There was a time not too long ago where Nate was still almost completely non-verbal. At two years old, he knew a few words but still heavily relied on pointing or physical cues to let us know what he wanted. I’m not going to lie, when my doctor suggested he start speech therapy and have his hearing tested I was a little angry. All children learn and develop at different speeds and given how early Nate met a lot of the physical developments, I figured he would be behind other kids in some other aspects. Nate could sit up unassisted at four months old, he could crawl at six months, began pulling himself up onto furniture at seven months, and was walking several steps by nine. At a year he could walk the entire living room without falling down once and at 13 months he was literally running throughout our house. So really it doesn’t surprise me that at some point he was going to have to be behind other kids his age. Nate was around 14 months when he said his first word (duck) but besides that, he didn’t really say anything else until closer to 18 months and even then, the words he said were few and far between.

Yes, it’s taken him a while to start using his vocabulary but he really has come a long way this past year. He’s had two speech assessments (one at two years old and another a month ago) and at both assessments, I was told he is still slightly behind his age bracket but he’s at least meeting the ‘minimum’ requirements. However, in my opinion he was extremely shy at both assessments so it wasn’t a thorough look at what I see on a day to day basis with him. Nate is at the age now where he’s starting to mimic Kurt and I which is hilarious to watch and listen to. He definitely is quite the character and has the sweetest personality.

My sister and I were talking about some of the cute things Nate says the other day and it got me thinking that with how quickly he’s growing up, these are moments in time I want to remember so I’ve start to compile a list of my favourite ‘Nate Sayings’ in hopes to remember them forever. I’ve tried to word and type them how Nate actually says these things so they won’t be grammatically correct or even spelled properly but it just makes it even cuter!

 

Whenever we’re on the highway and see a big truck drive by: “Mommee! Mommee! Big truaw! Dats a ree-wee big truaw!”

When we pass the trucks or they pass us: “Wait! Wait big truaw! Where u goin? Where u going big truaw?” or “Wait for Nate big truaw!”

The way his says his colours: bue (blue), mink (pink), purrpal (purple), oran (orange), red, ellow (yellow), bwack (black), white, green

 Whenever he sees a police car: “Chase! Chase! Mommee/Daddee Chase!” Thanks for that Paw Patrol

Listening to him count: “one, tee-u (two), free (three), four, fi (five), sick (six), sefen (seven), eight, nine, ten

When you ask him if he wants something: “Yeah, yeah, ya do” or “yeah, yeah, I do”

How he says his own name: “I Natey” or if you’re pointing to him in a picture “Dats Natey”

The way he refers to other kids: boi (boy) or gill (girl)

The way he says the cats names: Arwee (Ari), Sella (Stella), Miwhoa (Milo)

The way he says my parents dogs names: Ucker (Tucker), Win-ee (Winnie)

How he says his grandparents/aunts names: Bopa (my dad, his grandpa) Gampa (still my dad but he only says this when we ask him to say grandpa), Gamma (my step-mom, his grandma), Nan-Na (my mom or Kurt’s mom, his nanas), Paw-Paw (my step-dad or Kurt’s dad, his poppas), Aman-Na (my sister, his aunt Amanda), Meh (my step-sister, his aunt Megan)

If you’re leaving the room and he doesn’t know where you’re going: “Mommee, Mommee, where u goin? Where u goin Mommee”

If someone has left the room and he’s just noticed: “Hey?! Where mah Daddee go?”

When you ask him where his Daddy is: “Daddee go run” “Daddee go wer” (work), “Daddee gol-fff” (golf)

When you ask him to say I love you: “I wuv ew”

When you tell him to say hi to the baby he always pulls my shirt up and says: “Hi boi! Hi bay-bee”

The sly smile he gives when he wants another treat and the way he says: “One mmm-orrrrrrrr?”

 

And these are just some random sayings that he says that I love

“I hurt”

“I ok”

Queen and Mayer (Lightening McQueen and Mader)

Pane (plane)

Geesish (Canadian geese)

Burr (bird)

“Natey go run”

“Natey go wa” (walk)

“No, no mor” (more)

“Hot dog? Noooo way!” (long story behind that one lol)

“Daddee-Mom” (how he used to refer to me)

“No, no, no, not dat one”

“DAT ONE!”

“Mommee I use bone?” (phone)

“Yuck! Dat’s derrtee” (dirty)

“On yer mar, get se, goooooo!” (one your marks, get set, go)

“Reary or not, heeere I come” (ready or not, here I come)

Buh-bye

“I stuck!”

“Riiiiiight heeeere”