Sunday, August 31, 2014

Blessings at the Beach

Hubster and I took the kiddos to the beach a few weeks ago.  I admit, I was not super excited about it, as Kiddo is kind of anti-water.  As in, will freak out if water gets in his face, and will cling to you with a kung-fu grip if he's in more than a few inches of water.  Plus, Little Brother gets into everything and has a love for running off wherever his heart fancies, and so I was anticipating an exhausting trip for us.

It was not.  If anything, it was the most refreshing, blessed time Hubster and I have experienced in a while.  We have never seen Kiddo so excited or expressive about anything before.  We'd ask him, "Where are we going?" and he'd exclaim "Da bea!" and do what I call his happy dance.  Or we'd tell him we're going to the pool, and he'd exclaim "Da poo!" and do his made up moves for what he thought swimming looked like.  Never have we heard him so expressive, so vocal, so excited.  I've called him stoic for years.  Not anymore.

And that's just the beginning of the blessings folks.  The Kiddo LOVED the water!  He wanted to swim.  He wanted to go into the ocean and didn't want to get out.  He got water in his face, and though at the beginning of our trip he freaked out a little bit and demanded a "towa" (towel) we'd tell him "no, just wipe it off with your hand", and he would.  Towards the end of our trip, he would wipe it off without us telling him anything, or ignore the water in his face completely.  MAJOR VICTORY!!

He started our pool times by clinging tightly to one of us, or content to play on the top step or two, but slowly he got braver.  We let him float on a boat raft for a while, and he really enjoyed that.  We introduced a kickboard to him, which he liked, but we had to hold tightly to it since he doesn't have the core strength to stay on it without our support.  And we graduated to the swimmies on his arms, which he was so proud of, and by the last night of our beach vacation, was able to keep himself completely upright and (as you can see in the picture below, top right) content to not have Mommy and Daddy so close by.  Again, major victories. :)


And, as if that wasn't awesome enough, Kiddo started JUMPING into the water, trusting Daddy to catch him.  Yeah.  Pure awesomeness.



Little Brother had a lot of fun splashing in the water too, and he added a few new words, the most common being "airplane".  We celebrated his b-day at the beach (pics to come in another post), with my parents, who joined us for a few days, and it was a great time for all.

Swimming with Mommy and Grandma, flying kites with Grandpa and Daddy, and other beach fun.

Hubster and I just soaked in all the progress we saw in Kiddo.  Our hearts were filled with a joy we haven't experienced in a while, seeing the joy, the excitement, the fun the children were having.  It really felt like God was smiling on us, showing us His love for us, for our children, and how everything is going to be ok.  All the hard work we're doing, and will continue to do to get Kiddo talking and communicating and climbing and all that other important stuff, is paying off and we are seeing fruit.  Beautiful, sweet apples of gold.
Had to get a selfie with both my blessings. :)


I am so blessed.  Filled with hope for Kiddos' future.  In awe of God's awesomeness.  And excited that I can share it with you here on the blog.  I hope I never forget how awesome the week really was. :)

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Speech Progress Report

Kiddo is in a speech surge!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE these!  I don't even know if it's a real term or not, but I've made it into one, because seriously, it's like he plateaus or makes painfully slow progress on his speech for sooo long, and then all at once, for a few weeks, new sounds, new words just flow out of his mouth.  But the big thing is, he's speaking in phrases now!  Wahooo!!

Here's some of his most common phrases:

  • Baby cry (he calls Little Brother Baby)
  • Daddy work
  • kick/throw ball
  • big burp (thanks for letting everyone know that Kiddo)
  • big boom
  • I need help
  • I want ____
  • Go potty
  • Wake up
  • Mommy book 
  • All clean
  • Brush teeth
  • Baby don't touch!
  • No Baby!
  • I'm four
  • Play Lego
  • Play game
  • Eat apple (his new fav fruit, and he says the "p" in apple now, I'm so proud.  Before it was "ah-oh")
  • open door (he now puts the "p" in open.  Before it was "oh-eh"  Consonants are good!)  

And some of his newest words:
  • Bible
  • star
  • brush
  • shorts
  • hiccup
  • puppy (he is mastering these "p" words! Wahoo!)

Now, I haven't included the pronunciation for most of these words, because sometimes they change based on if it's a word said alone or if it's in a phrase and based on where it's at in a phrase. I still have to translate for him a lot to others.  Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out what he's saying and I have to rely on context, and him using sign language.  But we're making progress folks!  We're even having conversations!  Here's a few conversations we've had this week:


Kiddo: (Burps for a loooong time)  Big burp!
Me: Yes, it was a big burp.  What do you say?
Kiddo: Thank you.
Me: (trying not to laugh) No, what do you say after you burp?
Kiddo: Excuse me.  Big burp.


While eating some Nilla Wafers, Kiddo and I were looking at the back of the box, which were covered with those cute little minions from Despicable Me.  
Kiddo: (Pointing) One eye!
Me: Yes, he does have one eye.  Some of them have one eye and some have two.
Kiddo: (Proceeds to tell me 'one eye...boo (two) eye..." for EVERY SINGLE ONE.  Seriously, this takes a minute or boo two.)
Me: Good.  Ok, how many eyes does Mommy have?
Kiddo: (looks at me) Two eye.  
Me: How many eyes does Little Brother have?
Kiddo.  Two eye.
Me: How many eyes do YOU have?
Kiddo: (Pauses then puts one of the Nilla Wafers in between his eyes)  One eye!

Haha, I had no idea this kid was so darn funny!

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Little Brother's words are coming too!  He will be turning two later on this week, I can't believe it!  He had only two words (go and da da for all done) for the loooongest time, and so we got him evaluated for speech by our beloved Ms. Blessing and she has been working with both kiddos once or twice a month.  She's amazing, seriously.  Anyway, within no time of her working her magic, Little Brother was making the noises of animals and slowly adding new words.  He no longer qualifies for speech therapy anymore, as he's made so much progress and now his speech is within the normal range for typical development, yippee!

Now, I'd guess he has about 50 words, plus his animal sounds, which I've read is the magic number before they start putting them into phrases.  Here's some of his most common words and their current pronunciations:

Goka = cracker.  His all time favorite snack.
Tizza = pizza.  His all time favorite food.  Hubster and I have to spell it because he seriously hears that word from wherever he is and runs to the oven looking for it.  If I drive past a Little Caesar's or Pizza Hut and he spots it, he'll let me know.
Baba = banana.  His all time favorite fruit.  He asks for this the second we go to get him in the morning, as he always has a banana for breakfast.  Well, good morning to you too, kid.
Go go go! = anytime we are going to go anywhere.
Teetee = TV.  He asks for this ALLL the time.  He hears no a lot.  
Dee = drink
Da da = all done
Mo = more
Hep = help
Tuck = stuck
Opeh = open
Pwee = please
Kookoo = thank you
Deedee = outside   This sounds remarkably to me like drink and TV and since he's realized I assume he's asking for a drink or TV first he's learned to just go to the door when he says it
Mama
Dada
Ball
Up
No.  Or oftentimes No no no!
Boo = book
Bubba = bubbles
Gapa = Grandpa
Gaba = Grandma
Poopoo yuck!  = no translation needed.  His only phrase so far.
Puhpuh = potty.  Hmm, I'm wondering if this kid is going to be potty training soon.

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I know there's a lot more I'm forgetting, but man oh man, I am cherishing all these sweet apples of gold!   I plan on recording and posting speech videos of both of them sometime soon.  I keep meaning too.  Eventually I'll get around to it. ;)