Joel replaced the ropes on the kids swings with fresh, brand new, soft ropes! Thank you, Daddy!!!
Mr. Handy Man ;-)Sunday, May 24, 2009
Our Last Zoo Trip....
to the Dallas Zoo, for awhile anyways. Last year we went to the Zoo for the first time and got a family membership. We've gone several times over the past year but unfortunately the lion, elephant, and gorilla died shortly after we got our pass! So we have decided to try out the Fort Worth Zoo next time and pass on renewing our membership. Here are some cute pics from our last trip of the year:
On the Monorail, which the kids loved! They thought the train was pretty neat.
Before we left I thought it would be fun to snap a picture of the kids sitting on this wall, for the scrapbook, of course, but Grant and Kate were being such stinkers, as you can tell. Oh well, at least I got a few laughs when looking at these pictures later!
Almost a cute one!
"Mom, we are so done with this!"
On the Monorail, which the kids loved! They thought the train was pretty neat.
Before we left I thought it would be fun to snap a picture of the kids sitting on this wall, for the scrapbook, of course, but Grant and Kate were being such stinkers, as you can tell. Oh well, at least I got a few laughs when looking at these pictures later!
Almost a cute one!
"Mom, we are so done with this!"
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Kate's Speech Eval
This morning Kate was tested to see if she will qualify for speech therapy through public school once she turns three. Right now she is in the speech program through public school for children 0-3 years old. Once she turns 3 she will age out and will go to the elementary school of our choice to receive speech therapy. She doesn't qualify like Grant did for the preschool program but based on articulation she will qualify. She will be considered an "in building" kid which means I will take her up to school 1 or 2 times a week for 30 minutes. The exact times and days will be determined by the speech therapist at the school.
She did really good today during her testing. I am always anxious when it comes to any kind of testing because I never know how my kids will be and if they will show their true self. Kate did for the most part and toward the end was getting a little too comfortable as she threw herself on the floor pouting because she didn't want to do what the kind lady was asking her to do. Such a hard life being a 2 year old! Within a few days I'll get the full report.
Her speech is coming along but most of her words she doesn't say the ending sound. Book sounds like boo, and bus sounds like bu for example. She is starting to put two words together like "Pray me" or "Me pray" at the dinner table and "Grant no" and "Me bye-bye". I have to be careful what I say because sometimes when I tell Grant to stop acting like a brat, she will point to him and say "brat" but without the /t/ at the end! This morning in the car she was counting the school buses that she saw and was saying "two five two two five two" It was really cute. I guess she hasn't quiet gotten the hang of 1, 3, or 4, but we're working on that!
She did really good today during her testing. I am always anxious when it comes to any kind of testing because I never know how my kids will be and if they will show their true self. Kate did for the most part and toward the end was getting a little too comfortable as she threw herself on the floor pouting because she didn't want to do what the kind lady was asking her to do. Such a hard life being a 2 year old! Within a few days I'll get the full report.
Her speech is coming along but most of her words she doesn't say the ending sound. Book sounds like boo, and bus sounds like bu for example. She is starting to put two words together like "Pray me" or "Me pray" at the dinner table and "Grant no" and "Me bye-bye". I have to be careful what I say because sometimes when I tell Grant to stop acting like a brat, she will point to him and say "brat" but without the /t/ at the end! This morning in the car she was counting the school buses that she saw and was saying "two five two two five two" It was really cute. I guess she hasn't quiet gotten the hang of 1, 3, or 4, but we're working on that!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
What I've been up to lately
Is creating a dark room. Sounds fun, huh? In December when we got Grant's 1st program with NACD, one of the activities is for him to watch tv in a dark room 3-5 feet away. Add to that: make sure he will not be able to play with the tv buttons. Just about all of you who read this blog have been to my house and know that it is small. It would be one thing if we had a spare room or something that we could make into a dark room but we don't so we were really stumped at what to do. At first Joel and I thought that there is no way we can do this one.
Well, five months later and about 5 brainstorms later we finally have a solution: Grant's room! All of his toys are put up in the closet and his room is the least distractable. Within about 24 hours of Joel and I coming up with this plan, we had bought a tv/vcr combo off Craig's list for $20, got about 30 VHS tapes from my mom (Thank you, Mom!), a black sheet to cover his window during the day, two extra pillows (to be comfy), and two yellow pillowcases. I went to my friend's house one night this week to sew on velcro to the sheet and then I put sticky velcro on the wall around the window. It works perfectly and we can put it up and take it down easily when we need to. We rearranged Grant's furniture to maximize being comfy on the bed while watching tv. So for the past couple of days, we have been watching tv throughout the day on Grant's bed in a dark room 3-5 feet away from us. It's been wonderful! I told Joel last night that this is my favorite activity now because I can actually relax (and snuggle) while 'working' with Grant, and I'm putting forth the least amount of energy for this activity. Joel said, "Well, this is what normal parents experience when their children!" Grant (and Kate) has never really watched tv much. We're not big tv watchers to begin with but he has always been more fascinated with the buttons than with what's on the screen.
It took up 5 months to figure this one out but I'm just so excited that we did. The rest of Grant's program is going well. I feel like I'm starting to come out of the 'adjustment phase'. I'm still learning what works and what doesn't and I'm still learning how to make it fun for Grant. Yesterday I gave him a pair of sunglasses after he worked really well with me and he seemed to like that. I've never done that before with him so I'm going to try to do more things like that. I also have a bunch of stickers, which both kids love, that I use after doing really good at a certain activity. Coming up with motivating things is hard for me. And with Grant it has to be random. For awhile I was giving him "candy" after he did a certain activity and he got to the point where that was all he was literally thinking about. It was like he couldn't even think about what he was supposed to do! Stickers are the same way. So I just try to change it up and that seems to help.
If you have any great ideas that you think might work with Grant, let me know! Also, if you have any old vhs tapes that you don't need or want, feel free to pass them on to Grant! Anything family friendly is great! You can keep praying that we will get program done everyday, that I will stay positive, and that Grant will cooperate more and more. Also, praise the Lord that things are going better now than they were before!
Well, five months later and about 5 brainstorms later we finally have a solution: Grant's room! All of his toys are put up in the closet and his room is the least distractable. Within about 24 hours of Joel and I coming up with this plan, we had bought a tv/vcr combo off Craig's list for $20, got about 30 VHS tapes from my mom (Thank you, Mom!), a black sheet to cover his window during the day, two extra pillows (to be comfy), and two yellow pillowcases. I went to my friend's house one night this week to sew on velcro to the sheet and then I put sticky velcro on the wall around the window. It works perfectly and we can put it up and take it down easily when we need to. We rearranged Grant's furniture to maximize being comfy on the bed while watching tv. So for the past couple of days, we have been watching tv throughout the day on Grant's bed in a dark room 3-5 feet away from us. It's been wonderful! I told Joel last night that this is my favorite activity now because I can actually relax (and snuggle) while 'working' with Grant, and I'm putting forth the least amount of energy for this activity. Joel said, "Well, this is what normal parents experience when their children!" Grant (and Kate) has never really watched tv much. We're not big tv watchers to begin with but he has always been more fascinated with the buttons than with what's on the screen.
It took up 5 months to figure this one out but I'm just so excited that we did. The rest of Grant's program is going well. I feel like I'm starting to come out of the 'adjustment phase'. I'm still learning what works and what doesn't and I'm still learning how to make it fun for Grant. Yesterday I gave him a pair of sunglasses after he worked really well with me and he seemed to like that. I've never done that before with him so I'm going to try to do more things like that. I also have a bunch of stickers, which both kids love, that I use after doing really good at a certain activity. Coming up with motivating things is hard for me. And with Grant it has to be random. For awhile I was giving him "candy" after he did a certain activity and he got to the point where that was all he was literally thinking about. It was like he couldn't even think about what he was supposed to do! Stickers are the same way. So I just try to change it up and that seems to help.
If you have any great ideas that you think might work with Grant, let me know! Also, if you have any old vhs tapes that you don't need or want, feel free to pass them on to Grant! Anything family friendly is great! You can keep praying that we will get program done everyday, that I will stay positive, and that Grant will cooperate more and more. Also, praise the Lord that things are going better now than they were before!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Two New Words!
Every now and then when I'm talking with friends and their kids are close by I sometimes catch myself saying a word that I probably wouldn't want them to repeat. Not like cussing but rather words like crap or stupid or butt. One thing about having speech delayed kids is you don't have this problem of them repeating bad words! Not that Joel and I are in the habbit of using bad words but there are times we might use the word stupid or dumb and don't even think about Grant or Kate repeating it.
Last night all four of us were out and as we were driving Joel and I were talking. Joel was telling me about what he thinks when he sees people pushing a Wal-mart cart down the road close to our house in between our house and Wal-Mart. He said, "It's so W T (white trash)." And from the back I hear Kate giggling and saying "de uh T". I turned around and looked at her. She thought "W T" was apparently really funny and was trying to say it. A few minutes later I said "Duh" (don't worry, it was a nice 'duh' and it will take me too long to go into the story) and right away Grant said "Duh". It was so funny. So two new words that my kids are saying: "W T" and "Duh".
Still makes me laugh when I think about it!
Last night all four of us were out and as we were driving Joel and I were talking. Joel was telling me about what he thinks when he sees people pushing a Wal-mart cart down the road close to our house in between our house and Wal-Mart. He said, "It's so W T (white trash)." And from the back I hear Kate giggling and saying "de uh T". I turned around and looked at her. She thought "W T" was apparently really funny and was trying to say it. A few minutes later I said "Duh" (don't worry, it was a nice 'duh' and it will take me too long to go into the story) and right away Grant said "Duh". It was so funny. So two new words that my kids are saying: "W T" and "Duh".
Still makes me laugh when I think about it!
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