A question for parents – how normal is it to find yourself debating whether or not your child is somehow mentally challenged, and trying to reconcile yourself to it?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not terribly concerned about either of our boys.  They’re both learning and making progress, are very social, happy, and still alive.  That pretty much satisfies the core parenting requirements I’ve identified.  Still, there are only so many times you can watch your son put a bucket on his head and run into a wall before you start thinking to yourself, “it’s okay, his brother will watch out for him, and there’s lots of opportunties now for mentally challenged people – at least he’s healthy, happy, and alive…”  Funny, now that I think about it, most of the specific incidents I can think of are primarily due to one boy or the other repeatedly ramming their head into something – a wall, the floor, a window, a toy, their brother, you get the idea.

And then there’s the milestones, lest we forget the urgent need to plot our sons progress and develop a report card before they can talk.  Oh wait, they can’t talk yet?  Hmm…  That’ll cost ‘em a point.  They can sign a few things, especially Nicholas.  He learned 3-4 signs in a week or so, but then nothing more since then.  Dexter stopped at 2.  Still, “please” and “eat” are pretty useful, right?

They both seemed like they were on the verge of talking when Grandma and Grandpa Roberts were here a couple of weeks ago.  So much vocalization, babbling, careful enunciation.  Then they left, and suddenly I’m wondering if our boys aren’t turning into birds.  Lots of squawks.  And squeals.  And shreaks.  And lest we leave Nicholas out, we cannot neglect the growling.  On the plus side, they haven’t started eating worms.  Then again, with Dexter’s penchant for putting anything he can find into his mouth, it’s purely a matter of opportunity, so I shouldn’t feel too relieved.

<sigh>