Progress Report

A few new phrases and their significance:

- "Mommy, you soccer ball!" A friend is out of the country on a trip, leaving her husband to care for their four children. Two were down with a stomach virus, so we took the other two to a park for a picnic and some flag football. The flag football game consisted of ML & MS vs. the two friends. And the added challenge was that you had to avoid knocking down ZL, who was running along the field with the pack the entire time, thinking he was part of the game. He came to me at one point (texting a friend after a failed attempt to get him to kick the soccer ball around with me on the sidelines), said the above phrase, and ran off. Very clearly, he was demanding that I watch him play football (all balls are "soccer balls" at this point). He wanted to make sure that I was paying attention. This is a very definite milestone in both social skills (sharing experiences with others) and language (communicating that desire).

- "I kick the ball." Earlier, before the flag football game was underway, ZL was kicking the soccer ball around the field. I asked him, "Are you kicking the ball?" and he responded with the above. Six months ago, he might have responded "ball." A few months ago, it would have been "kicking the ball." That he inserted the correct personal pronoun (that he used a personal pronoun at all, for that matter) and that he changed the tense of the verb is note-worthy.

- "He crying." Listening to baby brother fussing about having to burp in the middle of a feeding, this was ZL's comment today. Commenting on things and people around him was something that was notably missing from his overall set of communication skills when he was tested this summer. We're getting there.