We made Steffan practice using his talking valve today. He wasn’t super excited about it  at first but did whisper his first word - SPUTUM! I can’t make this up people. It was when he nurse asked him if he wanted her to suction out the sputum from his trach, and he repeated the word sputum to her. We exploded with happiness and then he decided to zip it. He can only handle the speaking valve for short periods of time, so we’ll try again tmrw.