My real name

Kevin has called me Mommy for about a year now. I would expect him to call me this (or at least, Mom) for the rest of my life. Yesterday, he was taking a shower with his Dad and wanted to get my attention and said, "Kristen, please get me my boat". I thought I was going to split a seam! I didn't even know he knew my real name, and he said it without even being able to hear (in the shower)! He has said it various times today, and I know it is a phase and he is testing out the sound of my real name, but I think it is one of the funniest things I have heard him say.

Kevin has quite the personality! He already is starting to crack his own jokes. His favorite is when we are all sitting around the dinner table and he says something that he knows is a joke (for a 2 year old) and gets this big grin on his face. Watch out teachers.... he will keep you on your toes!!!

Happy Birthday Mommy

My birthday was last weekend and I captured the boys singing Happy Birthday to me. I love how Kevin is just a few seconds delayed in singing, but it also shows what a great language model his older brother is! Enjoy...

You're not listening!

Today I realized that Kevin has been listening to me all along, even when I don't think he is. I think all of his training, both formal speech therapy and informal family training, has paid off with Kevin's ability to really listen. Remember, listening is very different than hearing. We all know that we can hear something, but not really listen it, and therefore not process it. When we are in noisy situations, I often tell Kevin to 'listen to me' or 'you're not listening' if that is what is going on. I guess I have said that enough to Kevin. Today, we were playing play-doh and I was zoning and staring off in space thinking of all the things I had to get done that day, and Kevin said something to me about looking at his sculpture. The next thing I heard was, 'Mom, you're not listening'. I had to try hard not to laugh because the way he said it was just like I say it! I guess we all just hear sometimes, deaf or hearing, but don't listen!

On a side note, one of Kevin's new words that he picked up incidentally is weird. I was telling him that his old therapist was going to be a party and he said, 'that's weird'. He had the right context and everything! It's so nice to hear him really start to use incidental language like that!