The Sound of Silence

Well, not complete silence just not any intelligible words. So far Jack has decided not to speak. From time to time he will bust out with a new word or phrase but in a few days it will fade out never to be uttered again. For awhile it was "Otis" then he moved onto "big truck" and the phrase du jour is "what's that." He is a whizz at making animal noises, the elephant is his favorite. He also makes a ton of noises on his own - we think he sounds like the aliens in the claw game in the Toy Story movies, "ooooooooo, aaahhhh" - and holds long conversations with us but all with out using any words that we can understand. He understands us perfectly, when he chooses to, and will answer questions with an enthusiastic "Yeah!" Because he obviously understands and know words I'm not at all worried about developmental problems and to be honest I'm not that desperate for him to talk. Given how chatty he is now with no vocabulary I'm sure that once he has words Dan and I won't be able to keep up. So for now we will enjoy his little sound monologues and wonder what's on his mind until he decides to share with us in English.

Success

We've had a breakthrough. About 2 weeks ago Jack decided that he actually liked going to the Academy. One day when I dropped him off I was braced for the usual fit but when I set him down he looked at me and walked over to his teacher, Miss Bonnie, for a hug then joined his friends in the corner for a story. It was all I could do to not run over and hug him and tell him how proud of him I was. Instead I quietly tip-toed out the door and had a little celebration dance by myself in the car. Since then every time I drop him off he gives me a little hug and then happily hops down and scampers over to play with his friends. I'm one proud and relieved Mama! And, what friends he has. When he comes in the door a few of the kids say, "It's Jack!" and come over to welcome him to class. One little boy in particular is especially happy to see Jack, he runs over and immediately starts hugging Jack and then lays a few big juicy kisses on him. As Miss Bonnie says, "Brayden is right at that line of appropriate behavior, we have to keep an eye on the kissing or it gets out of control pretty quickly!" I can deal with the kissing as long as the drop off tantrums are over!