I am not as frustrated with my child today. Something about good sleep helps. There's nothing like good sleep and good friends (and one crazy brother) that help a mother feel like she may have things more under control that she feels.

Thanks for all your thoughts & suggestions. It seems that I've tried most suggestions - at one point or another - and the main thing we need to do is just be consistent & long-suffering. I'll let you know how it goes.

We went to speech therapy today (getting there is another story for another time), for an evaluation, and as it turns out, the speech language pathologist's exact words were, "Melissa, I just don't see that he needs therapy. He's right on target, if not a bit advanced for his age + how long he has been home with you. If he turns three, and perfect strangers can't understand at least 50% of what he's saying, then bring him back. For now, keep doing what you're doing."

Those were good words to hear.

And you wanna know the number one reason that I decided to let go of my frustrations with the little guy? He slept for 12 hours, TWO nights in a row...hence allowing us to get full nights of rest. See below for evidence of how well HE slept!

These pictures were taken upon waking this morning: