The story of the boy who didn’t want to talk.

Prepare yourself for the most wonderful sentence I’ve ever heard:  “I did a poo-poo.”

Okay, first some much needed background:  Luke started talking relatively early, and was pretty good at repeating words, and had several he would use regularly.  They were baby words, not clear like adults words, but he was doing great for his age.

I will never forget the day I was putting him in his car seat and I pointed at a squirrel.  Like dozens of times before this, I said, “Look Luke, a squirrel!  Can you say squirrel?”

Any other time, Luke would have smiled and said “KWIRL!”  … But not this time.  This time, he looked me square in the eye and said: No.

And that was the beginning of the end.  For many, many months I heard nothing but no.  He went from a mild, relaxed baby to a wild, rambunctious toddler.  He refused to speak and threw tantrums to convey his needs.  He was hitting other kids at the gym daycare and hitting me regularly.  I began to shy away from play dates, from Target trips, from the park, from kiddie classes… it was really rough on us both and I don’t think anyone fully understood what I was going through.  It was hard to see my sweet boy having so much difficulty.  I even quit my successful Crush Luxe venture to focus on him, but nothing seemed to give.

At Luke’s 2 year check-up, he was a monster.  He screamed, thrashed, hit me, kicked me… it was really embarrassing.  The pediatrician basically told me – this is learned behavior and it’s time to unlearn it.  In the nicest possible way, she conveyed the message that he had no discipline in his life, no sense of boundaries, and it was, simply put, making him confused, scared and somewhat nuts.

That day was a big turning point for me.  That was the day that I said – I’m done.  Luke can’t handle it and neither can I.  I immediately began 30 second time-outs for major infractions: hitting, throwing, any sort of violence.  The first two days?  He went to time out, I kid you not – 40-50 times.  He HATED it.  He hated me.  I hated it.  It was the longest. two. days. ever.

Then… it stopped.  It was just like that.  It just STOPPED.  He still went to time out just a few times a day for another week or so, then nothing.  At some point, I realized he hadn’t been to time out in weeks.  He was sharing with other kids, he was loving and affectionate, he was so HAPPY.  I had my sweet boy back!  And he was never really gone, was he?  He was just a little lost.

But, there was still the another issue: he wouldn’t talk.  He would not call me mama, or say dada.  He had no names for the dogs, no inclination to speak at all really.  We were worried.  The pediatrician said – give him 3 more months.  Work with him, be patient.  If it doesn’t work, we’ll get him outside help. 

I did tons of research, read about special needs preschools – it was all very alarming.  So I said okay kiddo, we’ve got 3 months.  Let’s make it count.  I began working with him constantly; I spoke clearly and slowly in short sentences, I pointed things out, I kept it all very simple.  I nixed almost all television, worked on books with him, incorporated tons of creative and learning activities.  I wanted to get the wheels in his head turning, to stimulate and challenge him and make him WANT to talk.

Then something happened.  Luke and I fed the dogs together (one of his special duties), and he looked at Aspen and said “Go eat!”.  I was like – whaaaa?!?!  I made a big deal out of it, as we danced around the kitchen, laughing and yelling together: Go eat! Go eat! Go eat!

Slowly but surely, words came.  He began to say “bye-bye car” and other simple two word combos on a regular basis.  Then he was calling me Mama.  Mama Mama!  All day long – it was unbelievable to hear him finally announce to the world that I AM IN FACT his mother!  And then Dada! Dada!  Then his vocabulary was up to about 30 words, he was adding one new word a week.  That’s not quite enough to stay out of speech therapy, but we had hope.

This brings us up to this week.  This week, at 28 months old, where suddenly, my formerly obstinate, mum little boy, began talking.  And talking and talking and talking.  Something clicked and he began to repeat me.  I didn’t believe it at first… yesterday I was putting him down for his nap, and in a 5 minute time span, he said 6 new words.  I say something, and he simply repeats it.  It is so shocking to hear his little voice respond to mine!

I don’t want to jump the gun and declare him out of the woods, but the past two days have been incredible, joyous, and what I’ve been patiently waiting for since I got my plus sign almost 3 years ago to the day – to really hear my child talk.

It all became real when I was changing an ordinary, run-of-the-mill dirty diaper as he smiled, looked at me and said his very first 4-word sentence ever: “I did a poo-poo.  Mama, I poo-poo!”

And that is music to my ears.