
I love that James Taylor song,
Sweet Baby James
. When James was first born, we used to listen to that song a lot. My mom even sent some cards to Hong Kong addressed to "Sweet Baby James". James is still sweet. However, he is not a baby any longer.
People sometimes wonder when babyhood ends. Is it when babies are weaned? When they begin to walk? Become more independent? I never really had a strong opinion about this. However, with James, I've come to a conclusion babyhood ends when speech begins. Children usually start telling you what they want. They say that they aren't babies any longer---that they're big boys or girls. James still hasn't told us this yet. James has apraxia of speech which is a neurological condition that affects speech production. I've heard it described something like this. Imagine that you have a television and you have a DVD player. Both the TV and the DVD player work properly. However, the TV is not set to the correct channel to receive information from the DVD player. Apraxia is a bit like that. James' brain works fine as does his mouth. However, the information is not getting from his brain to his mouth.
James has been in speech therapy since June 2005. He is now consistently saying several words (besides "Mom" and "Dad"). He can say "Up" and "Dow" (down). "Do" is both "dog" and "duck". "Elp" is "help". "All done". "Uh oh" (this is used in a variety of contexts---a very handy phrase). "In". "Ou" (out). "O as" is "Thomas". "Duhdas" are "bubbles". "Bop" is both "pop" and "stop" depending on context. James also has a word for "go" but I'm not sure how to write it. His vowels are often distorted. He can also say "s", "t", "p", "b", "d", "ah" and probably some other sounds in isolation. He's made a lot of progress and we're very proud of him.
It's hard, though, having a child that isn't developing typically. The thing that upsets me the most is when I wonder what James' future will be like. Will he be able to talk properly? Will he have friends? What will he do for a job? I'm getting better with this, though. Slowly.
James is a happy, engaging child. He loves going out (especially in the city where there are lots of taxis, mini buses, double decker buses, trams, trucks, cars, etc) and he loves it when people smile and talk to him. He now says "Hello" (not clearly) and "Good bye" and waves. He's great at running, jumping, climbing and building with blocks and Lego. He'll play tag and hide and seek with Claire. He's also starting to take more of an interest in other children. He attends a playgroup, Panda Junction and Kindermusik in addition to speech therapy.
Although I wouldn't trade James for any other child in the world, I look forward to the day when I don't look at James and think (at least at some point during the day) about how apraxia is affecting his life.