Tate Words

Today was the primary program and Tate had a tiny little part. He was supposed to say "Be a missionary". The problem is that it came out every time sounding like this "uh misherary". After two weeks of practicing at home, he pulled it off. It came out sounding more like "Be uh mishnary" pretty dang close if you ask me. So in honor of his victory I've decided it's time to unveil the list of Tate words. Tate was a slow talker, he didn't even begin to talk until after age 2 and even then he only had about a 10 word vocabulary. Now after 2 years of much work and lots of patience his speech has improved dramatically. He still struggles to say words properly. He has a condition called apraxia, luckily it's mild with him. His brain knows the word and even knows how to say it properly but it just won't come out of his mouth sounding the way he knows it should. It takes repetition and practice to make the connection from brain to mouth. Sometimes it will take months of saying the word before it ever comes out right. Even then he'll stumble on words he's known for a long time. You can see him thinking deeply while repeating a word 3 or 4 times, he knows it's coming out wrong and can't figure out why. So without further ado here are a few of the MANY Tate words.

Ish Weem = Ice Cream
Mealk = Milk
Fink = Fine
Woovie heater = Movie theatre
Greenk = Green
Ocean = Lotion
Licious = Delicious
Hims = her or him
Lasterday = Yesterday
Uh Dea = Idea
Heatas = Fajitas
Popsible = Popsicle
Knew Knew = Noodles
Manna = Banana
Mo Tro = Remote Control
Lula = Tallula (hence her nickname)

I seriously could go on forever. This list is just a few of his current "words". I get a little sad sometimes when he figures a word out and can say it properly. His little words make me smile. There have been countless times that Taylor, Tanner and I will just bust up laughing at something Tate says. He has no idea what's so funny but he'll just join in with the laughter. Oh man, I love this little guy.