to introduce a new item in one of the categorizes each meal. I have tried introducing new things before and it has never gone well, but I think this method will help where he has at least two catogorizes that he is comfortable with at a time.

So far this hasn't help with protein, he just won't eat the protein and eats the carb and fruit. Unless the protein is a hot dog, cheeseburger, or yogurt. I'm a little worried he seems to get dehydrated a little too, even though he doesn't ask for a drink between meals. ( I don't think he fully gets the concept that he has to drink what he wants at meal time. So he doesn't drink much at meal time.) I don't know, we will just have to see how it goes and hope he has a break through in this area too.

I want to end this post on a high note though, because I am so happy with his progress and couldn't be more proud of River!! Love you dude keep up the good work :)