What Goes Around Comes Around

We have been so excited for AiAi to finally make his voice heard. He first started using words around eight-months-old, then we moved to China when he turned one and the speaking abruptly stopped.

When we moved back to the States, we started him in speech therapy. While it seemed reasonable to blame his sudden speech regression on the move overseas, that's also frighteningly similar to what happens with Autistic children. Better safe than sorry, we figured.

After months of no verbal expression, AiAi finally began to speak and the interesting part is that he used Chinese terms such as "jeguh" and "neguh" for "this" and "that," and "gei woh" for "give me" at first. Still, for the most part, he remained insistent on not using language. For a long time, he would never use a word such as "drink" or "milk," but, when thirsty, he would climb up to the cabinet for a cup and come lugging it along with a full gallon of milk into the next room and hand it to me. He could definitely get his point across. But, I was always bewildered thinking, "Is it really that hard to say drink?" Now that we've been home for a year, he's finally decided to speak (in English no less).

It has been so fun to hear his voice. Of course, the things on his mind aren't always pleasant. He's often heard saying, "let go of me" or "don't touch me" when he's being restrained from doing something he wants to do. More recently, his favorite commands are "give me a hug" and "give me knuckles (like a high-five)." I especially love the "hug" one. Sometimes, I'll be busy doing something and he'll sneak right onto my lap and wrap his arms around my neck. It's like I'm on autopilot keeping up on my task, until I hear that sweet voice say, "give me a hug." I just melt, I love it so much.

AiAi has also been our difficult eater. We just can't seem to find the trick to make him eat most of the time. Today, Photoguy and I took the kids to McDonald's. AiAi refused to touch his food. Suddenly, in a spark of brilliance, Photoguy grabbed the plastic troll guy that came in the Happy Meal and made it walk across the table, saying in an ogre voice, "You'd better take a bite of that food!" AiAi perked right up, looked troll guy in the eye seriously, and promptly obeyed. Troll guy flew backwards across the table. Every time AiAi swallowed, troll guy re-appeared from behind the drink cup repeating, "Hey, you! You'd better take a bite right now!" AiAi happily obeyed.

Tonight, right before bed, I said, partly to myself, and partly to AiAi, "I need to take a shower." Then, I started reading some ads. A few minutes later, a gruff voice said, "Take a bath!" I looked up to see AiAi holding the green troll, aiming it right at me, and repeating in an low voice, "Hey you! Go take a bath!"