My Hunter

Hunter is such a ham. He is always looking for ways to put a smile on my face and anyone around him. He was born on May 7, 2008. Paul and I thought for sure we were having another girl and then our skinny little man was born. He came into this world screaming at the top of his little lungs but quickly settled down and started to take it all in. Hunter had a lot of digestive issues when he was an infant and it took us a while to figure out that he had a milk intolerance. I say intolerance because he could always eat all other dairy products. He now LOVES chocolate milk and would drink it all the time if we allowed him to.

At Hunter's 18 month check up I walked to the doctor about concerns that Paul and I had that Hunter's speech was not developing the way we thought it should. Our amazing doctor listened to all of our concerns and said to make not of things over the next few months and then come back to her. There was always the chance that because Ella was such and early talker that Hunter was just behind where she was at the same age. A couple of months went by and in my opinion the problem was just getting worse. He replaced a lot of the hard sounds (like the c in car) with an h sound. He would also replace other hard sounds with the h sound. When we went back to the doctor she agreed that there was reason to be concerned so our first step was to see if it was a hearing issue. Hunter was not able to get through a whole hearing test because he got scared, but the first test led the tech to think that it was possible that he had a problem hearing high frequencies. We went back to our doctor who referred us to the birth to 3 program. We met with the coordinator for the birth to 3 program and had Hunter tested. Unfortunately he did not pass the test for services :-( but she indicated that she would contact me again in 6 months (this was April of 2010). 

Over the next 6 months Hunter seemed to be going down hill fast. He would get super frustrated and emotional when someone was unable to understand him. This got so bad that he would just lay on the floor and cry...it broke our hearts. When Michelle, the birth to 3 coordinator, contacted me in October of 2010 I explained to her that I thought that Hunter's speech issue was a HUGE concern and that Paul and I were afraid that he would start to shut down completely. She came to meet with us again and because of Hunter's emotional distress they got him into the birth to 3 program starting in October of 2010. It was such a relief to have him seeing someone who had the tools to start and focus on how to help Hunter. He LOVED Kathy who came to our house 2 times a week. When Hunter was getting ready to turn 3 we met with the early childhood coordinator at Spruce Street school. Again they made an exception for our little man and he has been diagnosed with an "A typical" speech problem....meaning his issue is not in any of the books. In May of  2011 Hunter started speech therapy at spruce street schools with Rhonda and he has made VAST improvements in the last year. Paul and I are so thankful for everyone who has helped our little man get back to being the outgoing, humorous little man he once was. 

Like Ella, we think Hunter is destined for greatness ;-) I wake up excited every day to see what these little people that I helped to create will discover.