She's Speaking English!

I've mentioned here and there on the blog how Katie doesn't really talk much.  It's something that really bothers me.  I read blogs of people with children close in age to Katie and have had more than a few instances where I just felt so jealous after seeing how well these other babies her age are speaking.  Sure, I could tell myself that the mom could be exaggerating in some cases, but when you see a video of a toddler speaking clearly and in English there's really no denying it.  I have friends with similar aged children who are also talking up a storm.  So it's frustrating.  It's frustrating to stand there and try to figure out what it is that your child wants because the sounds she's making don't match anything that would qualify as being a word.  And even more frustrating is to see that she's upset that she can't effectively communicate.  She understands English perfectly.  We can talk to her and tell her to do things or ask her to show us something and she can.  But speaking it has been a slow going process.

At her two year old well visit I once again brought up my concerns about her limited speaking vocabulary.  Her older sisters were speaking in complete sentences by eighteen months so in comparision to them she was certainly behind.  I was told that the number of words she was able to say and the fact that she understood what we said to her showed that she was on the average.  That made me feel a bit better, but speaking would make me feel even better.

I just took this picture of her and she held this toy aloft and said "Coach!" 

We're now coming up on the two and a half year mark and still she isn't very chatty.  A week ago I was once again getting very worried about her still not speaking much.  Then I started listening to her as she played by herself or watched one of her favorite TV shows.  Slowly but surely she was picking up some words here and there.  She can say the names of Mickey and his friends and even some of the objects they use in a given show.  Over the past two days she's come out with more words, such as spontaneously saying "Thank you" or "girls" which makes me think that we're starting to make some progress here.

I've had a few people point out to me as I lament her slow grasp of English that while she isn't talking up a storm, she is developing other skills.  She potty trained in just a few days time.  She builds with blocks, which is something that has me impressed.  Her sisters struggled with putting blocks together until they were about four years old so a two year old that actually plays and builds with blocks amazes me.  So while speaking has not been her strong suit, she is developing other skills.

I think for me, one of the most frustrating things is knowing that she can talk and that she essentially chooses not to in most cases.  She has uttered phrases like "party in the back" after Bryan was teasing her about her toddler mullet several months ago which show us that she can, in fact, speak English.  I guess the bottom line is she talks when she wants to talk and only when she wants to talk.  I suppose she's a bit like Mr. Ed the talking horse or Michigan J. Frog.

Either way, I'm excited and grateful when I hear her coming out with more and more words.  She certainly does things on her own time line which really shouldn't surprise me since she's been like this since before she was born.