Feeling the Need to Justify

Ever since Colin started his preschool program in April, we have noticed that Colin's speech skills are really starting to flourish.  The more practice he has with talking, the more improvement we notice with his clarity and amount of words he is saying.  We partly attribute this to the fact that Colin absolutely LOVES to sing and dance and therefore, a lot of the words he can clearly say are part of the songs he is singing (Mickey, Fresh Beat Band, Jake & the Neverland Pirates, "Call Me Maybe", and so on).  

It still surprises me today to hear him saying things to me in 2 word phrases that I didn't know he could say.  In fact, we were at the endocrinologist the other day for a checkup (yay! we can take a break from the thyroid medicine for awhile to see if he really needs them) and he was so good and comfortable with what the nurse and doctor were doing.  When the nurse was leaving the room, she said "the doctor will be right in" and Colin turns to her and says "bye nurse!".  We didn't even know he a. knew what a nurse was and b. knew the word nurse.

At home, Colin talks all of the time.  It's not that I underestimate him, but he completely takes me by surprise with what he can say when we never hear the words and then they just pop out!

However, we often find ourselves in public places where people that Colin knows (and those that he doesn't) will ask him questions that he knows the answer to and will not talk to them.  I feel the need to say things like "oh, you little stinker", "you know what .... is", "Colin, say hi to ...", "oh, he's just tired" and won't get a response.  

I feel like I need to justify his lack of talking to something that the person can say "oh, that makes sense".  Sure, Colin has speech delays and there are words that he will say that are not very clear, however, I don't want people to think that he can't say it.  I'll often ask Chris why I find it necessary to say these "justifications" for Colin when I know that he can say these words, phrases or answer questions.  

I am in a place where I am OK with the fact that Colin has Down Syndrome and that he struggles with certain skills.  However, I don't want his lack of "talking" in certain moments to overshadow the great progress that he has made.  So, I still find myself justifying his lack of talking when we are in public if it warrants it.  That's not to say he never says anything, but I suppose he has to be ready and on his terms to decide to talk in certain moments.

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Now, I completely understand that these types of things happen with "typical" children too because Kailey is so shy when she meets people or hasn't seen them in awhile that she appears standoff-ish and won't look anyone in the eye.  So, I know it's a universal kid thing.  

I have been trying to get Colin saying the ABCs for awhile on video now and have several different clips, however, he often gets sidetracked when he watches himself in the video camera.  This is the best I have so far, but you can see him go off on a little tangent.  He needs guidance in saying the alphabet, but can do the majority all by himself when he isn't rushing or being silly.  I am so proud of my little boy!

And on a side note, I find it so intriguing to see a picture of Kailey and one of me at the same age.  Resemblance much?