It’s such a monumental event when a little one starts talking…we all wait with great anticipation for that very first really word!  I remember waiting for one of ours to start and wondering, ‘Would it be dad or mom or the name of an older sibling?’  But to our surprise that little one’s first word was actually the name of an older sister’s boyfriend.  We all were like, “Are you kidding me?”

It has long been known that treasures with Down Syndrome often struggle with language development.  Our little Down Syndrome Darlin’ was no exception.  We tried sign language but she would stare as if to say, “I don’t have time to stop and move my hands like this or like that.”  So although we continued to try gimmicks to get her to sign, she wasn’t interested – at all.

Don’t get me wrong, Birdie definitely understands what we are saying and so we guessed when she was ready, she would start.  She managed to say, “Mom” a few months back and she says it freely and I was thrilled.  But somehow ‘mom’ doesn’t really count, you know what I mean?  So we waited…and waited and waited and finally she spoke her first word!  It was just as thought she had been saying it for years…we were stunned when she easily called the name of her most favorite person!  We cheered and celebrated this enormous victory!  She calls him all day long…cause after all, he’s her fav!

Last night I was able to catch it as we took our family walk to get ice cream…

And one day we probably won’t be able to remember a time when she didn’t really talk…