Al's Section

Welcome to my section. I'm the quiet one in the middle. Gavin and CK like to go in front of the camera and dance or make funny faces, but that's not my thing. Where did this shyness come from? I'll let my mom explain. Yes, that mom.

Amazingly, my first words were not, "Yeah, about this shirt...are you serious? And we can't afford some scissors?"

From my mom...

I'm Al's mom. If there was ever a perfect baby, it was Al, except for one thing. He couldn't or wouldn't talk. By the age of 1 when most babies can say "mama" or "dada", Al couldn't say anything. All he ever did was point to objects. Another strange thing was that he liked to sit on the floor and play with shampoo bottle caps. We collected them for him and he would take the caps off the bottles, mess them up, and then put them back on the bottles. He did this for hours. At the age of 1½ and still no words, we took him to RI Hospital for testing. He had no problems with hearing. We then took him to specialists who tested him and they agreed he had an IQ of a 4-year old and he was only 1½ so we knew he was smart, he just wouldn't talk. Our pediatrician tested him for autism and he was fine. We decided to go to speech therapy at RI Hospital twice a week. We did this for two years and they still couldn't get him to talk.

Now he's four years old (I'm not kidding) and still hasn't spoken. He does have an older sister, Stephanie, who would tell us whenever Al wanted something. One night, Steph and Al were in the bathroom brushing their teeth before going to bed. I explained to Al the correct way to brush his teeth. He then looked up at me with those big brown eyes and long blond hair, put his hands on his hips and said, "G-d dammit mommy, you make me so mad"! I was so ecstatic and started hugging him and crying. Steph was upset because he had said a swear word. I didn't care because he had finally spoken. To this day, he still doesn't talk much but when he does he's really funny!

Immediately after my first words...big weight off my shoulders.