Noah's Speech

Tonight I was putting all the kids' medical records in binders (we got copies of each of their records' earlier for a couple various other reasons) and so as I was putting them in binders happened to glance at a couple of pages.  I read a few of Noah's pages from 2 years old until about 3 years and there were comments about concerns for his speech, doctors saying that they didn't understand most of what he was saying.  It just so happens that today at speech he had a re-evaluation done and his speech therapist was SO excited!  At the beginning of speech here his evaluation had him at a "severe unintelligible" diagnosis and today he had a "mild unintelligible" diagnosis!  He has made so much progress in the past 6 months and has really worked so hard.  We are very proud of him and how he's worked to improve.  Right now, he isn't even getting "homework" because he is self-correcting and his speech therapist thinks for the moment it is more beneficial to focus our positive praise on that, as it will help him generalize the rules and techniques he is learning in speech.  We are so proud of  him! 
Another note of just how much he's growing, before going into speech today he had been playing with some of the toys in the waiting room, before he went back with his speech therapist he said "just a minute I need to put my toys away."  Such a good helper and definitely showing signs of maturity.  He also was a big helper for Addy's appointment.  She has begun to have some separation anxiety (very typical for the age, huh?) and wasn't happy to go back to work on her speech.  Noah stayed and helped her cheer up by helping to blow and pop bubbles and play ball with her while she began her work and then walked out to the waiting so nicely.  There are also many other kids at therapy (the clinic has OT, PT, Speech, etc.) and a boy about Noah's age comes in between the appointments we have with a walker.  Noah was asking the boy what his name was and talking about the cool "Cars" stickers on the walker.  It is amazing and so great to me that Noah never really seems to see "kids with disabilities" rather, he sees potential friends.  He doesn't mind that someone is different; I'm sure we'll have moments of awkward things said and explanations eventually but for now I'm celebrating this and we're doing all we can to continue to encourage this compassion in him.  Even at SAMs this past weekend he saw a boy who is in his Sunday school class and waved hello and told me "that's my friend from church," even though this boy isn't able to communicate with words or signs and can't play like the other kids during Sunday school - Noah still saw him and simply saw a friend.  (As a side note, Mike & I truly feel that this is one of the greatest gifts that Addison has given our family, a different view from early on that there can be major differences, yet we're all just kids and people who need a friend).