Speaking of which...

We've been thinking a lot about speech these days at the Pioneer House. With Liam, we are absolutely amazed by his growing speech abilities which seem to expand before our very eyes. He is starting to speak in intelligible sentences and has gotten very good about expressing his needs or telling us what he is doing. Just yesterday morning I told me that he wanted "che-os, milk and bowl, Mommy, peez" as his second breakfast. It is nice that he is so polite about his requests and conversation. He never misses an opportunity to say "Bless you!" A funny thing about his words is his apparent New England accent which neither Greg or I possess unless we are being bad and poking fun at others. Liam very frequently leaves off the "r" at the end of words and emphasizes the "ah." Maybe there is some Kennedy relation on the McGurin side.

With Evan, we have been a little concerned about his ability to say different sounds especially "s" blends. Even thought this speech impediment produces the most adorable words such as "fooky" for spooky, I wondered if the speech impediment needed to be addressed before kindergarten. His preschool wasn't overly concerned, but they did refer him for a speech evaluation with early intervention. We had our appointment this week, and an extremly diminutive speech therapist determined that his articulation was perfectly normal for his age and his command of vocabulary and ability to express himself were excellent. She gave us a few tips for improving his articulation and did not recommend continued speech therapy. Evan has already started using one of her tips (on his own) to improve his articulation of certain words. It's very cute and a little heartbreaking. I have to admit that I was happy that we won't be losing some of our favorite Evan words right away. As Greg has said, it will be a little sad when we are no longer "fart, fecial, and forty" (smart, special and sporty).