Milestones...

The only physical milestone Joey didn't reach by 12 months old was walking. He held his own bottle early, he sat up unsupported early, waved at the typical age, and started using a sippy cup around 8 1/2 months. Crawling and pulling himself up into a standing position were a piece of cake.
But the only words Joey ever really spoke, which was rarely, were "kawoo" (kangaroo) and "tank oo" (Thank you). As a matter of fact, "thank you" were his first words ever. He was using these at 10-12 months. Of course my fears were amplified by the fact that he never called us "Mama" or "Dada". He would smile, laugh, and even giggle a lot. But the words just weren't coming out.
He took his first unsupported steps at 13 3/4 months. A little late, but we always joked that if he had stopped trying to run and would have just taken it slow, he would have walked earlier. At this point, he became officially unstoppable. He had figured out the baby gate and the baby-proofing devices before he could even walk. Once he started walking, he didn't stop. It was like watching a tennis match...only the ball was shrieking 8-9 hours per day. You read correctly: Joey would scream an average of 8-9 hrs during the day, almost everyday. I only know this because his pediatrician asked me to keep a journal of every screaming fit he had for a week, and to calculate the amount of time he was doing so. Those 8-9 hours don't count when he'd awaken in the middle of the night shrieking.
I noticed at family gatherings or at the store or anywhere that had crowds, fluorescent lighting, or lots of visual stimuli, that Joey would get VERY active and VERY irritable. Hyperactive doesn't even begin to describe what my baby was experiencing. He would go from happy to mad at the entire world within a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds. As a frustrated parent, I often blamed myself, and wondered what exactly I was doing wrong.
I know babies/toddlers are supposed to be active, but I felt like my little guy had a compulsion...a need to constantly be on the go. And it was at about 16 months old that someone other than myself finally noticed this constant need for movement and his lack of language skills. And so my quest for an answer, an understanding, or just plain affirmation began...