Words Not Taken for Granted

Its been so long since my last post. Life has been chaotic, crazy, or in a nutshell, a zoo. In this time, I have realized how much I miss writing. Which may sound crazy to those who know I made the decision to go back to school and get my degree. I hate writing academic papers, just to clarify. It does not fill my need to write. So with that said, here is what is on my mind today. I love you. Three basic overused words. How many times do we use them in a day? Or how many times are they said without thought or even with meaning. I don't think we appreciate the meaning until we haven't heard them. My youngest daughter Aubrey has recently been accepted into an ECP class that will help her with her speech. A little back story for you. Aubrey spoke her first word at 6 months. Ben was trying to give me a break and trying to spend some time bonding with her and she wanted nothing to do with it. She starting crying and turned her head and said Mama. She from the beginning has always known what she want and when she wants it. Stubborn child. Must be the Adams genes. Aubrey's vocabulary continued to grow. We were thrilled because our other two would only talked when they wanted. They could not be prompted. It was always on their terms. By 2 they woke up and were talking a blue streak. But by 10 months Aubrey was no longer talking. The extent of her vocabulary was Hi and Daddy. We thought it was just stubbornness and she did have 2 big sisters to talk for her. As we approached her 2ND birthday not too much had changed. Yeah, she was saying a little more but you really couldn't understand what she was saying but she got her point across non-verbally. As we hit 3, she still was not puting sentences together. Part of me knew there was a problem but didn't want to admit to it or told myself she would grow out of it. It was then when we applied for Head Start that things came to a head. Jennifer Kelly, (the admissions worker and who we have worked with since Riley was 3) was trying to get Aubrey into the program. We made to much financially BUT if there were any red flags or concerns about her, it might get her bumped up on the list. I casually mention about her speech thinking it would be pointless. Well, was I wrong. After 2 evaluations Aubrey was indeed struggling with her speech. Which then lead to the guilt of thinking she was just being stubborn or not pursuing this sooner. So back to my main point. After starting school, we've noticed she is talking way more, we still struggle to understand most words but she has the confidence to try. She crawled up on to the couch with me this morning and looked at me and said I love you. A whole three word sentence! One made up of the best words in the world. Up until this point I have always initiate it and her reply always was YOU! Tears still well up when I think of this precious moment. These words are definitely not being taken for granted.