The King's Speech

Learning code words during speech class at school

I liken my speech therapy sessions to the movie "The King's Speech." I think Talia and I have a Colin Firth-Geoffrey Rush thing going on where she is coaching me, as King of my domain, to dazzle audiences with memorable and meaningful orations (video at the end of this post). I hope that when I do someday become famous for my speeches that someone remembers Talia and how she started me on the path to the great oratory heights to which I intend to rise. And then that they make a movie out of it!

Of course, if my first full sentence is "I'm going to suck these cheeks off!" - that also should be credited to Talia because each class usually erodes into a series of squealing expressions such as that, followed by an abundance of kisses, another word I've mastered if simply by the fact that "kiss" is the most frequent verb or noun I hear in relation to my cheeks.

Thus my speech therapy sessions transpire during my school days at Shalva.

First, positive reinforcement
regarding my cheeks

Second, the requisite squeeze 

Third, I shower Talia with kisses while
staring at myself in the mirror

Speech therapy somehow also involves games like basketball.
Isn't that just Linsane? We don't discuss the NBA, me being
a NYer by default and her being a dedicated Lakers fan. 

One of my most recently acquired words is "Lucas." No, I don't say it, but I know who he is. Thankfully, Lucas is Lucas in any language. Other words are a bit more confusing. For example, I have no idea what you mean when you say to put my "hands" on my "head." But if you start to say "yadayim" my hands immediately rise to my "rosh." I can say "more" (od) in Hebrew, but "up" in English. My language is a bit of a potpourri right now.

This, however, is an asset for a double agent - mommy and abba don't know just how many words I really do know. I've compartmentalized my languages so that I operate under different covers in different settings. Very tricky and a fantastic baby ploy for duplicitous bilingual babies such as myself!

Despite being in a room full of toys, I managed to find Lucas
when asked, "Where's Lucas?"

And then I nearly jumped into the car seat with him!
Why not? We're brothers after all. We share.

UPDATE ON TEAM SHALVA

With just three donations, we exceeded our fund raising goal! That is just A-mazing! If you like what you read here, consider supporting Shalva and enabling people like Talia to enable people like me to succeed in giving great speeches and, subsequently, Oscar-winning movies about us. Click here to go to the Team Shalva page. For more information on what crazy things we are doing, see this post: One Year.

And here is me practicing my speech at a time when I should've been sleeping:

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