5 Months Post Activation

Thursday, September 27th, marked 5 months of activation for Hunter. He has been doing leaps and bounds when it comes to both his receptive and expressive language. Receptive language is the comprehension of language- listening and understanding what is communicated to him. For example, when I tell Hunter to go throw away the plate, he understands and walks to the trash can. And before I can even finish telling Hunter to take his ears off for bath, he is ripping them off of his head. Good thing that's one of the few times he will take them off! He understands when we ask him if he wants to eat because he will sign eat, same for bath, and a number of other things.

Hunter's expressive language, which refers to being able to produce speech and communicate his wants and needs is also progressing rapidly. This weekend he FINALLY started to say "Da" for Daddy instead of just signing Daddy every time I ask him to say it! He repeats almost anything we tell him to say. That doesn't necessarily mean that it sounds exactly as it should, but he's doing it and that's all we are worried about for now!

Here is an updated list words that Hunter says without being prompted:
1. Mama
2. More
3. Da (daddy)
4. Bite
5. Eat
6. Baree- Barney
7. Naynay (banana)
8. Nana
9. Nini
10. Bye bye
11. Hey
12. Hi
13. Ball
14. One
15. Kiki (kick)
16. Teeth
17. Cheese
18. Whooaaa!
19. Uh Oh
20. T! (TV)

He also repeats the following words on a steadily:
Ready
Water
Please

We are still working on walking and balance... For example, today at mass while we were walking the front of the church he learned to walk backwards :) (with my hand of course). And we got a teepee from a friend, so we played in there most of the afternoon. I was on the inside, and Hunter would walk back and forth from Blair to myself, grab onto the material that opens and closes in the front and he was balancing himself enough to turn around and go back. My mom even caught him standing alone for a second, and I did too another time! Baby baby baby steps!

And last but not least, let me give H a shout out because we went for his 18 month checkup last week, and his pediatrician left the room and said she was smiling ear to ear and it warms her heart to see how well he is doing with his ears! For our milestone checklist, I was one proud mama to be able to check yes next to does he say 10 words.

I will end this post with a video of Hunter.... To say the guy LOVES Barney is a massive understatement! Every time he sees a remote he points to the TV and says T! Baree! This is what he does EVERY time Barney comes on. Then he watches himself over and over and just laughs and yells "Whoa!". At the end you can hear him say "Baree" for Barney. We eat, sleep and breathe Barney.