Something to talk about

As a parent I think that it's hard not to compare your child to other kids when it comes to development. I know many a Mama who is worried because their child doesn't have a lot of speech, has poor fine motor skills, or isn't potty training at the same age as other kids. The list can go on and on, and honestly I imagine it can be maddening. For the first year I never gave a thought to how Maddie was developing in comparison to other children because in almost every area she was ahead of the game.....way ahead in some. (weight and height) However around Christmas time when she was 15 months old I started to get just a tad bit concerned because she wasn't really talking. I knew that she comprehended pretty much everything because she would respond to what I asked or told her to do, but she just wasn't using words. I had been told by a lot of people that toddlers really start to get talking between 15 and 17 months and even though she was right at the start of that age range I still wondered if there was a problem. We taught Maddie sign language and she would use that as a way to communicate with us and let us know important things like her need for juice, milk, to eat, play etc. and that was great but we also wondered if teaching her a way to communicate without words was causing her to not be interested in speaking.

As with almost everything that I have spent time worrying about since having Maddie; this issue has turned out to be a non issue. Maddie is now 17 months old and is talking up a storm. She is both speaking and using signs and when we identify what something is ie. sock, hat, cup she will repeat what we say and generally remembers what the word is for each item later on. Some of her words are clear as day, and some need to be translated by Dan or I, but she is a chatty cathy. She blabbers on and on and it actually sounds like she is talking instead of just making sounds like she used to, and in the middle of her blabbing she will throw in an actual word. It really has me wondering what it is that she thinks she is saying.....I wish I could understand all of the non language words.

With time I'm learning that I shouldn't worry about things as much as I do, but I'm also realizing that I don't think that I will ever stop worrying about my kids. I really don't think that it ever ends.....not even when they are adults and married with their own kids.....the reasons for my worry will change, but it will still be there simply because I love them so much. So, without furher ado here is a list of the words Maddie knows and uses on her own:

daddy, mama, dog, uh-oh, oh-no, up, hot, help, all done, juice, shoe, car, good, no, paci, go, bye, hug, hi, bubbles, book, cup, duck and poo (like poop in her pants)

And here is a picture of Maddie with a pony tail.....betcha didn't know she had that much hair huh? I don't really do her hair this way, I just thought it was funny.