Nate's Two Year Stats...

Nate went to the doctor on Monday this week for his two year check-up. Here are his stats...

Weight: 28 pounds (50.23%) - He lost some weight recently from being sick, because he was up to 29.4 pounds when measured at the ER.
Height: 2' 11.75" (83.37%) - This one surprised me because he has always been near 90% or above.
Head Circumference: 19.25" (56.17%)

Emmett at this age was 2' 11.5" in height (80%), and 30 pounds in weight (75%).

For this appointment Nate only needed a flu shot and a finger prick for a lead check. He received the flu shot in his leg in the same room where we saw the doctor. He cried pretty hard for this one. Then we headed over to the lab for his finger prick and he never even whimpered as they filled TWO vials full of blood from his finger. He was just entertained watching the blood go in the tube. For the doctor's exam and his finger prick he was so well behaved. He just smiled as the doctor looked him over, and both people were amazed of how good of a patient he was. I think he does so well because we bring him to the chiropractor all the time and so he trusts that no one will hurt him.

Speech Update:
-Nate talks ALL THE TIME! He sings, counts, and we believe he is talking in full sentences. However, his pronunciation of words are not articulated correctly and so we cannot understand barely anything he is saying...in other words, Nate speaks his own language. :)
-Nate still goes to Children's once a week for speech therapy. The speech pathologist who treats Nate at Children's is Becky (the same woman who treated ET with his articulation).
-Nate's hearing will be tested on February 9th just as a precautionary.
-Three women from the district came to our home on Friday this last week to start the formal evaluation process for Nate to receive early intervention through the district as well. Darby is a speech pathologist from the district who has been coming to our home once a week to treat another child in the daycare and she has been doing a little work with Nate as well. She wanted me to fill out the paperwork to get him formally written in the books, so that is why we are going through this new evaluation. As much as I understand that Nate is young, and he shows no red flags and far as anything else goes, it still breaks my heart to hear someone say my child shows significant delays and will pass for services.
The ladies stated to me that it is good that Nate is at least talking and attempting at words, because sometimes other children just won't talk. I see their point, but being that Nate tries so hard and just cannot do it makes me worried in a whole different way.
Some days I get really worried and other days I think he is going to jump this hurdle and be talking full sentences in no time. When days get really tough, I just try to visualize laying my worries at the foot of the cross and try to concentrate more on just enjoying who Nate is right now.

Some of the words Nate says somewhat well now are...
help, up, thank you, bye-bye, hi, I love you, ni-ni, meow, car, yay!, no, yeah, wow, more, all done, milk, water, shhh, N (for Nate), wash, wipe, Ma-Ma, Brenda (I am not very fond of this one, but he mimics the daycare kids), Da-Da, Emmett, and Nathan...I know there are a few more, but I am unable to think of all of them right now.

Some sentences I have understood him say are... wake up, that was fun, I don't know, and I did it. He is also very good at counting and singing. However, anyone who doesn't see Nate regularly wouldn't be able to understand any of these things because his articulation isn't mastered yet.

Nate can only produce one vowel sound when speaking, which is the /a/ sound. He typically starts a word with "a" first. So for the word 'more' he will say, "ahma." I have never heard him say the "oo" or "ee" sounds. So I have never heard him say words like: moo, boo, eat, me, mommy, daddy, etc.

Although Nate stills struggles to talk clearly, his receptive language skills scored a 108!!!! WOW! He is aware of SO much and understands nearly everything we tell him or ask of him. I am hoping he gets a little more frustrated with his lack of speaking, because as of right now he is just comfortable with how things are going for him. He understand us, and he is able to show us what he needs or wants. We try not to give in all the time, but it is clearly a sensitive issue, because he will attempt a word and then cry if he is unsuccessful at it and I don't give in. I want to reward him for attempting words, but also challenge him as well without crushing his self-esteem.

***As I am writing this I am laughing to myself because ET and Nate are playing hide 'n' seek on their own, and ET told Nate to go count so he can hide. Nate listened and ran to the kitchen, sat in the corner, closed his eyes, and started counting! WOW! :)

If you are interested in reading, here is the one of his assessment summaries from Becky (I know I will want to read back on this once Nate is older)...

Although Nate has not mastered any of his short-term goals thus-far, it is important to note that Nate has still made great gains with his communication skills since initiating therapy. The primary goal of therapy has been to address basic requests "more" and "all done" using manual signs or verbal approximations to improve his functional communication skills. Nate has made great gains with requesting "more," which he he is beginning to simultaneously produce a verbal approximation of "more" and the manual sign. Initially, Nate produced "more" as /m/ with limited jaw movement. The clinician (Becky) has been working with Nate to open his mouth to produce the vowel /o/. In the most recent therapy sessions, Nate has been more willing to attempt this, although he frequently produces this as "ahma." Additionally, Nate has made progress with requesting, "all-done" using both a manual sign and verbal approximation when provided a model.
Therapy has also spent a lot of time addressing anticipatory sets, "Ready, set, (go)" and "Peek-a-(boo)." Within the last two therapy sessions, Nate has been more willing to attempt production of "go" and "boo," although his productions are not necessarily verbal approximations, but rather vocalizations. Therapy will continue to work towards more intelligible productions of "go" and "boo" during the upcoming treatment period.
The clinician (Becky) has continued to observe significant difficulty with production of early acquiring phonemes, as well as different consonant vowel combinations. Nate's errors continue to be extremely inconsistent within sessions. He especially has a difficult time producing consonant-vowel combinations (CV) (i.e ba, boo, ma, mo, pa, etc.) For these combinations, he frequently begins production with a vowel. For example, when attempting to produce the targets "ball" or "bye," Nate produced both "aba" and "ada" for these attempts. Due to continued difficulty with speech production, the clinician (Becky) added a speech delay/diagnosis to Nate's medical chart, and also added new speech goals to address during the upcoming treatment period.
Despite great gains with Nate's expressive language skills since initiating therapy, he continues to demonstrate delays with his speech and language skills. Nate is not yet independently using words to communicate his basic wants and needs. Nate continues to exhibit an expressive language delay that warrants skilled intervention.