My boy of few words

Aside from the crazy ups and downs on our journey with Caleb over the past month or so, we've entered into a really difficult phase with our little guy. A couple months ago, when he was first diagnosed with a speech delay, he had about a 12 month gap between his expressive speech and his receptive speech. He initially had about 6-8 words (as opposed to the 50-250 he should have). 3 months into speech therapy, he's up to about 10-12 words he uses consistently and 4-5 signs. He doesn't use any two word phrases. He will very rarely imitate words without being significantly coaxed. He's developed this not-so-cute little habit of "shooshing" anyone (including his speech therapist!) who asks him to repeat something. While I have continued to tell myself that he is going to catch up eventually and try really hard to not allow myself to compare him to other little boys, it's been a very slow and frustrating process. More than anything I want him to be able to tell me what he wants, what he's upset about, what he likes and on and on. 

The biggest battle we're dealing with right now is that since he has so few words to tell us when he's frustrated, he hits. And if you tell him not to hit, the smart little bugger kicks or throws, or pinches. I'll be honest, I'm really, really tired of it. It feels ridiculous to have to continually remind myself that HE'S the 2 year old and I'M the mom! It doesn't set a very good example for the mom to stomp her feet and throw a hissy along with the 2 year old!  We're pretty much at a loss as to how to handle him right now. Nothing that we've tried is making any difference. So, this weekend along with school projects and Christmas decorating, I'm going to be pulling out all of my parenting books and doing some research  for some new or creative ways to approach this little situation! And, in the meantime, I'll be enjoying as many glasses of mommy-juice as my diet allows!