It's All Relative

My son has nodules on his vocal cords. His voice is kind of different -- scratchy, I guess you'd say. Rough. Sort of like he's had a cold that he's just getting over. He can't get much volume, so is difficult to hear sometimes. We've been teaching him sign language since we discovered the problem. He'll be gifted with two methods of communication.

I am good at understanding him, but every now and then he will stump me on a word. This morning he came up to me and said, "I door."

"You're a door?" We are in the habit it repeating things to acknowledge that we have understood him correctly and he's very patient as he waits until we get it.

He looked into my eyes and repeated with a slight variation, "I daar..."

Still no clue. "You draw?"

He looked at me for a second and his eyes rolled upward to gaze at the ceiling, thinking. Looking at me again he made the sign for girl, waiting to see if I'd understand.

"You're a girl?"

He grinned really big and said, "Yeah, and you're a BOY!"

Three surgeries later there is little improvement in the quality of his voice, but he has finally learned to compensate and hits notes that make sound come out. I've become accustomed to it, although when I hear other children I find myself alarmed at how loud they seem.

Thursday we took him to his first swimming lesson. He said something to the teacher who looked at him funny, blinked and then looked at us. She said, "He has asthma, huh?" I explained that he always sounds like that. "Oh," was all she said. It's funny, because I'm so used to how he sounds I don't think much of it until people remark on it.

We're out enough now, and he talks enough in public that I wonder what it's going to mean for him. Once a little girl asked what was wrong with his voice and I just told her he had a sore throat. She was little enough she wouldn't understand a real explanation.

I wonder if kids will tease him. I hope not, but he's HUGE for his age and I have a feeling he'll continue to be, so if we teach him the right values and the ways we know to take care of himself at least he can kick all their asses.

Ha!