What was that?

Two days ago Carter said the sweetest thing, “T”. He finally verbalized a name for his oldest brother, Tyler. He has called Caleb, K K, for months. He has said both Mommy and Daddy, but when you pointed to Carter and said, “Who’s that?” he would always smile and then give someone else’s name, usually Daddy or Izzie, the cat. Surprisingly, it never hurt Tyler’s feelings. He never took it personally, just like he’s never taken any of the changes caused by Carter’s FPIES personally. But you should have seen Tyler’s face when he realized Carter was actually calling him by name. He had such a huge smile on his face! What a great present for Tyler.

Carter has an appointment for a speech evaluation on June 16. Although he vocalizes a lot and makes lots of noises, he has very few words that are understood by other people. I understand 90% of what he says, but then again I’m around him all day. Most of the words he says are really inflections sounds to represent words, but not the actual words themselves. This lack of verbal communication has led to Carter screaming and hitting in frustration when he can’t get me to understand what he is trying to say.

Tonight, as he was getting ready for bed, he told his daddy he loved him. It was an, “I love you” or even a “Love you”. It was just one long sound, “iieeoouuvvveeoouu”, but it was the closest Carter has ever come to saying those 3 words. They are words that can melt your heart, and tonight hearing him say them in his own way, followed by that bright sun-shiny smile, melted mine.

Carter, I love you too.