You must be feeling good

Jonah has recently had a language explosion of sorts (better late than never? YES!) and he’s finally starting to, not exactly converse,  but at least be more conversational. He will also tell you what he wants. All. Day. Long. We’ve been going to the pool a lot lately (must get our money’s worth!) but today after speech I just needed to stay home, because I’ve been a rather “fun mom” for several days in a row, including taking the big kids to do fun stuff in the morning while Jonah is in summer school. And I just needed to be home to get some crap done, ya know?

So  of course, Jonah said, “I wanna go to the pool and go swimming.” and “I gotta go swimming!” and “I gotta go to the pool.” about 679 times this afternoon. He also put his shoes and socks on and said “I wanna go bye bye!” and I said “Where do you want to go?” and he said “I wanna go to the pool!” I promised him we will go tomorrow (unless it rains).

But anyway. Before all this communication about the POOL, we were at speech therapy, and he did a pretty good job cooperating. When we were done, he said to his SLP, “Bye, see you next week!” Then he went to the top of the stairs and said, “I’m going downstairs now, Mom.”

Kristen, his SLP, looked at me and said, “Wow, Jenny. You must be feeling…you must really be feeling good about him!”

And I almost didn’t know what to say back. Because the truth is I have a hard time letting myself feel good and encouraged. I am not sure why, but maybe it’s because I know there is so much work left to do still and I don’t want to allow myself to slack off or let him get off pace. So when she looked at me and said that and I saw on her face such an expression of happiness, I let go a little bit. I let myself feel it. I smiled back and said, “Yes, I am. I am feeling really good.” And I realized it was true.

I am so proud of my boy, proud of what we’ve done together. I can honestly say I wish there was no more work to do, but just seeing him make progress like this lately helps me know that we will get there.

Just now I was letting him watch a Laurie Berkner video on my phone (look, I get desperate around bedtime, ok?) and without prompting or anything, he looked up at me about halfway through and said “I’m watching a video!” Earlier during our “Mommy-Jonah” time that we do at home to work on speech, he volunteered the information, “I’m having fun!” Those are both new things I’ve not heard him say until this week – and it’s awesome!

So yes. I am feeling good about my boy. And I am trying to just really let myself feel it and enjoy it. Progress, we are a-makin’ it! And it. feels. good.