This little girl has been cracking me up...
I'm going to go in reverse order topic-wise.
Just after Addison turned 2, she started stammering and stuttering a little bit. She would repeat the first word or syllable of a sentence--usually when she was really excited or tired. I read and saw that it was usually right before a developmental leap and that it wasn't anything to worry about. I did mention it to our pediatrician at her checkup, and he said not to be concerned unless she started showing frustration.
After Ansley was born, it got more pronounced and began happening with every word in a sentence. When she couldn't get it, she would almost yell it. I called my dear friend and college roommate, who also happens to be a speech pathologist in the school systems in AL, and she reassured me that this could happen with big life changes--like a new sibling--and gave me some tips to help her through it.
I felt so much better until the next week when she started blocking words and struggled to get out "Savannah," "animal cracker," "Christmas tree," and other things that she had said flawlessly hundreds of time before. Addison is a precocious child verbally. She talks ALL the time--in compound/complex sentences, so for her to struggle like this was breaking my heart. She was in tears, and so was I. I called my pediatrician back, and he referred us to a speech pathologist so that she could be evaluated. I second-guessed myself at every step, but I am so glad we went. Of course, she showed absolutely no disfluency when we met with her, but she has given us strategies to help Addison when she gets frustrated. We go back after Christmas for a vocabulary assessment, but already she seems to be phasing out of her repetitions. It overwhelmed me how emotional I felt about this hurdle..
Being a mom is hard stuff.
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Language-wise, Addison is obsessed with exaggerating her dipthongs and "L" sounds...
"Ansa-Lee Caro-La-ina Ca-Lawford" Yep, she even wants to assign "l's" to "r's."
"I want my ba-Lue ba-Lanket, puh-Lease."
It's seriously hard NOT to get tickled every time she does it.
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The Big Bad Wolf.
I know every kid has their thing that they are afraid of. For Savannah, it is Swiper. For some, it's Mr. Noodle. For others, snakes... Addison's is the Big Bad Wolf. Every night we have to check the closet, the corners of the room, her drawers to make sure the big bad wolf is not there...
Last night, we were laying in bed, and after being quiet for awhile, she said, "You know, MUM... (It seriously almost sounded the way a little British girl would say "Mom," and I always wanted my children to have British accents... especially after I saw the 2 little girls in The Holiday... or maybe that's just because Jude Law was their dad...sigh. Love you, Patrick! :) Anyway, tangent...)
"You know, Mom... You know what I think??? I think that maybe... maybe... the Big Bad Wolf just wants to say "hi" to me... Does that sound fun?"
Bless her!
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