Say Your Right Words

     Every time Skeletor gets upset and yells that he can't find his words, I think of a scene from the movie "Labyrinth."  You know the one.  A bunch of freaky, little goblin muppets are hiding in Sarah's closet during a thunder storm, waiting on her to say the words that will summon the Goblin King.  (I may have seen this movie once or twice.)  And then they say the line that always pops into my head in these situations, "Say your right words!"  I can't help it.  I'm a child of the 80's.

Pictured: My childhood.

     But here lately, I would love it if Skeletor would just say any words.  My child is verbal, and I know that not everyone is lucky in that sense.  He does have speech problems that he works on with his awesome speech therapist at school.  But he has never been completely nonverbal.  Until about a month ago.  At first, it only happened once or twice, and only when he was having one of his meltdowns.  Then it slowly progressed to the point that at least 50 percent of his communication is done via hand gestures or miming.  (I have never liked mime.)  I know that this is something that should be discouraged, and I do my best to do so.  But sometimes, after a really rough day, when Skeletor is in one of his really rough moods...I cave.  Instead of insisting that he use his words, I just go with it and attempt to understand what he wants.  It's like playing the worst game of charades ever.  Except if you guess wrong, you run the risk of getting whacked in the head with an errant remote control (or coffee table.  The kid's strong!)  And even if you guess correctly, your only prize is the all-encompassing mommy guilt that comes from taking the easy way out.  Blergh.  I was going to try to come up with a tidy, little ending to this post.  But, no.  Pretty sure 'blergh' sums it up nicely.  So...yeah.  Bye?