Say Whaaaat?!

A few funny conversations with my kiddos:

Little Brother

Little Brother is a little obsessed right now with rainbows.  Here's a few statements about them:

• I color it every color of the rainbow!  (he was so proud of it he took it to show n tell at school, hence why it's in the plastic cover in the picture).
• I love every color of the rainbow.  And pink. And black. And brown.
• I love you every rainbow in the sky!  (my personal favorite)

While watching Secret Life of Pets:

Little Brother: Buddy (the dauschaund) has a looooong butt!!

Me: How was school?

Little Brother: I fell and hurt my knee and now I'm tired.  Need go home go bed.

We get home...

Me: Ok, why don't you go to bed now, you said you're tired.

Little Brother: I not tired, I awake remember?

A few of his common phrases or fun ways of saying things:

Oh, nuts!

Bunnut = button

Quesada = quesadilla

Cheechos = Cheerios

Oyos = Oreos

Kiddo:

Kiddo: I like the dogs white with black spots.

Me: Do you know what they're called?

Kiddo: Yes, dalmation.

Me: Maybe we should watch the movie 101 Dalmations.  I think you'd really like it.

Kiddo: No Mommy, that movie was out when you little kid.  It's really old.

Kiddo: That man has no hair!

Me: Yes, sometimes people shave their heads, or when they get old their hair falls out.

Kiddo: Yes, or it turn white.  I don't want my hair fall out, but it ok if it turn white.

After a weekend of storms and tornado warnings/watches in our area, one day his school bus was taking longer to arrive.

Kiddo: I hope a tornado didn't eat the bus.

A few of his common phrases:

Oh my gosh!

What the heck?

Of course!

I know I'm missing phrases and conversations and that's kind of cool.  I LOVE learning what goes on in my kiddos' minds. :)

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!  It truly felt like a happy holiday for us!  It is the first time (other than Kiddo's birthday this past summer) that Kiddo has been truly aware of and excited about an upcoming holiday.  He insisted we kept a countdown of how many days until Halloween and then every morning would tell us what number to change it to.  He also told us for Halloween he wanted to be Woody from Toy Story.

So after looking a few places, I decided to go online and order a Woody costume, and while I was at it, got a Buzz Lightyear costume for Little Brother.

Hubster and I practiced trick or treating in our home a few nights beforehand.  Hubster went into the kids' bedroom and closed the door.  The kiddos and I pretended we were going up to a house and would knock on the door.  We practiced saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You", until Kiddo caught on and could do it by himself without prompting.  Little Brother never did say Trick or Treat, but the thank you he mastered after a few practices.

So, the night of Halloween arrived.  Kiddos excitedly put on their costumes at Grandma and Grandpa's house (they have a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating).  And Kiddo did awesome!  We told him we had to go to houses that had lights on.  So as we walked, he'd tell us "This house light on!" or "No light."  He'd walk up to the houses with lights on, knock on the door, say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you!"   He'd show us his candy bucket and declare "Lots candy!"  Hubster and I were just grinning with pride.

It is the first year we have ever even attempted something like Trick or Treating.

After about half an hour or so we determined the kids had collected enough sugar to last them quite some time and we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where Kiddo asked if he could have one of his lollipops, to which we agreed.  He was was so excited to be given the opportunity to pass out candy to other kids who came to the door.

The first batch of kids who came to the door, he told them "Here you go" as he gave them the candy.  By the third batch of kids at the door he had added a "Have nice day!" as they left.

And he would wait, kind of impatiently, for the doorbell to ring.  "No more kids?" he'd ask.  And then the doorbell would ring and he'd get all excited.

It was a great night. :)

New Words/Phrases/Conversations

Oh my goodness, there's so many new words and phrases I don't even think I can list them all.  But here's a few of my favorite new words, phrases and conversations with the kiddos:

Kiddo:

Hubster: (tucking Kiddo into bed).  Can I pray for you?
Kiddo: Of course!

Me: (sweeping kitchen floor).
Kiddo: Oh, good job, Mommy.

Me: Here, don't forget your backpack.
Kiddo: Lunchbox?  Peanut butter jelly?
Me: Yes, you have peanut butter and jelly in your lunchbox.  And strawberries too.
Kiddo.  (rubs his tummy).  Yummy!  Thanks Mommy.

Little Brother: (gives Kiddo a slobbery kiss on the arm)
Kiddo: Eww, yuck!  Big wet kiss!  Yuck!

Kiddo: (sees an ad for new Lego sets).  New Legos?
Me: I don't think you need new Legos now.  Maybe for Christmas.
Kiddo: Christmas?  Yes!
Me: Christmas isn't for a while though.  About 100 days.
Kiddo.  Oh. Lots days.
Me: Yes, you'll have to wait awhile.
Kiddo.  OK.
Hubster:  What do you want for Christmas?
Kiddo: TWO Legos!! (he was referring to two Lego sets)
Hubster:  Just two little Legos?
Kiddo:  NO! Lots, lots Legos!  Lots toys!  Christmas!!

Kiddo: Go outer space today?
Me: No Buddy, we can't go to outer space.
Kiddo:  Oh.  Later?


Little Brother:

He's finally starting to put two or three words together into phrases.  Most commonly heard are:

More drink.
More pizza please.
Oh sorry.
Oh, thank you!
Big kiss (before or after he plants a big slobbery one on you)
Big hug (as he's squeezing your neck)
Baby cry (every single time he hears anybody cry)

While ordering at Chick-fil-A
Cashier: Can I help you?
Little Brother: "Cow hat!" (see picture.  He LOVES the "cow hat")
Cashier: "Ok, here you go, a cow hat."
Little Brother: "Oh, thank you!"




His newest words and their pronunciations:
Pizza (said correctly. No longer Zizza, which I'm a little sad about.  I like zizza.)
Eephen.  (Elephant).
Nana (banana)
Yoyuck.  (yogurt.  He loves it).
Gas (Madagascar, the movie).
Mumu Me (Despicable Me.  Why do kids' movies have such hard names for kids to say?)
Bobot (robot)
Paint! (for anytime he wants to color anything.  Even if it's with crayons or colored pencils and not paint).
Coon up (Clean up)
Uhcorn (popcorn)
Bawoon. (Balloon)
Tees (tickles)
Coocake!  (Cupcake)
Gwapes  (Grapes)
Soo bus (school bus)
Hippo (Nipple.  He'll lift up his shirt and point to one of his nipples and declare them a hippo.)
Belly Butt! (Belly button.  Again, for when he lifts up his shirt to point out his belly butt and hippos.)
Numnut! (doughnut)
Chut (church)

Unfortunately, some of his pronunciations are not appropriate to write out, but I'll put them here so when he's older I can remember these stories.  As for now, it is so embarrassing to have him shout out these words when he sees these items.
Frog sounds like the F word.
Fish used to sound like the S word.  It has now changed to sound like the B word.


There's so much more I could put for each of them, but life is busy and their language flourishing at such a rate I cannot remember it all.  And the latter part makes me super happy. :)

Progress Report

*Little Brother*

Sensory:  We got Little Brother evaluated by an OT for sensory processing disorder.  He has it.  Sigh.  His sensory issues are related to vestibular movement, especially when going from sedentary to movement oriented tasks or vice versa.  For example, after he's been sitting for a while, if he stands up and starts running, sometimes he'll fall forward and land on his belly.  It's not like he gets hurt from it, he just gets back up and keeps going.  This also explains why he pauses for a few seconds after he's gone down a slide (it's because he still feels like he's moving.)   I was told by the therapist that he's very impulsive, which is a thing you see in kiddos with sensory processing issues and behavior regulation.  So basically, we're teaching him how to handle being told no (currently his reaction is major temper tantrum and trying to do whatever we told him he couldn't do) to help him become more stable emotionally.  I feel like all we're doing is seeing more temper tantrums and my patience is so very thin right now.  I had no idea that impulsivity was sensory related, I thought it was more personality based.  He also has extremely poor visual tracking.  So, now he and Kiddo get OT at the same time and I love both of their OTs.

Speech: Words and phrases are coming!  This little guy has so much to say.  I've had one therapist say she's sure he has apraxia, and two who think it's just a severe delay.  The more I hear new words, and an improvement of old words, the more convinced I am it's just a severe delay, or if he does have apraxia it's definitely mild and nowhere near as severe as Kiddo's.

New words and phrases:
Ok (said all. the. time.  Especially when being disciplined, though within minutes he's doing again what he was doing before)
All clean
Stomp stomp roar (when he stomps his little feet, than hands out as he pretends to be a dinosaur)
appy juice (apple juice.  Sounds so much like he's saying happy juice I jokingly called it that for a while.  But once he started asking for it all the time, we got rid of it all.  No more happy juice, bud.)
Oh no!
Aww man
Pete Cat (his fav book, Pete the Cat)
Teetee on (Tv on.  When he wants to watch TV)
Kitty cat
Ocdoput (octopus)
Doo doo doo (what the rooster says)
Hew pwee (help please)
Moowee (movie)
Pa pie ee chit (french fries and chicken.  his fav thing to eat)
Zitza (pizza)
Chut (church)
Amen! (after our prayers)
Wet  (especially when playing in the pool or bath)
Mama baby (when pointing out a mother and her baby, especially in books)
I know (his response when we tell him "I love you."


*Kiddo*

Speech: Kiddo is totally blowing me away with all the new words and phrases and sentences (yes, for real, sentences!).  Every time he's done with a speech therapy session his speech therapist raves about how much he is saying and that she is understanding what he saysand how much clearer he is.  Other people are beginning to understand him too, so I don't need to translate for him all the time. I wish I had kept a list of all the new words or phrases, but here's the most impressive ones I can remember off the top of my head:


I love you Mommy.  (My all time favorite phrase.  Took me 5 years to be able to hear it).
Big Hero 6 good movie!
Touch Mommy nose.
Microbot (from Big Hero 6)
Bug fly.  Daddy do this. (demonstrates swiping motion Hubster made to shoo a fly away)
I want to play Angry Birds please. (What?  7 words?  With correct grammar?  I'm blown away.)
Right there (when answering the question where something is.  Before he would just point).
Oh, I get it (when told some new information.  He totally got this phrase from me and whenever I hear him say it I just can't help but grin)
Play Lego Game Daddy (when telling me he played the Lego Game Movie with Hubster on the playstation)
Later?  (whenever I tell him he can't do something now).

A few conversations:

Me: Wake up, we're at Chick-fil-A!
Sleepy Kiddo: Eat play?
Me: Yeah.   Sound like fun?
Kiddo: Yes.  Sleep later.

As we drove past Chuck E Cheese:
Kiddo: Chuck E Cheese!
Hubster: Yeah, we went there for your birthday.
Kiddo.  Yes.  Minion cake.
Hubster: It was a cool minion cake.
Kiddo: Yes.  Cake all gone.

And a funny story:  Kiddo's speech therapist and I are working on the "F" sound with him.  We tell him "Teeth on your lips" and demonstrate.  I did that with him, when we were counting, "four, five" and Kiddo starts giggling.  I asked him "What's so funny?"  He says, "Mommy, teeth dirty."  I had a piece of seasoning stuck between my teeth. ;)

Random stuff: He now can put his shoes on all by himself on the correct foot.  He can alternate his feet on the stairs effortlessly if he has a railing or a hand to hold.  He is no longer having issues with getting his hair washed and is a lot less concerned with getting water in his face.  In fact, in the kiddie pool he went down a slide face first. :)


In the Upcoming Weeks:

We'll be heading up to the DC area next week to visit with family and friends in the area, and to have three days of speech at a Mini CHAMP at George Washington University's Speech and Hearing Center July 13-15.  This is where he went two summers ago to work with Jodi Kumar for CHAMP Camp.  At the time, he had just turned three, had about 20 word approximations, and mainly communicated using sign language.  He left with the k and g sounds and about 10 new words and the phrase "I want ___" which was huge progress for us and really helped me know how to work with him better to get faster progress then we were seeing before CHAMP.  The progress he's made in two years has been pretty incredible, and every speech intensive we've done (CHAMP Camp in 2013 and Nancy Kaufman's 4 day speech intensive in 2014) have been so great for really boosting his speech and progress.  Our goals at the mini speech intensive will be working on his d, n, and f sounds.  I'll keep you posted on how he does, and can't wait to see family and friends again. :)

Funnies

Little Brother: (Hands me a ball of play dough) Pit! (Pig)

Me: Oh, it's a pig?

Little Brother: Uh huh.  (He then jabs one end of it.)  Butt!

Ah, any mother's dream gift.

*          *          *

Hubster: Hey, would you like to move to a new house?

Kiddo:  Yeah!  New house!  House dirty.

Thanks Kiddo.  So encouraging.  Don't think it's a good reason to move though...

*          *          *

Me: I love you.

Little Brother: I know!

Me: You're cute.

Little Brother: I know!

This is now his response every time you tell him you love him.

*          *          *

Hubster: Hey, your birthday is coming up.

Me: Yeah, you'll be five.  And you know what we'll do on your birthday?

Kiddo: Yeah.  Chuck E Cheese!

Not what I had in mind, but looks like I'll be planning a Chuck E Cheese b-day celebration.

Verbal Behavior Therapy

Several months ago I spoke with Nancy Kaufman on the phone after she had viewed one of Kiddo's speech videos I submitted to her.  She's among the best of the best apraxia experts, and has created lots of materials for helping children with apraxia learn how to speak.  I've watched her DVD to learn her methods and use them often with Kiddo.  I met her in July when I went to the apraxia conference (read my post about it here).  And in October, Kiddo will get to work with her for FOUR days.  I'm so beyond excited to see this amazing lady in person work with Kiddo and will definitely post about our time with her. :)

Anyway, back to several months ago I spoke with Nancy Kaufman.  I was telling her that he doesn't say a lot of things spontaneously, only if it's been scripted to him over and over again.  And that he doesn't know how to answer or ask questions.  That he's been diagnosed with a mild-moderate receptive language delay, as well as the apraxia.  And she told me to get him into Verbal Behavior Therapy.  That she thought that with a year of Verbal Behavior Therapy for about an hour a week, his receptive delay should be no more.

I had never heard of it before.  As soon as I hung up the phone with her (and well, calmed down a little bit after having talked to THE Nancy Kaufman and told that she would "be delighted" to work with Kiddo for four days) I researched Verbal Behavior Therapy.  And found that it's a branch of ABA therapy (Applied Behavior Analysis), a type of therapy generally used for autistic children.  I was a little concerned and disheartened, because we've tested for autism before and Kiddo is not on the spectrum.  But the more I read about Verbal Behavior Therapy, the more I was sure that Nancy was right.

"What Is Verbal Behavior Therapy? 

Verbal Behavior Therapy teaches communication using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and the theories of behaviorist B.F. Skinner. By design, Verbal Behavior Therapy motivates a child, adolescent or adult to learn language by connecting words with their purposes. The student learns that words can help obtain desired objects or other results.
Therapy avoids focusing on words as mere labels (cat, car, etc.) Rather, the student learns how to use language to make requests and communicate ideas. To put it another way, this intervention focuses on understanding why we use words."  From Autismspeaks.com

The Hunt Begins 

There were only two ABA clinics nearby.  One had a 6 month waitlist, which I put Kiddo on.  The other was 1 1/2 hours away, and required that we be there at least 5 hours a week, with an hour or two a session.  Nope, sorry, no can do.

I bought a few books on Verbal Behavior Therapy, and decided to try and do it on my own.  I learned a few things, particularly what areas that Kiddo needed help in, but not really how to help him myself.
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At the apraxia conference I attended a session that was about Verbal Behavior Therapy, given by an ABA therapist who also was a Speech Language Pathologist.  What she said made so much sense and I spoke with her for a while after the session about Kiddo and she gave me some very helpful suggestions.  I knew Kiddo needed this Verbal Behavior Therapy--and he needed it stat- if we were going to make any more progress with his communication.

So, I called back the first clinic to see where he was on the waitlist.  Another 4-5 months (after already being on the waitlist for three months).  I called the clinic 1 1/2 hours away and practically begged them to let us come for only an hour a week.  No go.  But, the director did tell me that a new ABA therapist had moved to our area and was looking for clients.  She gave me her contact info.  I called her immediately.  And she has been a godsend.  Seriously, I think God brought her to us just when we needed her the most. :)

Verbal Behavior Therapy Begins

She comes to our house once a week for an hour, right during Little Brother's naptime.  She works with Kiddo for about 50 minutes, and then gives me things to work with him for the remaining 10 minutes.  And seriously, Kiddo is making so much progress, it's incredible.  He's learning how to request for things spontaneously, rather than me prompting me every single time with "What do you want?" or "Use your words."  He's learning how to put words together on his own, not phrases we've scripted for him a gazillion times.  He's learning how to follow two step directions, when before one step was all he could handle.  He's learning how to use verbs.  And this is all with just four sessions of Verbal Behavior Therapy.

I am thrilled.  Yes, a lot of this is just natural growth and development.  A lot of it is us working on the same things with him over and over again.  But the Verbal Behavior Therapy is teaching us the strategies for doing that.  It's teaching us "he needs to be able to understand and say ___ and _____ before he will be able to start asking questions."  I'm learning a lot.  And so is Kiddo.  And that makes my heart so happy. :)

Multi-Word Phrases

Kiddo is in what I call a "speech surge" again and I am not complaining!  I am so proud of this kid and the progress he is making.  Some of the things he said today honestly shocked me, and so I wanted to record them here so I wouldn't forget them.  He is now officially in the multi-word phrase.  Pretty much everything he said today, was two, three or even four word phrases, though he did occasionally say a few one word phrases, such as pointing out a circle ("circo" as opposed to the "cako" he used to say), or that he wanted an orange ("or!") Starburst rather than the red I gave him.

So, without further ado, the fun and surprising things he said today:

• "I wa pho peeze."  Probably unnecessary translation: I want phone please.  Normally in that case he would just say "pho peeze" and then with lots of prompting I can get him to expand to the four word phrase.  But twice today he came up to me saying that phrase completely on his own. 
• "Los o egg"  Translation: Lots of eggs.  Today I located our Easter eggs in the garage, which for some reason were in the trick or treat pumpkin bucket.  So we played with both.  (Didja notice the Christmas cookie cutters in the picture above.  We played with the play-doh on Saturday.  A little variety in holiday traditions never hurt anybody, right?)  Anyway, I've never heard Kiddo say there was lots of something before, though I've heard him say egg several times lately and hence the reason I pulled out the Easter eggs early.  
• "Cady i kukin"  Translation: Candy in pumpkin.  Apparently he remembered that you can get candy in the pumpkin and he wanted some.  So I obliged, and went to get him some.  Remember the "orange" comment I mentioned?  Yeah, that was related to this experience.  
• "Two Cady." No translation needed.  Apparently the one orange Starburst was not enough for the kid.  He's gotten demanding, now that he knows the power of words (and that his mother is a sucker, giving in to most of his requests because she's so proud of him using his words).
• "I di i"  Translation: I did it.  We were playing with his bowling set and after he knocked over all the pins he said this.  Took me a few seconds to figure out what he was saying, but then I got it. A new phrase I hope to keep hearing over and over!
• "Mo wawa peeze."  Unnecessary Translation: More water please.  Usually he brings me his empty cup and I ask him what he wants, and then he'll say "mo" or "wawa peeze" but this if the first time he said this as a three word phrase without any prompting.  A few hours later, he said it again.  
• "Go up."  Absolutely no translation necessary.  And although this is not a new phrase, the fact that there was a "p" at the end of "up" was new.  I've heard "uh" as "up" since he was 16 months old. "Ow" and "Uh" were his first and only words for a looooong time.  He said this multiple times today as we were playing with his car, pushing it up the hill and then letting it "go dow".
• And finally, today I asked him "Do you want to play in the play room or your room?"  He responded clearly "My oom."  I was stunned, because first of all, I've never heard him say room before (well, 'oom like they do in the Chronicles of Narnia), but also because he knew to say "my" rather than repeat "your."  And then (just to make sure my ears weren't deceiving me), once we entered his room he proudly declared "my 'oom."

So darn proud! 

Mini Speech Videos

Ready...set...go!

I decided to switch from "1-2-3-go!" to "Ready, set, go!"  Gotta build up that vocabulary, you know? ;)

Burp.  "Excuse me."

Kiddo learned that when he drinks from a straw (or in this case, Little Brother's sippy cup) he can make himself burp.  So I decided it was time for him to learn some manners and a new phrase to go along with his new habit.  I told him the phrase just three times before he caught on, though it sounds more like "cu me".  That's a record for learning a new word or phrase!  Every time he burps he says this without prompting.  And he burps frequently.

Bath Time Victories

The kiddo used to not a big fan of water due to some sensory processing issues.  He'd cower when it rained, and scream when I wet and rinsed his hair with a washcloth.  But now, he lets me wash and rinse his hair without a complaint.  If some water gets into his eyes he'll point to it and I get the towel and wipe his eyes.  Easy peasy.  Yesterday at bath time he even put the washcloth on top of his own head, water dripping down the sides of his face, and he just grinned.

Bath buddies!

But, and here's the amazing thing, yesterday the kiddo said two amazing things while he was in the bath.