Journey through 2014

Wow, hard to believe 2014 is almost over and we're ready to embrace 2015.  Last year I wrote a blog post, Oh the Difference a Year Makes, and it was a great experience for me, to remember how much Kiddo progressed, and the obstacles we faced in 2013.  At the beginning of 2013 he had three words, and by December he had about 300!  So, to see the journey of 2014 with it's victories and setbacks, I present:

2014 in review:

January:  Kiddo started preschool, which he loved.  He was FINALLY able to climb up those play places they have at McDonald, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, etc.  And, according to the speech videos I posted in January, he was using a few phrases, specifically his attempt at "excuse me" after burping and saying "Ready, set, go!"

February:  In February we had two setbacks and a huge victory.  Setback one: Our attempt at therapeutic riding was a bust, as Kiddo refused to get on the pony.  Kinda defeats the purpose of going to therapeutic riding if all you're going to do is feed and pet the pony and not, well, ride it.  Setback two: we attempted a gluten free diet, but something in the gluten free foods was causing him diarrhea and the pediatrician recommended we stop.  And the major victory?  Kiddo was potty trained in three days!!  I thought it was going to take longer than that, just because most skills take a long time to master with apraxia and I've read of apraxic children not being potty trained until 4 or 5, but at age 3 1/2 he was fully potty trained, (night time trained too!) in just three days.  Best victory ever.  :)

March: Both kiddos started to use more words.  And Kiddo was evaluated by a new occupational therapist, who turned out to be a major Godsend.  He has made so much progress working with her and she has been such a blessing to us.  

April: After going to several audiologists and ENTs in our area and not getting the answers I wanted regarding the pressure in Kiddo's middle ears, the increased frequency of ear infections, and whether or not he should be wearing his hearing aid, I took him to a well respected hearing clinic in the city an hour and a half away from us.  Finally got answers--tubes needed to go in pronto to relieve the pressure and to remove the fluid that had been causing the ear infections. Kiddo also started using three and even four word phrases.

May: Kiddo got his ear tubes in, and within no time we were noticing he was understanding more of what we were saying.  Yeah, uh better hearing helps with that.  We also learned that though he still has a severe hearing loss in his right ear, it was not recommended he wear his hearing aid anymore. Research indicates it's best to let the brain learn to compensate for the loss by relying on the good ear and not a hearing aid in the impaired ear.  We also celebrated the second annual Apraxia Awareness Day.

June: Kiddo turned four, whoo hoo!!!  And another setback, one I found devastating: we were supposed to go work with Jodi Kumar, awesome speech language pathologist at George Washington University Speech and Hearing Center.  She is the creator of CHAMP Camp, where we had taken Kiddo last summer and seen great results.  We had the hotel booked and everything, but Jodi had an accident while playing volleyball that required surgery the week she was supposed to work with Kiddo. I was glad to hear she was ok, but I was so disappointed that we wouldn't be working with her.  We went to the DC area anyway, to spend time with family for Kiddo's birthday and I made it a goal to work on those OT skills in play places and playgrounds while we were there. 

July: July was pretty relaxing as we had a lot less therapy appointments.  I went to CASANA, a conference for parents and speech therapists about working with kiddos with apraxia.  Learned a whole lot and got to meet some cool people, hang out with an apraxia mom friend I'd met at CHAMP Camp last summer, and I also got to meet Nancy Kaufman.  We also started Verbal Behavior Therapy, which I feel like Kiddo made LOTS of progress in, but that therapist was sadly only able to work with us for two months and we cannot find another one anywhere near us.

August: Little Brother turned two!  Both Kiddos made some progress with their speech: Little Brother was saying about 20 words, and Kiddo lots of two and three word phrases.  Kiddo was also participating in mini conversations, which always makes me smile.  We also went on an AMAZING family beach trip that was such a blessing to experience.

A selfie with both of my little blessings. :)

September: The new school year started, which meant more therapies through the school system.  We elected to not put Kiddo in a preschool this year, so that I could work with him myself, and we could use the money we were putting toward preschool toward the OT that we were seeing so much progress in instead.  But, this meant I had twice as many therapies to drive him too, and to chase Little Brother around their waiting rooms while Kiddo is in therapy, as opposed to just dropping him off at school where he got the therapies.  Life got real busy, real fast.

October: Little Brother was evaluated for speech and qualified for twice a month speech therapy through the county.   Kiddo had the privilege of working with the "Apraxia Queen" Nancy Kaufman and an awesome OT for four whole days at an apraxia intensive at the Kaufman Children's Center.  We both learned so much, and after the intensive Kiddo is now consistently saying 3 or 4 word phrases, and using final consonants on lots of words, whoo hoo! 

  

November: We experienced lots of slow and steady progress.

December: More slow and steady progress.  Kiddo's using verbs in his phrases now, like cry, work, clean, sleep, play, eat, and drink.  Some funny conversations.  A Christmas with my family, filled with excitement, in which the kiddos were able to tell us what they got.  Kiddo could read to us who the presents were to and who they were from.  He got a balance board to work on those gross motor skills and both kiddos got a ridiculous amount of other goodies to keep them plenty busy.



Honestly, sometimes I get overwhelmed with how far we still have to go.  Just a few days ago, I was crying to Hubster because Kiddo had only mastered four of the fifteen goals I set for him for this year.  The biggest one I had for him, 'Jumping', I want to see him do so badly, and we're not there yet.  But, he mastered the second goal I had for him, 'Potty Trained', in a record three days, whoo hoo!  He mastered my goal of him speaking in phrases, whoo hoo!  He now goes up and down slides like a champ, which wasn't even one of the goals I set for him, but is so awesome to see.  And while he hasn't mastered 11 goals, he's definitely made progress in them.  Hopefully we'll master them in 2015.

Ahh, see, perspective.  Gotta keep things in perspective, and that's what this blog does for me.  It reminds me that though the progress can be excruciatingly slow and the journey overwhelming and exhausting and expensive and full of worry, the progress is there and the journey worth continuing.  There are victories and blessings and joys and triumphs that we cherish because of the journey.  Kiddo's in a totally different place then he was last year.  So with a proper perspective I can truly say, yes, 2014 was a good year indeed.  And I can't wait to see what victories and progress are in store for us for 2015. 

Funny Conversations

It's finally happening.  The kiddos are talking enough that we can have fun/random conversations, and get a better glimpse of what they're thinking and wondering about.  Here's a few of the latest ones:

We saw a reindeer on TV.  Little Brother's eyes got wide, he wiggled in excitement, and then proudly declared it a "Goat!!!"  Haha, I guess it does kind of look like one, and when you consider there aren't lots of books with reindeer in it, yes, I guess goat makes sense. ;)

Little Brother was showing off, as he tends to do.

Me:  Are you cute?

Little Brother:  Cute.  Yeah!

Me: Are you modest?

Little Brother: Yeah.

After eating pizza for dinner, Kiddo squatted down and pointed at his toes.  

Kiddo: Pizza?  Yuck!

Me: What?  Did you get some pizza in-between your toes?

Kiddo: Yeah, yuck.  Pizza eat.  No toes.

Kiddo hurt his finger and came to me.

Kiddo: Boo boo. 

Me: Aww, you got a boo boo?  

Kiddo: Band-aid.

Me: Well, its just a little boo boo, you don't need a band-aid.

Kiddo with total indignation: Little boo boo?!?  

Kiddo: Computer?

Me: No, no computer right now.  Let's go outside and play.

Little Brother: Outside!  Yeah!

Kiddo: Then computer?

Haha, guess I have a little negotiator on my hands now.

And totally random, but Hubster has taught Kiddo to say "Dang it bro" when something bad happens.  Hilarious to hear Kiddo say.

Progress Report

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted.  Sorry.  I took the kiddos to our favorite playground today, and here's my fav pic of each of them to go along with their progress report.

Kiddo: Biggest progress with Kiddo's speech is he's using the final consonants on words, namely the letters s, t, p, k and ch.  So we're hearing words like "yes" instead of "yeah" and "hep" for help instead of "he", and "chuch" instead of "uh" for church, and I could go on and on, but it's awesome to hear him and be able to understand better what he's saying. :)

He's also been communicating a lot more, and has learned how to ask questions without using any question words by raising his voice at the end of his phrase to make it a question.  For example, sometimes when I tell the kiddos to "Get your shoes, we're going to go bye bye," he'll ask "Baba, Bapa?" which is his way of asking "Are we going to see Grandma and Grandpa?"  Speaking of Grandma and Grandpa, they introduced both kiddos to Hawaiian rolls on Thanksgiving. The kids loved them so much I bought some, and when Kiddo saw them he got so excited and called them "Baba Bapa row!"  He now calls them "pee butta row" since we put peanut butter on them.

Back to Kiddo asking questions: I had the kiddos in the shopping cart, as that is what I call them.  Everyone here in the south calls them buggies.  Anyway, both kiddos were in the shopping cart/buggy and this random guy came up to us, talking to us, and marveling about how well behaved they were sitting there in the buggy.  Kiddo looked up at me, turned his head, furrowed his eyebrows and asked "Buggy?"  Haha, so clear, no translation needed.  Guess maybe we should start calling it that, as he can say that much easier and clearer than shopping cart.

Kiddo's learned how to request his wants and needs without prompting anymore, which is absolutely awesome and a great relief to me and my sanity.  Instead of him coming to me and whining until I can figure out what he wants and prompt him to say it, he tells me what he wants, or will take me to the thing he wants if he doesn't know how to say it.  It is awesome.

He's learned to say the word clean, and he'll walk into a room I've just cleaned and declare "Mama clean?"  He says it with this incredulity to his voice that I try to not take it personally.  Yes, Kiddo, I do clean things.  Every day.

He'll just say things so matter-of-factly and it just makes me and Hubster laugh.  One time he was playing with my hair and I asked him "Where's Daddy's hair?" (expecting him to point at Daddy or something of that nature) and he immediately said "All gone."  (For the record, Hubster's hair is just cut very short.)  Another time he was labeling things he saw while we were reading a book.  Then he pointed at my mouth, said "mow" and then pointed at my nose "big no!"  I'm hoping he means in comparison to his own, and not that I actually have a big nose.  Either way, I'm thrilled that Kiddo is expressing himself.

As for gross motor we're experiencing excruciatingly slow, but steady progress.  He now steps up and down steps without squatting, whoo hoo!  He usually will step up or down by himself, or occasionally he will hold onto someone's hand or something for support,  He's getting much better at using his legs to propel himself forward and backward on his bike, but won't attempt pedaling yet.  Still not jumping yet, but he has learned to bend his knees before jumping, so now he bends his knees and then steps forward, one foot than the other while he says "up".  I so badly want to see this kid jump.  He can now do wheelbarrows all the way across the living room floor with me holding onto his ankles (for several months I held onto his thighs to give him more stability, and about a year ago he couldn't even hold himself up, let alone walk forward with his hands).  He now will let us help him do forward rolls, before he freaked out if we even attempted, though he's a long way from doing them himself.  He can climb all the way up the slides at play places which is pretty cool to see and Little Brother gets so mad/frustrated because he wants to climb up after him and can't.  Kiddo now loves swings.  A couple months ago he refused to get on them.  He still sits in the baby swings as he doens't have enough strength in his core to stay in a regular swing, though he now loves the tire swing.  Provides more stability is my guess, as well as the fact he can spin "roun roun" (around and around).

And as for fine motor, Kiddo is learning to color more within the lines, rather than just scribbling all over coloring pages.  He is starting to write the letters of his name, though he needs prompting, especially with the last three letters of his name.  He can put on his own socks and shoes, which makes going places a lot easier now, yay!  He's able to cut across a sheet of paper now, before he could only do little snips.  He can peel his own clementine if I start it for him, and he's learning to spread his own peanut butter on the bread for his beloved PB&J sandwiches, though he'd much rather lick the knife than actually make a sandwich.

Little Brother:  Little Brother was having terrible temper tantrums, lots of screaming and whining for a few months.  That's around the time he stopped using the 30 or so words he had, and I honestly was getting really worried.  I've experienced Kiddo's uber slow progress, but never a regression of skills, and Little Brother was going through one and I was worried.  But Hubster and I prayed a lot for peace in his little heart and for his words to come back and I believe God answered our prayers.  With the help of our awesome speech therapist Little Brother is using those 30 words he had before and more.  His temper tantrums are so much fewer and further apart, and I don't know if it's because he can communicate more or if he was sick before or just going through a terrible terrible phase that we never want to experience again or what.

BUT, Little Brother's talking!  He's using the names of animals rather than the sounds they say.  He saw a deer on TV and was so excited and proudly declared it a "goat!!" haha.  

He's now requesting the things he wants, usually "caka" for cracker, "titi" for TV, "mo" for more, "ju" for juice, "zizza" for pizza, "didi" for outside, "uppah" for up, "opuh" for open, "su" for cereal, and "chee!" for cheese.  His newest word is "amote" for the remote, which he brings me when he wants to watch TV.  He usually repeats each of these words several times, as if we're not getting it the first time.  For example, he'll bring you his empty cup and say "ju ju ju ju" until you've gotten his cup refilled and in his hands.  We heard you loud and clear the first time, buddy.

He says "Yeah!" a lot.  Example" "Do you want cereal?"  "Su. Yeah!"  He says "Ta da!" with his arms out all triumphant-like every time he finishes one of his puzzles. 

He says "whereditgo?" all as one word for anything that you ask about that he doesn't know where it is.  For example, "Where's Daddy?"  "Dada? Whereditgo?"  Makes me smile every time.  He also puts 'a' in front of words, so for example he'll bring me "a ba!" (ball) or "a book!"  

He'll announce "poo poo" after each time he's done so, as well as every time he's passed gas.  I've gotten many a funny look from strangers when Little Brother suddenly announces "poo poo".  Thanks buddy, for keeping life so entertaining.  

He blows kisses when you tell him "bye bye" or "night night" or "I love you".  And he folds his hands and sits quietly while we pray and proudly declares "Ameh!" when we're done.

He gives monstrously tight hugs, in which his hands are wrapped around your neck and he'll say "wiggle wiggle" as he holds on tight. I enjoy the hug and the wiggles, the choking part I could do without.

As for gross motor skills, he gallops, which he calls jumping, and he does it gladly, even on your lap while he's giving you one of his monstrously tight hugs.  Kiddo is still further ahead than Little Brother on the climbing front.  Little Brother can't climb up play places which makes him very frustrated and so many times I find myself climbing up the play places to help him up so he can play up top with his brother and then go down the slide, only to begin the process over again.  Ugh.  I can't wait until both of them are able to climb up those dang things themselves so I can actually sit and relax like the other parents who oftentimes are oblivious to what their children are even doing.  But that's a rant for another day, sorry.  As for stepping, he quickly graduated from crawling up and down them to now holding onto a support or hand.  But today I watched him climb up a staircase without holding onto anything.  I was happy to snap a photo before he made it to the top. :)

That's about it for now.  Slow and steady progress over here.  Much better than regressions and plateaus.  I'm ready for some speech surges and lots of victories in the gross motor department.  For Christmas, I want to see Kiddo jump and to hear both kiddos say "I love you."  We shall see. ;)