Say What?: On Navigating a Speech Disorder

This morning, Auggie asked me if we could “pay oh eh.” Even though I’m typically his most proficient interpreter, I was a bit stumped. I said, “Oh, you want to dye more eggs. Well, we already did that this weekend.” He stared at me and vehemently shook his head no and repeated, “pay oh eh.”

Okay, okay, I thought. He wants to do something with an egg. Got it: “I understand. You would like to play with the plastic eggs the Easter bunny hid.” Auggie looked at me with what now appeared to be a hint of frustration in his eyes (probably mixed with consternation) and replied “No! Pay oh eh.”

Aha! I suddenly realized what he wanted and triumphantly asked, “Hey buddy, do you want to play with the playdough eggs that were in your Easter basket?” He appeared thrilled and said, “Yes, Mommy. That’s exactly what I said the first two times.” Ha! Not quite. But he did look at me excitedly and shout “pay oh eh pay oh eh”! And thus we happily made a mess with playdough for the next half hour.

This exchange is somewhat typical of what goes on all day in our household. While there are many words and phrases that my 29-month-old can now say successfully, there are also lots of times when I feel like we’re speaking different languages.

Keep reading here: Patch blog #9

Park Peril (of the Toddler Variety)

I had big plans for my mega millions winnings, had I actually won. Well, let’s be honest...had I won the jackpot, I probably wouldn’t be writing about it. Instead, I’d be buying crazy things like jet skis and Vespas and hiring private trainers and chefs.

But I’d like to think I would still be somewhat charitable and would fund the project that I believe is most necessary to the survival of moms everywhere: FENCED-IN PLAYGROUNDS.

Let me back up and explain. First, I haven’t blogged in what feels like forever because we were decimated by winter viruses in my home. Quite frankly, it became tedious to talk about the latest illness and our umpteenth doctor’s visit with family and friends, so I certainly didn’t want to bore the masses. There was a stretch in there where we visited our clinic 8 times in 3 weeks. Another high point was bringing both boys to urgent care on a Sunday at different times during the day. We experienced RSV, croup, two rounds of stomach bugs, multiple double ear infections, several asthma flare-ups, and a fun bout with thrush.

I came away with two important thoughts: 1) I really should go back to school to become a pediatric nurse (and if I’ve said this before, then I definitely need to start the application process), and 2) My kids will never miss a day of school once they start kindergarten because their immunity will be so awesome (In my fantasy, their time at school is when I enjoy a latte after a morning at the gym. However, my husband has deigned to enlighten me that this is the point in life when I will be returning to a job that provides a paycheck. Luckily, I have a few years to sort that and him out.)

Keep reading here: Patch blog #8