Shoes = Outside, originally uploaded by cheryl.
People often ask me how I know what my twins want with their language delay.
One of our twins has words. Xander actually has a lot of words, especially compared to even a year ago, when he had only a handful of words you could understand. His communication is much more verbal than it once was, and he uses his words consistently and appropriately most of the time these days. His words still come in short sentences, but they are there and they are functional.
Sawyer, on the other hand, is mostly non-verbal. We hear more sounds and an occasional word mixed into his vocalizations, but it's not consistent. The words we often hear are appropriate, a random identification or repetition of something that he sees or something that has just been said to him. But it's infrequent at best. Words are not part of his communication just yet.
With Sawyer, it's still gestures and actions. Leading you by the hand to something he wants. Like the pantry for a snack, or the refrigerator for some juice. To the cabinet where the DVDs are if he wants to watch a movie. His communication is very functional at this point, just not verbal.
One of his more recent actions always makes me smile. When he wants to go outside, he usually goes to a door. But that wasn't getting the response he liked, at least not often enough. Now he takes it one step further. He goes to the bench where we keep all the boys' shoes stored, pulls out his red Crocs, and puts them on all by himself. And then he goes to the door. And the look on his face is priceless. It's as though he's saying, look, surely you can't be so dense as to miss both of these clues. Shoes plus door equals outside. Like right now.
It's cute. And he usually gets his way. Though last night he didn't try it until about 8 o'clock in the evening, which is kind of bed time. So he didn't get his way.
And to punish us, he took up his favorite past time of late. He hides himself behind the curtains (in that tight space between the window and the curtain where only his feet show through at the bottom), then backs all the way out until the curtain starts to fall, then dances up and down as it gently floats back in place. He can do it over and over and over again, for what seems like hours if you will let him. Tight space, check. Motion, check. Light and shadows across the floor, check. It's all good, he says.