Thanks for the comments guys, it means a lot to me to hear what you think. It is annoying when people ask me about his age and development. I mostly respond with "He was born two months early" and just leave it at that. And if they continue or start prodding (and I'm in the mood to converse) I start into the whole hormone/blindness thing and usually they just stare blankly or give me the whole "I'm so sorry" thing. Ah well, what can you do? I try to educate, I think I do my part.
Today has been a great/not-so-great day. Odd how that works out. Skyler got a big package in the mail today from the CNIB. They're sending out a free "Tactile for Tots" kit to every blind/visually impaired child under the age of eight. I loved it! I opened it up and it has a tactile image book, a guide for the book, an audiobook, a tactile map, a tennis ball, 3d paints, and those waxy string things to make our own tactile illustrations. The book is really cool, and Skyler loves it already, it has print, Braille, and tactile illustrations. He spent a long time running his fingers over everything while I read it to him. I'm hoping maybe I can find somewhere to order more tactile books since he enjoyed it so much.
Onto some more exciting news from today. As you know Skyler's signs are improving day to day and he uses them so often, but his verbal skills have been lacking. Well he's started saying his first words aside from no and mama and dada. He now says "All done"! Yes I am extremely excited about this even though it doesn't seem like much. It's huge for us. And he repeats it over and over when we say it, and he will tell us when he is "all done" doing something. I picked him up today when he was trying to play with my laptop, and I held him on my knee and he started to say "ah dun!" over and over until I put him down on the floor. Too cute!!
And now for the not-so-great part. We got our lease renewal form today, and our rent is going up in October by another $50. Honestly I don't think a one bedroom apartment is worth the price it's going up to, but I'm not sure we have many other options. We looked online and couldn't find anything good, plus our big plans have been to save up for a mortgage on a house. So this is kind of throwing a wrench in things. That's $50 less each month to save for a down payment. I don't want to stay in a one bedroom and have to pay too much for it, but I don't really want to move. Looks like we may have to. Our lease is up July 1st, but they want to know by April if we're staying or going so it's going to be hit and miss.. Here's hoping it all works out for the best.
Oh and also thanks for saying my glasses are cute :) The frames were $99, and I got the lenses treated with everything I possibly could and it came out to $180 or so. Glasses are so expensive, but then again I had my old ones for five years, so I think it's well worth the investment since I can't see anything without them. I only wish I could spend a few hundred to give Skyler a bit more usable vision. Then again I am grateful for what he does have, so I can't really complain.
2 comments:
Oh, I love it -- "ah dun". That is so precious.
Good luck on the apartment lease and whatever it is that you decide to do by July.
Developmental delays of any kind are always a little scary, so I'm glad to hear that he's speaking a bit more. My youngest was also late to speak much, but at least we knew he could hear since he sang all the time.
One thing I remember reading about delays in speaking is that speaking is a difficult skill. Some kids are smart enough to realize then can do less work and get the same results using an easier skill such as signing, pointing and grunting, or even just acting fussy so that older siblings or parents will ask them things like, "Do you want...?" The fact that he's using language, responds to sound, and speaks even a few words probably means he's just being intelligent and using less physically difficult skills. So probably you have a smart baby! If that the case, he'll start speaking more eventually as his motor skills in his palette and tongue improve. You can encourage him by giving him a bit of extra attention when he speaks rather than signs.
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