Babbling

I just thought I'd post an update about Kevin's speech.  He's been in speech therapy for a little over 3 weeks now.  He is making more sounds.  I've especially noticed an improvement in his vowels.  Also, he will say words with two syllables.  Examples:  bo-bo, wah-wah (water), Weh-Wuh (Sarah), Doh-uh (Dora), etc.  Also, he's begun to babble.  This is probably along the lines of what a 9 or 10 month old would do.  But, somehow it seems that Kevin kind of passed over that stage.  As soon as he started trying to talk, he'd say one syllable sounds.  Up to 3 weeks ago, those sounds were limited exclusively to "Bah, Dah, Wah, and Lah."  

This is a video of Kevin babbling happily.  That is, until a spoon accidentally gets dropped on his head!  My poor baby!  However, you can tell by the video that he is making marked improvement in his speech.  If you're curious, you can look back at the February 21st post entitled, "Trying to Get Appointments."  Although he still says his favorite 4 syllables often, we're hearing a bigger variety of words now.

Bath time

I am dedicating this post to two types of people:
1.  Childless people
2.  People whose children are now grown

If you fall into the first category, this is to give you a realistic idea of what life is like with kids.  Children are a wonderful, priceless gift from God, and we love them with a love deeper than you imagine is even possible.  HOWEVER, it's not all about ribbons and bows, deciding on what diaper bag is cuter, or watching a child take his first steps.

If you're in the second category, this may take you down Memory Lane.  (minus the technological parts, of course.)  While reading this, please let it stir up your compassion for those of us who are currently raising small children.  Please understand why we may often be late for things, consider that Spaghetti-Oh's may actually have a serving of vegetables, and have a drool spot on our shoulder.

So let's get to the point.  I'm going to describe how I managed to take a bath tonight, WHILE my kids were still awake, as opposed to after their bedtime.

First of all, I decided to let them watch a show to keep them calm.  Good idea, right?  I picked a "Go, Diego, Go!" episode on YouTube.  It was in Spanish, which I figured would be considered educational at the same time.  After putting in on, I quickly hopped into the bath.

Well, Sarah promptly fell out of her chair and came crying into the bathtub.  She was not injured in the least, in my opinion.  Whatever my opinion, however, I had to halfway get out of the tub in order to kiss the offended body part.  I settled back down to my bath.

Next, Kevin turned up the volume of the show to 100 percent.  When this happened, I'm sure even our neighbors could hear Diego rescuing the dolphin!  At this point, both kids came crying into the bathroom with their hands over their ears.  Even though they both know how to turn down the volume, they refused since it hurt their ears to go into the living room. So I got out of the tub and wrapped up in a towel.  I traipsed across the house, leaving wet footprint marks over the floor that JUST GOT MOPPED this afternoon!  I turned the volume back to normal.  Back in the tub.

Less than 5 minutes later, both kids ran in upset again.  This time, Kevin had pushed the button on the wireless router, effectively turning off the internet.  Thus, no Diego.

This ended my bath.  I got out and got dressed.  Then I quickly wiped both kids down head to toe with a soapy towel and called that a bath, brushed their teeth, and put on their pajamas.  I chose a book to read to them that had a total of about 10 pages.  Then, night-night for them.

Whew!

This may help explain why we mothers of small children always wear our hair in ponytails.  We simply can't figure out how to get it washed!

Good night, everyone!

Stereotypical child behavior:  Sarah playing her baby doll and Kevin thrilled to find a bug!

a minute in the life of a 2 year old

And just for fun:

I just decided to turn on my camera and record Kevin for one minute.  This is just typical behavior of a 2 year old.  Nothing fancy or unusual.  You can see his little brain trying to think of interesting things to do.  Notice his Dora and Boots toys, as well as his Diego shoes.  He's completely hooked on those characters!

Messy habits

My children have developed 2 very messy habits these last few weeks.  The first is taking EVERY book off of their bookcases.  The second is taking EVERY toy out of their toybox.  Since we tend to accumulate both books and toys, this is a big problem.  I can't seem to make them stop doing this.  I try to get them to help pick things up afterwards.  They help to some degree.  But if you're a parent, you know how it is.  I plead and threaten until the kids until they start helping.  But, in the end, the bulk of the work falls upon me.  If I were to insist on them picking up all of the toys and books, it would take all day and would cause me even more frustration.  They do help somewhat, though.

Before having kids, I would have thought that a parent just "needs to teach their kids not to make such messes."  Also, I would have thought that the parent INSIST on the kids picking up every single toy.  Now that I'm a mother, I see things in a different light.  It's not easy to teach kids things.  They will do the same weird, silly, or disobedient thing 10 times before they finally obey once.  Also, sometimes parents just have to get things done, even if it involves jumping in there and doing it themselves.

On a different note, twice today, Kevin said the long "A" sound when practicing his vowels!  He'll be talking one day.  I just know it!

Sarah's room

Kevin's room

Chili Chili Chili

This afternoon, we had 29 people over for supper.  I was unsure of what to cook for so many people, and finally decided on chili.  (otherwise known as frito pie.)  It was very crowded--I and some others actually ate standing up.  Also, it was extremely loud.  There were at least 8 kids under the age of 12, at least 6 teenagers, and the rest were adults.  Even though it's a lot of work and some stress to have a houseful of company, I always really enjoy it.  When the kiddos got too loud, I mentioned the swingset.  You never saw kids run out of the door so quickly!  Sarah and Kevin always have the time of their lives when there are other kids to play with!

I cooked 10 pounds of ground beef, and then added the beans and tomatoes, etc. to that.  Well, it turns out that we had a fair amount of leftovers.  I sent some home with one of the families.  Tomorrow, I've invited my in-laws over for lunch so we can eat some of the leftovers with them.  Lots of fun!

Chili, anyone?

Pool fun

We went to a kindergarten graduation party/ pool party this afternoon.  There was a huge slide with a small pool at the bottom that had been rented especially for the occasion.  My kids were very hesitant at first and kept a good distance.    Then they tested the waters while getting out every five minutes or so.  Finally, get got right on in and made a glorious soaking, grimy mess of themselves!  You can see the progression in the photos. Lots of kids + lots of junk food + lots of water= lots of fun!

                               

     

                                          

Some improvement!

I just thought I'd post this video I took of Kevin practicing his speech therapy homework.  I'm showing him flashcards and he's attempting to say the words.  Considering that 2 1/2 weeks ago, all he said was "bah, dah, lah, and wah," I think we've seen nice improvement after just 5 sessions!  I'm so excited about this!

Yesterday, he stubbed his toe, and then came up to me.  He said, "Bo-Bo, toe!"  I was thrilled to hear him put two words together like that!  I think that his speech therapist must really know what she's doing.



In general, we're making more of an effort to expose Kevin to words.  I've started teaching him how to read some words.  I think just having more exposure to language in its various forms will be useful.




I'll try to keep taking videos and posting updates on his progress!

Language Development

Yesterday, Kevin had his fourth speech therapy session.  Already, we're seeing some small improvements in his speech.  For one thing, he is a little more vocal than before.  He goes around the house "singing" and tries to communicate with sounds instead of gestures.  He was doing these things before therapy started, but we're seeing an increase.

However, the biggest change so for is that he's already learned another vowel.  Until yesterday, he only would say one vowel sound--"AH."  The only times that he'd say another vowel was when saying the word "No."  Now, he's saying the "O" sound frequently.  Example:  This afternoon, while playing outside, he fell down, and came running to me saying "Boh Boh!"  Also, he has some shoes with Diego on them.  Until recently, he would have said, "DahDah" for Diego.  Today he said "DahDo."  These are just a few examples.   I know saying the letter "O" may seem like a small accomplishment, but we're pretty excited over here and praise Kevin often for his efforts.  I'm actually pretty surprised that we're seeing any improvement at all after only 4 sessions!  This is all going to be so good for my son!

As for Sarah, we've been working on trying to improve her Spanish lately.  While many of our friends are Hispanic and the kids hear Spanish spoken on several occasions during the week, we don't often speak it at home.  It's just so hard sometimes to keep up with everyday life with two kids that we honestly forget to speak in Spanish.  So, we're trying to incorporate Spanish just a little bit more at home.  What I've done a couple of times recently is keep a pocketful of change.  Anytime that Sarah speaks to me in Spanish she gets a penny or a nickle for her allowance savings.

The goal is that one day BOTH of our kids will be able to speak.  And hopefully, they'll be able to speak both English AND Spanish!  I'll guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all goes!

For some reason, I'm having trouble adding vidoes to this blog.  So I'm providing some links to some videos I uploaded today.  Enjoy!

Kevin after two weeks of speech therapy 

(Notice how he's gesturing when attempting the vowel sounds.  This is because the "turtle vowel" cards we've been using involve imitating gestures and sounds at the same time.)

Sarah learning Spanish

Sarah Learning Spanish 2

Gardening

This afternoon, we planted some flowers in front of our house and a few vegetable plants in pots in the back yard.  The kids were a huge help, as you can see from the pictures!

Kites!

Saturday was windy and slightly chilly.  We had a few free hours together as a family and wanted something interesting to do.  So we went to the Dollar Tree and bought a couple of kites.  Then headed out to the park.  I have to admit that the kites spent more time on the ground than they did in the air, but it was lots of fun!

Changing the subject:  Today Kevin had a speech therapy session.  The therapist gave us something to work on that's called "Turtle Vowels."  Basically, they're little construction paper turtles, each of which has a vowel on it.  We're supposed to say the vowel sound while positioning our arms like the turtle.  The goal is for Kevin to imitate us.  I'm not sure of the purpose of the arm movements.  Maybe it's just to make it more of a game.  The arm positions slightly resemble the shapes of the letters, though, so maybe they have a deeper meaning.  Whatever the case, the therapist told us that even though Kevin is not going to repeat the sounds correctly at this point, even just hearing the sounds and attempting to copy them is a good thing.  So here we go with speech games!

This section I'm just going to label:  "Good Times!"

Banana bread, anyone?

Yesterday, while I was picking up some items at the grocery store, I saw a huge box of bananas marked down to 99 cents. I truly do mean huge. There were probably 40 bananas in all. There was no way I could pass up that deal! The bananas were starting to turn splotchy, so I knew they'd be good for just a few days.

Well, we've been eating bananas a lot least last two days. I gave about half away to a variety of people. Then this afternoon, while Kevin took a nap, Sarah and I embarked on a banana bread project. We made tons of the stuff!

The kids love banana bread. I made it with lower sugar and applesauce instead of vegetable oil, so I figure it can't be too bad! After all, there are PLENTY of bananas in them!

Come and get 'em!

Shift Work

This morning, Adam took Kevin and Sarah to Kevin's second speech therapy session, while I stayed home and cleaned the house.  Then, when Adam came home, I took the kids to the store while Adam stayed home and got things done around the house.  Sometimes, the only way to get anything done is to do it in shifts like that.  Even so, there's always a to-do list a mile long, and some things just never get done, no matter how hard we try.  Oh, well.  At least our kids are happy and healthy.  That's what really matters, after all.

Kevin's therapist today mentioned to Adam that Kevin's attention span is exceptional for his age.  I hadn't realized that.  But I attribute it to the fact that we go to 2 weekly meetings a week, during which both of the kids are expected to sit in chairs and look at books.  Also, we read to the kids daily.  Maybe that helps.  Whatever the case, the therapist said that his attention span is going to be a real blessing for her, since it should make the sessions go smoothly!  It seems that after each session, the therapist tries to give us some words of encouragement.  I get the feeling that she's still trying to figure out exactly what Kevin's abilities are, before she embarks on a full-scale speech project.  I'm sure she's already working with him, though, and that all will go well!

We also found out today that one of Adam's cousins has apraxia of speech.  Apparently, as a child, he had speech therapy through 6th grade.  Now, though, you'd hardly know it.  He recently graduated from high school, is working, and is a very sociable young man.

I'm going to try to post a video of Kevin's current speech.  You can hear him trying to pronounce the "S" sound.  I'm going to try to take videos throughout this process.