Official discharge: Speech therapy

I mentioned a few months ago that Sophie was not going to need any further speech therapy after the results of her assessment showed her scoring between four and nine months ahead of expected development.

Well, today I finally got the official discharge letter from the outpatient clinic. So far, we've permanently and forever been struck off neonatology, the developmental paediatrician, and now speech therapy. Next month, we'll get our official letters saying goodbye to physiotherapy and occupational therapy, and then we'll be all on our own for the first time since Sophie was born- with the exception of her neurologist, who wants to see her annually until she's five or six, mostly to try to understand what went so right for her.

No question that speech therapy is about the last thing Miss Bossy needs right now. At two-and-a-quarter, she's expected to have a vocabulary of around 300 words, and be speaking in two and three word combinations. Not Sophie- we estimate at least 1000 words in her collection; she's also talking in almost full sentences of up to seven or eight words at a time, and can sing about eight different nursery rhymes from start to finish.

Looking justifiably pleased with herself

In fact, Sophie is meeting almost every one of the milestones expected of three-year-olds (the only one she's missing is being able to give her gender and age), and she's doing more than half of the language milestones expected of four-year-olds. She's even doing some of those not expected until five years of age, like being able to count to ten (eleven, actually, but who's counting?) (Do kids these days really not know how to count to ten before five??).

Working those speech muscles
(Everyone needs a mother like me, who'll post this stuff on the internet)

It's a bit startling to see her take off like this, but a very inspiring thing to see, considering she was first diagnosed with a language delay at 8 months of age. Whenever we see her doing this well at something, we think about what her first physiotherapist said- that for every milestone she seems to be easily meeting on time, she's working twice as hard for it as other kids. To be so far ahead means she's working harder than any of us can possibly understand. It makes me want to work harder at everything I do to match her example.

Some recent Sophie conversations:

Last night, she tried to steal a packet of defrosting crumpets off the kitchen counter, and daddy told her off. She came running in to me, wailing, and said, "Daddy said, "No, Sophie! Don't touch crumpets!"" Ever sympathetic, I asked what happened next, and she tearfully told me, "Daddy put Sophie on Thinking Spot for two minutes."

Erm- no, actually, he didn't- but wow, she came straight out with it like it was the gospel truth. I was impressed! The Thinking Spot is the highest level of punishment here, and she holds it in awe.

These days bedtime comes with a running commentary. Sophie instructs you on every stage before you get there, and if you ask her about going to bed, she'll relate the whole thing. "Mummy put bottle in the microwave. Put lid on. Sophie lie down, get new nappy. Put jammies on. Drink bottle, read Sharky book. Mummy cuddle you, mummy kiss you, mummy say, "love you, Sophie! Bye-bye, Sophie!" Sophie cuddle Sylvester, go sleepy."

I wonder if there's a record for the longest one-sided conversation ever held by a two-year-old?

There are so many, I could just keep going for ages, but I won't. I'll leave you with one last one- a couple of weeks ago, she came swanning out of my bedroom with mismatched high heels on her feet. I asked what she was doing, and she said, "Going shopping!" When I asked what she was going to buy, she flipped her hair back off her face (our favourite frequent Sophie gesture) and said, "Deodorant."

Ha! I don't know where that one came from, but it made me laugh and laugh.

My smart cookie, growing up so fast