The bilingual "experiment": two-year-old Spanish-English

"Agua, agua...!"  Hudson found one of his favorite things on a walk.

One of Hudson's mainstream pediatricians referred us to a language specialist earlier this year.  The packet of paperwork alone that came in the mail in order to go through with the referral was laughable, and we were afraid they'd just tell us to stop the bilingual life.  Recently we were at an appointment with a naturopathic pediatrician and they recommended starting to give him a supplement of cod liver oil every day because of its high DHA content, good for the ol' brain development.  And they said we should check in with a pediatrician in six months.

It's clear that Hudson is not saying "I wanna go slide" like some other two-year-olds at the park, but I have been reminded that many times boys will develop speech more slowly than girls, and I am reminded of so many anecdotes of children who didn't speak well until they were three or four and suddenly they popped out sentences like nothing ever happened.  The adults and older kids I hear about this happening to are exceptionally intelligent humans.

So, what's a mamma to do?  I don't know.  Give cod liver oil, talk a ton to my kid, get him interacting with other kids, (though most communication among toddlers I see is just shouting anyway), and try to relax.  It's hard to admit that your kid is different.  All I can say is at least so far, he's not different in a way that's costing us thousands in medical bills, or seeing specialists (yet). 

The important thing is that he is developing, albeit slowly.  He can make two-word combinations now, which he wasn't doing just a few months ago, and he even got three words together the other day:  "adios abuela cama" after we put away grandma's inflatable guest bed.  He said it like this:  "adio aba pama" but that's good enough for me.  I accept.  And every day he is repeating new words and sounds he hears us say.  Even if his speech is "horma horma horma" to ask me for his favorite song about ants (in English), I respond with "¿Hudson quiere la canción de las hormigas?" and I'm pretty sure that's the right thing to do rather than constantly respond to his partial words and sounds right off the bat just because I do in fact understand them.  He needs to hear what sentences are even if he can't make them.  He's also doing a great job of labeling items and their color, as well as other basic adjectives like "grande" or "pequeño".   He's working at differentiating "m" and "n" sounds, as well as other similar consonants like "t" and "d" even though he can actually make all those sounds.  But new stuff is happening every day.

We'll see how this all shakes down.  At 28 months, he is certainly "lagging" but I refuse to freak out and see a specialist quite yet.  His vocabulary is growing every day in English and Spanish, and he's even developing words that we have no idea who taught them to him, they just show up like magic.  Pretty cool.  Different kid, but very, very cool.