measurements and speech

We had E's 2 year well check this morning. It's so great that E never really gets sick enough to need to go to the doctor. At the same time, he freaked out when they wanted to weigh him and get his height. Tears. Oh the tears! Even my eyes became watery.

Once we moved past that, he seemed to be a little better, especially once we knew he wasn't going to need any vaccines! He was still pretty shy and we are lucky that our pediatrician is good with with him. He was able to do his check up while E was sitting in my lap. They even took his blood pressure. I have never seen such a small arm cuff!

E checked out well! He weighs 28.6 pounds (62%) and is 35.5" tall (79%).

We have also been concerned about his speech development for the past several months. After some serious thought and conversations, Paul and I referred E for speech therapy through AzEIP.

This afternoon was his evaluation and he did really well. He was asked to point to certain pictures, follow directions, complete puzzles, and say names of objects. I was really impressed at what he knew, especially because of how some of the questions were worded. He was able to complete a shape puzzle he had never seen before in about 30 seconds and then wondered where the missing piece was. He was asked to put some plastic pegs into a foam board too. When he did, he asked for more. The developmental specialist said that there weren't anymore and E pointed to her bag (which is where she got them from). He was asked to identify a cookie and E responded with "huh?". I had to explain that he doesn't get cookies. The same happened with an ice cream cone!

After an hour of evaluations, they let me know that E qualifies for speech therapy for motor processing. He doesn't move his jaw much when he makes sounds/words and has limited range in motion of his tongue (which could be due to his tongue-tie). All other areas of development are within typical limits. He scored quite well in receptive language too! The speech pathologist and developmental specialist also commented on how adorable and expressive he is.

Everyone kept saying to wait it out, but how long do you wait before it becomes too late? I am relieved to know that my worries/concerns were valid. I am also excited to get him started on therapy to get him talking some more. I am looking forward to helping E. I know that he has a lot he wants to say and I can't wait to hear him say it!!