I just discovered this post didn't disappear. This is from a few weeks ago.
I'm 87.3% sure that my last 10 posts have started with an apology about not being able to keep up with my blog. Again, I'm sorry.
We recently purchased a house which has absorbed most of my time. I've been busy patching and painting walls, filling, sanding, scrubbing and painting trim then spending our weekends in the great outdoors. The kids rooms are painted as well as the foyer area outside of their rooms, once I do the bathroom the upstairs will be completely painted. Next step, furniture. My plan (probably foolish and will be scrapped due to time constraints) is to build them both platform beds. Surely it can't be that hard, right? It will be like building my planter boxes but with plywood on top.....what could go wrong?
Amidst the painting, cleaning and unpacking we've had a couple of meetings with the development center. We had another evaluation for Mr N which went very well, it was done at our house and he opened up and showed off his awesomeness. Then we had a meeting discussing our goals and plans for him. Since their extended school year services are a bit limited and he has cousins to socialize with, it was decided that we will wait to start his services when school starts. He will be receiving speech, OT and general therapies which will take place at a combination of the development center, preschool and our home. I'm super excited about how flexible and willing to work with Mr N specifically to ensure his needs are met.
Mr N's speech has progressed exponentially, I'm certain that I've commented on it in every post recently but every day he surprises us with his quickly increasing vocabulary. His sentences are becoming longer and more frequent. Some give us a giggle as he will say "did you hear me?" and "let's get out of here" while his manners are becoming stronger, saying "thank you" much clearer and unprompted much of the time.
Recently he has began to sing, sometimes he even makes up songs, he sang a song about shoes the other day and sang twinkle twinkle little start with sissy. He tries new things, like yesterday he was determined to see if he could pee between the railings on the deck, he succeeded. Living in town will take some adjusting as wearing clothes outside wasn't a priority when we lived on 5 acres in a forest. Our summertime nudist days are over which of course means more laundry.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Clowns, camping and cars
Since my blogging has been sporadic at best, I thought I'd share some of our summer experiences.
A few weeks ago we took the kids to their first circus. We never know how Mr N will react to new things, especially when it comes to crowds. We arrived a bit before it started and E got her face painted, while Daddy took Mr N to say hello to the elephants and ponies. By the time we were ready to sit down for the circus to start Mr N was done and wanting to leave. Arriving as it started would have been a better plan in retrospect.
Daddy got him calmed down and brought him to our seats, he played with his cars for a while until things started picking up. Then the clowns came out.....I've never seen Mr N laugh so hard for so long in my life. He thought the clowns were hysterical (they were likely the lamest clowns in the history of clowns) and could not get enough of them.
Over the 4th of July weekend we went camping with my brother and his family, as well as a few of their friends. We ended up getting rained on several times throughout the weekend, but still got some fishing, hiking and off roading squeezed in between rain showers. There were 10 kiddos camping with our group which gave Mr N lots of socialization opportunities. He played really well with the other kids and displayed some amazing peer interaction with his cousin.
A couple of the families had 4 wheelers, which Mr N thought were enticing. He would climb up and just sit and pretend to drive. On the last day we were there he got to go for a ride up the road, he loved it. I'm so proud of him for trying new things and being more comfortable around new people. My heart soars watching him grow.
His latest obsession is cars, mostly matchbox cars, but he really likes any and all cars. We've collected cars over the last several months but since a few accompany us everywhere we go they don't all make it back home. Daddy decided we should just buy some from ebay since they sell them in lots of 100. The package came with each car individually wrapped in tissue. Mr N's face was full of excitement and wonder as he unwrapped each car. Of course, he can never decide which car to play with now so he has to dump them ALL out and play with them all simultaneously, which means we have over 100 cars on the floor at all times. Thankfully only a few make it downstairs at a time the rest are in his bedroom.
A few weeks ago we took the kids to their first circus. We never know how Mr N will react to new things, especially when it comes to crowds. We arrived a bit before it started and E got her face painted, while Daddy took Mr N to say hello to the elephants and ponies. By the time we were ready to sit down for the circus to start Mr N was done and wanting to leave. Arriving as it started would have been a better plan in retrospect.
Daddy got him calmed down and brought him to our seats, he played with his cars for a while until things started picking up. Then the clowns came out.....I've never seen Mr N laugh so hard for so long in my life. He thought the clowns were hysterical (they were likely the lamest clowns in the history of clowns) and could not get enough of them.
Over the 4th of July weekend we went camping with my brother and his family, as well as a few of their friends. We ended up getting rained on several times throughout the weekend, but still got some fishing, hiking and off roading squeezed in between rain showers. There were 10 kiddos camping with our group which gave Mr N lots of socialization opportunities. He played really well with the other kids and displayed some amazing peer interaction with his cousin.
A couple of the families had 4 wheelers, which Mr N thought were enticing. He would climb up and just sit and pretend to drive. On the last day we were there he got to go for a ride up the road, he loved it. I'm so proud of him for trying new things and being more comfortable around new people. My heart soars watching him grow.
His latest obsession is cars, mostly matchbox cars, but he really likes any and all cars. We've collected cars over the last several months but since a few accompany us everywhere we go they don't all make it back home. Daddy decided we should just buy some from ebay since they sell them in lots of 100. The package came with each car individually wrapped in tissue. Mr N's face was full of excitement and wonder as he unwrapped each car. Of course, he can never decide which car to play with now so he has to dump them ALL out and play with them all simultaneously, which means we have over 100 cars on the floor at all times. Thankfully only a few make it downstairs at a time the rest are in his bedroom.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Catching Up
I know it's been about a month since my last post, and I sincerely apologize. Using the iPad to blog just doesn't work well and the last post I made disappeared.
Mr N has made such remarkable progress since we've been here it has been astounding. My brother has commented that he can see an improvement in his social skills in the last four months. His speech has improved drastically, not only increasing his number of words, but the pronouncing of words has also improved. "Thank you" is not a new word for Mr N, he's been using it for well over a year but it sounded nothing like "thank you" until the last month or so. Now when he says "thank you" even a stranger can understand him, it's glorious. He is getting very good at saying please, thank you, excuse me and you're welcome without prompting.
When we had Mr N's evaluation about a month ago they asked about stringing words together, at the time he was only stringing about 3 words together occasionally. Now he is stringing 5-6 words together much more frequently. We have been very impressed by his progress recently and look forward to seeing more of it. Since he has made such rapid progress we decided (the development center and us) that we would wait to start therapy at the beginning of the school year instead of starting him in the extended school year program. I'm super excited about his IEP and the way it is written. They left a lot of room for flexibility and expanding goals. I have no doubt that his progress will only continue.
E will be starting Kindergarten next month and couldn't be more excited, she plays Reading Eggs every day because she is determined to be the smartest kid in her class. We've bought all of her school supplies aside from a backpack and she is thrilled to be starting school. She loves to use catch phrases such as "it's hot as a whistle" or "I'm razing mad". She does not use them correctly 90% of the time which makes it even cuter.
I have to go finish putting in my flower garden so I'll keep this short. I will try to sneak on Daddy's computer more often to update.
Cheers
Mr N has made such remarkable progress since we've been here it has been astounding. My brother has commented that he can see an improvement in his social skills in the last four months. His speech has improved drastically, not only increasing his number of words, but the pronouncing of words has also improved. "Thank you" is not a new word for Mr N, he's been using it for well over a year but it sounded nothing like "thank you" until the last month or so. Now when he says "thank you" even a stranger can understand him, it's glorious. He is getting very good at saying please, thank you, excuse me and you're welcome without prompting.
When we had Mr N's evaluation about a month ago they asked about stringing words together, at the time he was only stringing about 3 words together occasionally. Now he is stringing 5-6 words together much more frequently. We have been very impressed by his progress recently and look forward to seeing more of it. Since he has made such rapid progress we decided (the development center and us) that we would wait to start therapy at the beginning of the school year instead of starting him in the extended school year program. I'm super excited about his IEP and the way it is written. They left a lot of room for flexibility and expanding goals. I have no doubt that his progress will only continue.
E will be starting Kindergarten next month and couldn't be more excited, she plays Reading Eggs every day because she is determined to be the smartest kid in her class. We've bought all of her school supplies aside from a backpack and she is thrilled to be starting school. She loves to use catch phrases such as "it's hot as a whistle" or "I'm razing mad". She does not use them correctly 90% of the time which makes it even cuter.
I have to go finish putting in my flower garden so I'll keep this short. I will try to sneak on Daddy's computer more often to update.
Cheers
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