A week ago our physical therapist came by for a session with Evie. We now only have to meet about twice a month, which is awesome progress. Brandi has worked really hard with Evie, and the progress is evidence of her work, and proof of Evie's work, too.
One thing that was talked about (I was at work during the session last week) was Evie's progression in speech. Its not something we haven't been a little worried about, for instance, Evelyn has a small lisp and when she tells the dog to "sit" it sounds like she's commanding this animal who I have struggled to house train, to go number two on my carpet. Jack, our boxer, ignores the "sh" sound and plops his rump down on the floor obediently. One of his few redeeming qualities, I guess.
Unfortunately, this lisp is starting to come and go at the wrong times, in the wrong words. At daycare, she's learned the song "Ring Around the Rosey" and at the "ashes, ashes, we all fall down" part, the lisp disappears when it needs to be there, and she's now calling forth mules to collapse around. Its frustrating.
Brandi pointed out that she's a little behind in speech, even with the lisp as a part of the issue. Evelyn should be putting together smaller sentences at this point, I guess. I blamed myself, somewhat, because coming home from work, or preparing to go, its often easier to sit my daughter down and let her play, watch some muppets, or have a snack while I get my stuff together for the day, or relax after a stressful day dealing with... what I deal with at my job.
So, yesterday I started working with Evie more. Pointing to myself and saying "Daddy," pointing to her and saying "Evie" or "Evelyn." Then pointing to my phone and saying "Expensive piece of equipment you don't get your sticky hands on."
Okay, it wasn't that complex. I said, "Phone." "Truck" when we walked to the truck, and so on and so forth.
I don't know if something clicked in her head, if it was a small moment of clarity, but we walked up to the daycare and she turned around and said, "Bye Daddy" for the first time.
Its probably lame, but I felt like I'd unlocked some sort of achievement on my Playstation, except that it wasn't a video game, it was life and it was awesome. It really made me feel good.
If you don't understand this feeling, that's fine. When you've worked with a kid on something and they get it, you'll understand. Its like the first time Jack told us he didn't want to go boom-boom on the floor but actually wanted to relieve himself outside, multiplied by a bazillion.
