Where Are You???

It is no secret that Sloane is a daddy's little girl. She will do just about anything he asks. With that being said, she adds new words to her vocabulary for him more than she does for me. He says, "Sloane say ??????" and once she is confident enough she says it...whatever the word of the day is. 


Her vocabulary has blossomed incredibly in the last month. It is much easier to understand her and she has moved on to 2 and 3 word phrases. Most days she is a chatterbox. Her chatter is welcome because there was a time when we worried abut her speech and oral development. We were told by Dr. Rahbar many times that her vocal cords, in spite of her cleft being a level 2, looked normal. I remember when we got the diagnosis way back when in the NICU asking over and over again if she would have a voice, talk, or have any speech disabilities. It took a long time to let go of those fears. This is a common worry for parents that have children with clefts as well as children who do not use their airways, throats, and mouth to eat (feeding tubes). You wonder if their muscles and nerves are being developed. Will they be delayed because of the trauma they have gone through. I just emailed with a friend who has a child with a feeding tube about Sloane's speech development in relationship to the feeding tube. Most people in the medical field will immediately ask abut her vocal cords when I say a Laryngeal Cleft. I just had a conversation with a dentist who is a friend of my brothers. It was an easy conversation because he knew about a LC and what type of affects it has on development. The very 1st question he asked was "how are her cords?" We are very happy to be beyond the stage of worry and on to the stage of vocabulary development.  


Back to Little Miss Chatterbox! My hubby in the last few days has gotten Sloane to say "where are you?" She is addicted. She will ask whoever she is talking to where they are. For example if Sloane is on the phone with someone via speaker she will say: Josh, where are you? It has a certain exaggeration to the phrase that makes you laugh. All day everyday for the past week..we have heard it! Well, last night at exactly 3:14am over the monitor we heard:


Momma, where are you? 


I had to burst out laughing!!! My husband went in and settled her back to sleep. Her outburst in the middle of the night made me think of when someone told me that when babies learn a new task they have a hard time sleeping because they want to do it over and over again. I have to say I believe that. Sloane now wants to know where everyone is at all times of the day!!!