Ella spoke at a very young age. And we had a lot of fun trying to get her to say new things, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t have very many videos of her talking because, like most kids, she would get fascinated with trying to grab the camera or looking at the camera and would stop doing whatever she was doing before the camera came out.
Also, in a busy house with 3 young kids, I didn’t take a lot of time to video things. Obviously if I’d known what she was going to loose, I would have had the camera out a lot more. So that I could have more of those precious words to hear.
Our son, Will, is holding her in this video, as it was taken December 6th, 2009 and she was only 4 months old.
This video is a little hard for me to watch. I love it. It makes me smile. But it is a little hard to watch too. Because it is “before”. It is before her severe allergic vaccine reaction that took away her speech in a matter of minutes, and what ended in an autism diagnosis. I can’t help but see how she’s just a typical happy little 4 month old baby here. She makes eye contact with me throughout the video. She makes lots of sounds. She attempts to say her own name, and “Hi”.
I wish so much that she would regularly attempt to say something for me now when I asked, like she did in this video. So, yeah, it’s a little hard to watch.
But, the reason I wanted to share this, is because I’ve noticed that her new returning speech, is much like her beginning speech when she was just a few months old. Although she was much more verbal at 4 months old than she is now, her new “Hi”, sounds a great deal like her “Hi” as an infant.
Since I uploaded the current video of her saying “Hi”, I thought I’d upload this older one, too.
In it, she is trying to copy what I am saying. It’s not her best, but it’s pretty darn cute – if I do say so myself. It’s not like I’m biased or anything. 
I think the fact that her new sounds, are starting to remind me a little of her old sounds, is a very good thing. And I hope it is just the start of much more to come.
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oh sweet baby! i can so relate to the bittersweet of watching old videos. i also have early videos where my baby had language – my husband was deployed to Iraq for the first year of her life so i took LOTS of video.
i’m so happy to read and hear that Ella’s got her “Hi” back! more to come, mama. more to come.