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. :)

Lessons I'm Learning from Nancy Kaufman

People have asked me if going to see Nancy Kaufman is worth the money.  It is expensive, add in the travel expenses and family sacrifices to make it work and it is costly.

But it's worth every penny.  Every new word, new phrase, new lesson learned is worth it.  I've seen her methods before.  I've attended her sessions at conferences.  I've purchased and watched her DVDs teaching her methods.  I watched her work with Kiddo for four days in 2014.  I've put into practice what I've learned from her.  But watching her work with your own child, determine what your child needs to work on and is capable of, and then teach you how to do it yourself is invaluable.  

The top three lessons I've learned from Nancy Kaufman during our time at SPEAK:

1) Push for more, because he is capable of more. 

I've watched speech therapists work with my son and drill him on two and three syllable words, trying to mold those words into perfection before moving onto longer words and phrases.  Because the more words he says, the harder it is to understand.  I've done it myself with him.

But according to Nancy Kaufman, this is wrong.  Instead of focusing on making sure a child can say bunny correctly (how often do kiddos say bunny every day, anyway?) focus on getting them to functional speech.  "I want bunny", even if it doesn't sound clear, is better than a child being able to say just bunny perfectly clear.

I had learned this last time we were with Nancy Kaufman in 2014, but I'm seeing just how much she expects of Kiddo, and he is meeting her expectations!  I would try and add one word to the length of his sentences, she is adding anywhere from 2-5 words to his phrases.

On Monday (the first day) she showed him three pictures of a boy in sequence, first of him chewing bubble gum, then of blowing a bubble, and then of it popping.  She asked him what was happening in the pictures and he said "Boy blow bubble."  Last Thursday, she was having him say "He is blowing a bubble.  It popped."  And today during his sessions she was having him say "He is chewing bubble gum.  He is blowing a bubble.  It popped on his face.  He needs to wipe it off."

Can you believe that?!  From a three word phrase to four complete sentences..  Amazing!!  Sure, it wasn't perfectly clear.  Sure he needed prompting for quite a bit of those four sentences.  But we're working on that, while teaching him how to use language he's heard for years but has never had the opportunity to use himself.  Because he needs...

2) Scripting, scripting, and more scripting.

Again, I've learned about scripting from her before.  It simply means telling your child what you want them to say, because they don't know how to say it themselves.  It is something that you need to do continuously to help your child grow in language.  So for example, if Kiddo goes up to our hotel elevator and tells me "Push button," I now correct him and say, "I'm.." and pause to let him correct himself and finish the sentence with proper grammar, giving him the opportunity to say "I'm pushing the button."  If he were to leave off the 'the' then I say, "I'm pushing the..." and he will say "I'm pushing the button".  It's a constant process of teaching proper language, but one that he is picking up quickly with the constant practice and the push that he needs.  Because, like above, he is capable of it.  He can handle it.  I cannot accept two or three-word phrases from him when I know he can do more.

And finally,

3) Cueing before the mistake is made

Cueing speech means giving either a verbal, visual, or tactile indication of what or how something is supposed to be said.  For example, Kiddo has a hard time saying m and n if it is at the end of a word.  The cue for m is to put two fingers across your lips to indicate your lips are closed for the m sound.  The cue for n is to touch the side of your nose, because the n sound is nasal and vibrates in your nose, and that way the child can feel if they made the sound properly.  

So, since we know Kiddo tends to leave off the m and the n, we cue him as he is saying the word to remind him to add that sound.  

For example, if we want him to say "I'm eating," we say "I'm'' while putting our fingers across our lips to remind him of the final m.  And 9 times out of 10 he does it. But if we forget to cue him, he reverts back to what he's used to, which is simply to say I since the m is hard for him and the motor planning for the m is not wired into his brain yet.  We want to erase the old pattern of leaving off the m and n and so we are working to create a new pattern that overrides the old one, if that makes sense.

It may all sound exhausting or overwhelming, but honestly, I'm finding it exciting because I'm hearing and seeing the growth right before my eyes.  He is saying things that are blowing me away, and I am beyond thrilled to be learning how to help both my kiddos share their thoughts with the world.  

SPEAK Week 1

We made it to the Kaufman Children's Center!!!  I've been waiting for this for years (seriously!) and FINALLY, Kiddo and I are in Michigan for two weeks of intensive therapy with the amazing Nancy Kaufman in her SPEAK program.  We just finished the first week and both Kiddo and I have learned a lot and we still have one week to go.  :)

We started off with an evaluation, in which Nancy was very impressed with how far he has come in the two years since she last saw him, but we still have quite a ways to go.  Here are the goals we are working on while we're here:

Articulation goals:

• Final and medial (middle) m (ex: tummy and game)
• Final and medial (middle) n (ex: bunny and on) 
• S blends (ex: sleep, sweater, stop, snack, scoop, etc.)
• Th (ex: three, Ethan, with)
• Medial L (Ex: yellow, hello)

Language goals:

• Using appropriate verb tenses
• Using proper pronouns (he/she)
• Using proper grammar (a, an, the, to, is, are, etc)
• Using longer sentences with all of the above goals (ex: "She is kicking the ball."  Before he would just say "girl kick ball")

He is working with Nancy and two other therapists, and they are all awesome and enthusiastic and I don't know what I'll do without them when we go back, haha.  Kiddo is a champ, cooperating really hard and though he mentions he's tired to me from time to time, he just keeps working.  I am sooo proud of him.

Each day he also gets a one-hour speech session with three other kids who are participating in the summer SPEAK program to work on social language skills.  It begins with Lisa, an awesome music therapist singing a few songs with opportunities for the kiddos to practice speech.  Then Nancy leads them in a fun game or activity that requires the kiddos to let her know who's turn it is, what they want to do, etc.  And then they end with a craft project, that the mommies and daddies come out and help with, and encourage our kiddos to ask the therapists for the materials they need.  Lots of good stuff.  We've also been enjoying getting to know the other people here for SPEAK.  In fact, we're all going to meet at the Detroit Zoo on Sunday which should be lots of fun. :)

After each day's hard work, we go somewhere fun to celebrate Kiddo's hard work, such as Chuck E Cheese's, to a playground with some of our new friends from SPEAK, to the movies to see Secret Life of Pets, swimming in our hotel pool, and playing at the McDonald's play place and trying to collect all the Secret Life of Pets toys they have in Happy Meals.  I've been reinforcing what he's been learning in his sessions and it seems to be sticking. :)  For example, he gave me a big hug the other day and told me "Mommy, I'm squeezing you!"  Another time, we went to the playground and I was pushing him on the swings.  Normally he would just request "Higher!" but this time he told me "I want to go higher!"  And when we went to the pool he told me "Look my legs float like a stick!  Not like a rock."  I was blown away by the proper grammar in that statement. :)

Proudly showing off the visor he decorated in one of his speech sessions. :)

Can't wait for week 2, but then I also don't want it to end. :)

Year in Review

The year in review is one of my most tedious and time consuming posts to write, but I absolutely love it because it's just so encouraging to look back on where the kiddos were a year ago, and all my posts along the way show how much progress they've made and the adventures we've been on.  And so, without any further ado, our 2015 in review, plus a current progress report, because I haven't posted one in a while.

January:  I posted speech videos of the kiddos so we could see where they started the year at.  After viewing them, Kiddo was saying two word phrases and Little Brother was saying lots of words like "yeah!" "no" and animals and their sounds.  No two word phrases yet.

February: Kiddo started asking questions (whoo hoo!) Little Brother started jumping and Kiddo started contributing to bedtime prayers.

March: We visited with family and had a grand time with all the cousins and family members on Hubster's side.  It's the first time Kiddo was really able to communicate some thoughts with peers, and was awesome to see them having a blast together, especially because two of those cousins live across the world in Australia and we miss them, and seeing all of the family together.  It was a great time for all of us.

Kiddo with his cousins who were all born in 2010. :)

April: Kiddo started talking in three word phrases and we finally found him a good physical therapist who taught him really quickly how to alternate his feet on stairs.  Little Brother got a speech evaluation, where he was diagnosed with severe speech delay, possible mild apraxia, and qualified for speech services through school when he turned three.

May: May 14th we celebrated Apraxia Awareness Day and also said goodbye to our school therapists.

June: We celebrated Kiddo's 5th birthday, which was incredible, because it was the first year he was excited about any holiday or celebration, and the first year he was able to tell us how he wanted to celebrate it. We catered to his every desire (this year at least, haha) and had a b-day party at Chuck E Cheese with a Minion cake and friends from church.

July: We made it back to George Washington University for a three day intensive with the amazing Jodi Kumar.  Kiddo worked hard on his F and D sounds and learned a few new phrases.  I also got to see how much progress Kiddo has made gross motor wise by going to this fun place.  I got Kiddo's OT reevaluation (17 months after starting OT) and found the results both discouraging and filled with progress.

August:  We celebrated Little Brother's third birthday amidst our move across the state where Kiddo could go to an amazing new school and he is FLOURISHING there.  Worth the move, just for that.

First week of school!

September: Lots of new words and phrases from both kiddos!

October: Kiddo gave me a very special b-day present of singing to me the Happy Birthday song.   Kiddo started asking "What's this?"  And the kiddos had a blast trick or treating for Halloween as Woody and Buzz Lightyear.


November: November I didn't post much, because Kiddo had an allergic reaction at school, where they administered him an epi-pen and then we took him to the ER.  We kept him out of school for a few weeks until we could get allergy testing done to see what was going on.  Kiddo is fine and dandy, but it was a stressful time.  For Thanksgiving, my in-laws came to visit, and they helped build a ball pit for our kiddos to play in (great for the sensory issues!) and also my amazing mother-in-law made the kiddos weighted blankets (also great for sensory issues!) which the kiddos love, and Kiddo calls a "Nana hug all night long."

December: Kiddos were uber excited about Christmas, counting down until the days, adding new words and phrases to their vocabularies.  It was the best Christmas ever, just because of the kids' excitement and how well they can express themselves now.  My parents watched the kiddos for us for a few days so Hubster and I could have a much needed few days to ourselves, which we enjoyed at a nearby beach.  It rained most of the time, but the view from our hotel was great, as was being able to sleep in and eat wherever we wanted and watch a few movies.

Little Brother now asks "Why?" and is being potty trained.  He says lots of 3-4 word phrases now.  He can sing his ABCs though he leaves out G, N, and W every. single. time.  He LOVES to draw and color and is such a rough and tumble kid but oh so snuggly too.

Kiddo is learning how to pedal a bicycle and singing songs and has so much to say.  He loves school and has lots of friends and even a girlfriend at school.  I asked him what he and his girlfriend do at school.  He told me "Play. Learn. Hold hands."  He loves showing us how much stronger he is getting, and helping (he's great at putting away the silverware from the dishwasher and helping me with the laundry).


There were lots of ups and downs, stressful yet joyous times, and of course, lots of progress and victories.  This year, 2015, was the year we began to feel like the kiddos are really flourishing, and I cannot wait to see what is in store for us in 2016.  :)

Flourishing

If you've read my previous post, then you know we were in the process of moving. Well, with the awesome help of my brother-in-law and nephews on move-in day, Hubster and I are all moved in, yay!!  We are busy setting up our new little place in our new town.  Pictures are going up, boxes are going out, we're learning our way around the area, and the kiddos are having a blast.

Hubster and I felt God gave us a word about moving to our new corner of the world.  We feel like we've been in survival mode for the past three years and we were tired of being tired, tired of contending for everything in our life.  And God gave both of us the word FLOURISH to mark our time here.  Not that everything would be easy, but that this was where we could find a little more rest, a little more fruit in the kiddos progress with all the extra therapies, the amazing school Kiddo is going to, and who knows what else the flourishing entails, but we are looking forward to it.

And in fact, we see the fruit already.  Kiddo has only been in school for a week, but he is communicating so much more.   He is telling us what he learned in school.  He is telling us the things he is doing in school.  They may only be one or two word answers about what he did at school, but he is telling us.  He is excited to go to school, excited about his Minion backpack and Star Wars lunchbox with his beloved peanut butter and jelly inside, excited to play and learn and to make friends.  He's playing more with his toys and Little Brother, and not even asking for his tablet, a device he was addicted to and we needed to limit.  It's like he's becoming more aware of the world and he wants to soak it all up.  Totally random, but the other day I heard him in the bathroom and went to check on him.   I was amazed, because he was peeing standing up, toilet seat up and all, as he's always insisted on sitting to do his thing.  He saw me, grinned proudly and said "Pee stand up.  Big boy!"  Yes, Kiddo, you are right, and I'm guessing you learned this from your peers, because no matter how much we encouraged, you did not learn this big boy skill from us.  He is flourishing before our eyes, and we're only two weeks into the school year.  He started his therapies this week, so I'm expecting even more progress.  If this trend continues, well I can't imagine what he will be like on the last day of school.  :)

He may not look happy in the pictures, but Kiddo LOVES school!

I had an IEP meeting for both kiddos, and I couldn't be happier with how things are turning out.  They still need to evaluate Kiddo for PT and OT, so for now they're keeping those services at twice a month, like his previous IEP in our previous county.  But they evaluated him for speech, and they are changing it from two sessions a week for 30 minutes, to four sessions a week for 20 minutes.   Shorter, more frequent speech is what is recommended for children with apraxia, and is exactly what his new speech therapist wants for him.  So he'll essentially get twenty more minutes a week, and twice as often, woot woot!  The therapist wants to do three sessions a week of individual speech, and one session a week in the classroom, working on socially interacting with peers, responding to his teacher, etc, which I think is awesome.  I'm hopeful that the OT and PT evals indicate he qualifies for more services, but if he doesn't, he's getting a lot of opportunity to practice his skills on their playground and in the classroom.  Kiddo's teacher is great and she tells me how smart and sweet Kiddo is.  She insisted on several of his IEP goals being made a little more challenging because she's confident he can master them.  I love everything about that.

As for Little Brother, he qualified for speech twice a week.  So I will be taking him to the elementary school in our district where he will receive speech.  I'm enjoying getting some one on one time with this guy.  We've found a few awesome playgrounds, indoor play areas, and a fabulous preschool story time at the library we plan on going to weekly.

Hubster is all set to go with his grad school class this week.  And I'm registered for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) to get to know some Christian mamas in the area.  I found it awesome to know that this years theme at MOPS is "A Fierce Flourishing."  Coincidence?  I think not.

Anyway, things are going well, we're excited about what the future has in store, and we're looking forward to flourishing fiercely.  :)

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. 

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. :)

Oh, the Difference a Year Makes

Well folks, it's been remarkable the progress we've made in a year.  Feel free to relive the struggles, the progress, the busyness, and the victories with me as we go month by month through 2013.

January: Kiddo had only three "words" ('ow', 'uh' for up and 'uh uh' for no) but otherwise was silent.  My first post was about Kiddos' journey before 2013.  We also started fish oil supplementation which gave us some hyperactivity but more importantly, the beginning of him making sounds and attempting to imitate the sounds we asked of him.

February: I recorded Kiddos' first speech video of him working with our awesome speech therapist.  I'll be honest, sometimes when I get really discouraged with how far he still has to go, I watch that video again and remember how far he has come.  I remember how excited I was just that he was making sounds when we recorded this video.  I'm posting it here so that you can celebrate with me how far he has come. :)

March: Kiddo could imitate several vowel sounds and two consonant sounds, and could spontaneously say six words.

April: I initiated Operation Overcome Sensory Issues and began to see ah-mah-zing results.  :)  He is no longer bothered by the noise of vacuum cleaners or other loud noises as long as he has warning about them.  He is much less bothered by wind, and will let me wash his hair without screaming as long as water stays out of his ears and eyes.  Huge progress.

May: Kiddo started saying his animal sounds, his colors, and imitating sounds and words.  May 14th was also the first Apraxia Awareness Day, in which I shared the blog with the Facebook, Google+, and Twitter world.

June: Kiddo turned three. :)   We also started biomed--which really just entailed lots of research and introducing a few supplements other than fish oil.

July: Went to CHAMP Camp at George Washington University in DC, where we received the official diagnosis (severe Apraxia of Speech and a moderate receptive delay) and a week of intensive therapy with Ms. Katie and the fabulous Jodi Kumar.  During that week, Kiddo went from about 20 to about 30 words and learned how to make the "k" sound.  I made some awesome friendships with parents who could relate.  I then got to guest post about our experience on one of my favorite apraxia blogs.

August: Met with a DAN doctor to discuss nutrition and supplementation for Kiddo.  Celebrated Little Brother's first birthday.  Met a new friend in our area with apraxia, and started working with a new speech therapist.

September: Kiddo's vocabulary increased to about 100 words.  Check out the speech videos.

October: Missed a lot of speech therapy, but had lots of fun on two family trips out of state.

November: Finally got around to recording a video of Kiddo reading his sight words.  Yep, he can read!  Kiddo also started speaking in phrases which means we can now have conversations!  Whoo hoo!  Here's the video of him reading his words on his flashcards.

December: Kiddo now says about 300 words spontaneously, and is beginning to use two or three word phrases with prompting or spontaneously.


Overall, I'd say 2013 has been a very blessed year and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2014. :)