At Penelope's 15 and 18 month doctor appointments, her doctor expressed concern that she hadn't yet started walking or talking. She started walking pretty soon after that, but still hasn't started to talk - other than a very sporadic and kinda imperceptible "poo poo" or "Mama" or "bye bye" (seriously, her first word was poo). We haven't been worried about it - you know as well as we do that she's exceedingly social and vocal and happy, and we figure she'll come along when she wants to. But in order to follow doctor's orders and be responsible parents, I took her today for some testing. There were two early intervention counselors - one played with her and observed her motor skills, and the other talked with her and asked me questions about her language skills. That lasted for about an hour, and then the counselors went away to consult with each other and score her. They came back and said that for motor skills, she's at about a 16 month-old level, and an 11 month-old level for language skills. So, there is a mild developmental delay but not substantial enough to warrant therapy. Autism is not even a remote concern. They doted on her a ton, and said she's "beautifully social," and were generally unconcerned. She did NOT pass the hearing test they administered, but the nurse said that's likely only because she has a cold right now. They will run another hearing test in a couple of weeks to be sure, but they aren't really concerned with her hearing (neither am I, and probably neither are any of you). The red flag that was raised is this: while they were engaged with Penelope, both of them on the floor at her level and playing with her, she spaced out. Even when they said her name a couple of times, she didn't check back in for 5-10 seconds. I have been aware of instances like this (stares or weird eye movements), and have been mildly worried about them. They said it's possible she's having tiny seizures. And obviously, that could be a big concern. We'll be keeping a log of whenever she has moments like those (and I'd like to hear from you if any of you notice something like this). If it turns out to be a common occurrence then she'll need an EEG and further medical attention. So, our homework is to keep that log, and to make sure she gets more concentrated alone time with me to work on her language skills. My hope and prayer is that I'll have clarity enough to discern mommy hypersensitivity from signs and symptoms that could actually be worrisome. That's about it for now.