Here I am!!

So many thoughts of what to write in my first ever blog. Wow, who'd have thought I would be "speechless" at any time? It's not that I'm speechless in the traditional sense, I just don't know where to start.

I suppose I should start with deciding how to use this blog. I can use it to vent, I can use it to chronicle Duck's progress through Early Intervention......I might even be able to use it to network a little.

I'll start with Duck. Saving the entire story for another day......our son Duck was born July 19, 2005. It was the second most important day in my life. The first being the day I met E. For without E, I wouldn't have Duck. Perhaps a different child, but definitely not Duck.

Anyway, from the beginning, we called him Duckadoo. Oddly, it's a nickname my sister used with one of her children, but it never stuck. I happen to like Ducky as a nickname as opposed to Bubba or Junior....so I've always called him Duckadoo or Ducky.

The even more weird part of the nickname??? When Duck was about 6 months old, we switched pediatricians. During his initial exam with the new, fantastic, caring, wonderful, attentive, my hero of a pediatrician (can you tell I like the man).........the pedi took a look at Duck's toes and said, "oh wow, we even have some webbing here."

WHAT?

I mean, I'd always thought something was a little "off" with his toes, but never felt it affected his walking or development and definitely didn't want to be one of THOSE moms who fretted over everything. So, I never said anything to his old pedi. Sure enough, the middle two toes on each foot have some slight webbing. It's nearly unnoticeable, but my hero pedi noticed. It's nothing to worry about, but really kind of cool since we've always called him Ducky.

(did you know this is an inherited trait?? Duck wants to publicly thank Nana for his duck-like feature)

Duck is significantly delayed in his language skills. The only three words he says are hi, dada, and yeah (this one is not with any purpose--it's not to answer a question). He can sign eat, more, please, thank you, bye bye, cookie, and music. He is currently working on signing go, open, mama and help. He says only the vowels of kitty and Jacquie (speech therapist)..........but he's made incredible progress. I'm fairly certain he grunts love you.....has to do with the pitch of his voice, it nearly matches the way I say it.

We're already familiar with the world of Autism, my 7 yo nephew was diagnosed with PDD at 18 months, then Autism not long after. Thankfully, we have a wonderful family life that accepts A for the great kid he is, not letting the Autism get in the way. So, we're prepared that way.

We're just not sure that's the issue yet. At 2.5, he's not talking, but he is communicating. His receptive skills are well beyond his expressive skills and the way he forms his mouth and looks like he's THINKING about what he wants to say reminds the Ms Jacquie of apraxia.

For those not familiar with apraxia (www.apraxia-kids.org), it's a motor disconnect between the brain and mouth. I liken it to a scrambled tv station. Nothing wrong with the brain (the cable) and nothing wrong with the mouth (the tv), but for some reason, there's a disconnect somewhere. Which is why we're doing more and more signing with Sam every day.

Thanks to reconnecting to a great friend, I'm learning more about the PECS system and we're creating cards for Sam to help communicate to us.

I guess that's enough for my first post.....and here I said I was speechless.