My daughter was nonverbal until she was 4. She would occasionally make sounds similar to words. One day I was home from work on lunch break, I worked 5 minutes away and would come home for lunch to save money.
I was leaving to head back to work, kissed my wife and then my daughter who was sitting in a high chair also having lunch. I told her "bye, I love you!".
She replied with a crystal clear perfect "I love you" back.
The reaction from my wife and I was similar to this mom. Hearing her speak at all, let alone telling me she loves me, is one of my strongest memories now. I remember it often and this video brought back all the emotions.
Thank you for asking. She is 9 now. The "I love you" moment happened shortly before we finally got her into a speech and occupational therapist who worked with her for 2 years.
She's still behind a bit but is so amazing. She's in 3rd grade, and although still requires assistance and is slower than her classmates, she's reading at the proper level and doing pretty well in most academic areas. She still struggles in some areas, and definitely with some non-academic things.
She's so awesome. Last Friday she had surgery on both eyes, to correct what is called a strabismus. Watching her be so scared but so brave was awe inspiring. She understands the world in her own way. She expresses herself in her own way. And I am so damn privileged to be her dad.
She has an older sister (14) who is equally as amazing. She is not on the spectrum, but her empathy with her sister and others in the world is awesome to watch. They've never fought. They don't argue and bicker. She is so patient and understanding and caring.
I sort of went on a tangent there...I apologize. Thank you for taking the time to ask!
Thanks! She was prescribed glasses in the hopes they could correct it without surgery. The problem became twofold in that 1.) after a few years she'd still have her eye move inward sometimes and 2.) the lenses were actually so strong it made her vision worse.
Her new glasses are barely a prescription anymore. Just a minor...ugh...I always mix this up so whichever "sightedness" means she needs help seeing far away...correction now. She doesn't even need glasses 24/7.
The doctor said theres a 20% chance another surgery will be needed later, but her follow-up yesterday was that she's healing very well and everything is looking very positive.
As a minor nearsighted person myself (I'm talking 1.5 and 1), the world changes so much with glasses! I didn't know everything looked so sharp and thought cameras had that "enhance!" Feature you always saw in movies.
I only ever wear them outdoors, though, or if im watching tv from across the room. Anything else, and it's too close to affect my vision.
When you take her on vacations, be sure to pack an extra pair of glasses, nothing more disappointing than not being able to truly see the sights because you forgot/broke your glasses!
Thanks! She's worn glasses since she was 4 so she's pretty used to them, and mom wears glasses too! The ones she had before the surgery were very strong, as it was for correcting her strabismus. When she originally was tested for all of that, she was still not verbal so determining how her actual vision was doing was a challenge.
But now, at 9, we had to go the surgery route to fix the strabismus. But the side-effect of that is being able to get her new glasses with a proper script that doesn't have to be super strong to correct the strabismus!
We had her first follow-up post-surgery on Wednesday, and she's healing perfectly and with her proper glasses now she had a definite improvement in her far-sightedness and was reading smaller letters than she did prior to surgery with the old glasses.
You literally have me tearing up. Those girls are so lucky. Missing my dad something serious rn, almost 10 years without him and it still breaks my heart everyday.
Thank you for the kind words. I lost my dad when I was 19. When the last anniversary of his passing, uh, passed, (about a month after my birthday) I started the part of my life where I've now been alive for longer without him than I was with him.
It's hard, and I understand where you're at. I hope the tears were happy tears, and I promise that although the wound will still be painful from time to time that you're strong enough to persevere. <3
I love it when parents brag about how amazing and kind and empathetic their kids are. Like, bragging about accomplishments is great, and parents should be proud of those things too, but when a parent is bragging about who their kids are as a person, you know that kid is so lucky to have adults that see them as whole humans and not just an extension of themselves.
I grew up in a pretty chaotic household and my dad died very young (I was 6, he was 34). My step dad came into the picture a few years later and we were never close.
I'm 42 now and I've worked through it, so I'm ok, but on behalf of me and kids like me thanks for being a champion for yours. It's really encouraging to see men out there stepping up and they'll love you forever for it.
<3 I'm sorry for your loss. Not as young, but I lost my dad when I was barely 19. He was 41. After he passed, my mom and siblings moved away and I was on my own (until I got with my wife, together 19 years last October) and it took me a long time to work through some things, myself.
I am happy to hear you are doing better and I truly do appreciate the kind words. I don't do it for accolades, but it is heartwarming to be seen for it, for lack of a better word. I just try my best and hope it's enough. Be well, brother.
I’m glad you saw it man! Never let your kids forget how much they matter. I’m not worried you won’t but you give me so much hope in how much you love them.
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u/mistiry 16d ago
My daughter was nonverbal until she was 4. She would occasionally make sounds similar to words. One day I was home from work on lunch break, I worked 5 minutes away and would come home for lunch to save money.
I was leaving to head back to work, kissed my wife and then my daughter who was sitting in a high chair also having lunch. I told her "bye, I love you!".
She replied with a crystal clear perfect "I love you" back.
The reaction from my wife and I was similar to this mom. Hearing her speak at all, let alone telling me she loves me, is one of my strongest memories now. I remember it often and this video brought back all the emotions.