10/14/2025
It’s birthday week! 🎈
I’m still in a bit of disbelief over the fact that Avery will be F I V E on Saturday!
Sometimes it doesn’t seem as though it’s been that long, and others days it’s the opposite.
Plus, tomorrow is her 4th ReBirthday. Honestly, that day is the one I spend thinking about Gavin and his selfless act of donating his stem cells so Avery could live.
(He truly is the greatest, y’all. So very kind, smart, and fun.) 💛
Quick speech update:
This photo was taken at the zoo today. It was the first habitat we could talk her out of the wagon to look at.
I held her as we watched the elephants move around. I would point and repeat, “elephant.”
I know she can say the word. It’s one of my favorites that she says. It comes out more “elepant” (hard p rather than the ph sound.)
After a few times repeating this, she finally began to smile and said 🐘
We continued watching as the elephants made their way to the water near us. One of them stopped to eat, to which Avery said, “Elephant. Eat.”
Backstory, she was originally diagnosed as a Gestalt Language Processor, Level 1.
Recently, she has begun changing a few words in her songs to be more relevant in context to what she’s doing.
For example, as she plays with a duck, she sings, “the duck came down,” to the tune of “Hickory Dickory Dock.”
That’s Level 2. Changing the words a bit and mixing in other ones.
So, today’s 2-word phrase would be considered Level 3. Taking two words from her various gestalts (phrases she’s learned from songs) and putting them together.
Elephant. Eat.
It’s a complete thought that she wanted to convey, and she did it so well! 🥹
She was also consistent in using her sign for “done” to tell me when she was ready to move on.
At home, she will tell us, ”eat” sometimes when she’s hungry. She has told Papa to “stop” when they were playing and he was tickling her.
Today, she was sitting on a window sill at a restaurant and we were leaving, so I walked over to get her and she pushed me and said, “Go.”
It’s always such a joy to hear her speak her own words, rather than singing her gestalts.
All that to say, she’s doing well at therapy! I’ll share more tomorrow.
