Surprise

Today Mr N's therapist and her supervisor were both here, while playing with Mr N the supervisor got Mr N to say "surprise" several times. Afterwards she was looking through his charts and pointed out that he is getting into two syllable words, until the last few words they were all one syllable words.

Mr N really took to the supervisor, just looking at her, saying hi and bye, waving, and playing with her. He typically doesn't warm up to people so quickly. She really loves kids and it shows.

Big things are happening for my little guy. Just seeing his daily progress motivates me that much more to work with him. Today we spent a lot of time playing with his string and bead set, he is getting very good at stringing the beads. E and I were trying to feed the dinosaurs some cookies, but Mr N butted in and corrected our playing. Dinosaurs roar at each other and bite each other's faces, it's the rules.  Little boys and little girls certainly play differently.

This morning my mom video called us on Skype, we haven't done it for a while and E has refused to talk to her on the phone for months. E chatted up a storm and Mr N was just as thrilled to see Grandma. He even tried to say Grandma a few times. It was so sweet seeing Mr N excited to see Grandma. I might have teared up just a tad while watching the kids, but it's ok I'm pretty sure Grandma did, too. I called her later and she booked a trip out to see the kids. Grandma and E have a very special relationship.

The kids had been begging all morning to go for a walk in the wagon, but they hadn't had breakfast, weren't dressed, Mommy hadn't had her coffee (they should know better by now) so we had to wait a while. After we were fed, caffeine'd up, and dressed we set out for a walk sans wagon. There is a reason I avoid the wagon, the kids weigh almost 65 pounds together, the wagon weighs a couple of pounds and we live in the mountains. Ever try to pull half your body weight up a mountain? Ever try to keep it from running you down going down a steep hill? Hopefully you're on my side now.

So we set out with E in the Ergo and Mr N walking until we got to the first steepish hill, then I carried Mr N until we got to the top of the hill. Then he walked again until the next hill. We walked about a half a mile before E was ready to go home, so we switched out the kids and Mr N got in the Ergo and E walked back home. On our way home Mr N fell asleep and then proceeded to nap for almost 2 hours. I love when he takes a morning nap, it makes it so much easier for him to focus during therapy. Along our walk we sang songs and did the actions to them. We saw a dog on a run line and Mr N said "dog". I'm so happy he's identifying things out in natural settings and not just in books.

Yesterday Mr N said "teacher" when E started asking when Mr N's therapist was coming (they call her "teacher"). Then when she arrived he ran to the door and said "who's that?". I love that he's putting two words together more and more each day. During therapy they made coffee filter flowers that they painted and put a pipe cleaner stem onto. E then helped me put them in a jar and put them on display in the living room. It's pretty adorable. I love my kids.

Last night as we were going to bed I sang "Slippery Fish" and while I was singing Mr N said "gulp, gulp, gulp" when I did. AMAZING! He's imitating E more and more, too. She makes a silly noise and he'll copy her.

The other day my precious little E was looking at a book with Mr N and saying "touch the banana, touch the grapes, touch the apple" then we he touched the correct picture she'd say "good job". She's such an amazing big sister, he is truly blessed to have her as his sister. He will learn so much from him, and her from him.

Well the love of my life just pulled into the drive so I'll end here. He was so sweet to get the windows tinted in the car so that it'll be better for my road trip in a few weeks with the kids. I love that man!