So much for rules!

It’s been far too long since I’ve been here.  So much has happened.  You know my rule? “Nothing else that poops”? Yup. That's the one.  We broke it.

Over the last year all of our elderly cats passed away. One was 25, so she had a good long life!  After about three months of life with no pets, I we decided it was time to look at adoption.  We started looking at the web pages of different animal adoption organizations and finally made the decision to visit our local Humane Society.  While there, I bonded with a lovely cat. She was 4 years old and with a special promotion going on, the adoption fee would be waived.

Hubby decided he wasn’t quite ready to make the leap and adopt a cat yet.  We left the place with three crying children in tow.  They were devastated. (I have to admit, I wanted to cry too).  A couple of days passed and hubby started thinking again.  Unbeknownst to me, my husband had his eye on a kitten.  The reason he liked this kitten? It was a polydactyl kitten which meant it has extra toes.  The more we talked, the more we decided we would adopt the 4 year old and a kitten. Then hubby started feeling guilty. There were TWO polydactyl kittens there and they were litter mates. He was worried about separating them. I jokingly reminded him that we’ve had three cats before, so it’s not that big of a deal to add one more.  Right? (wrong! kittens are naughty!)

Upon my arrival at the Human Society, I gathered the slips with the info on each cat and took them to the adoption desk. The woman was confused and asked which one I was planning to adopt.  When I told her all three, even she looked at me like I was insane.  We had to go through a few extra steps and a lot more questions AND bring the family back for an interview, but we left with three cats as part of our family.

So much for rules. 

Here we go again...

Little Dude (my youngest) has a speech delay.  Yup.  That's right.  Another child with a speech delay. 

I'll admit I noticed it earlier than I noticed my daughter's.  Unfortunately I was in denial and held off on calling early intervention (EI) for a couple of months.  I heard the same things from family and friends that I heard the first time around; "His brother talks for him."  Only this time, I also heard "He's a boy.  They are always a little slower to talk."  And my personal favorite, "He's probably just imitating his sister."

Shortly after he turned 2, I finally reached our EI department.  They came out promptly to test him and ask a boatload of questions I've answered before.  Again, I had to explain repeatedly that he can hear perfectly fine. There are no concerns there.  The only time he "can't" hear is when he chooses not to.  (He is two after all.)

With my daughter's Apraxia diagnosis, the EI people seemed to listen to me a little more this time around and were very careful when taking notes on his speech development.  At the end of the appointment, they told me they would be in touch, but they were recommending that he receive speech therapy services.  A month later, Little Dude started receiving his weekly visits from Miss K.

It's hard to believe it's been nearly 6 months since he started his speech therapy.  Sadly there hasn't been much improvement.  In fact, I've noticed that there are words he used to say that he no longer says.  He's using sounds and gestures more often.  I know a lot of that is probably because he's frustrated and can't say what's on his mind.  On the other hand, I don't know that we are doing all we can for Little Dude, so I just scheduled an appointment with a private SLP.  I think I'll call her Rock Star.  That's what she is for kiddos with speech problems.  She diagnosed my daughter with Apraxia when everyone was telling us it was a delay.  And by everyone, I mean EI, the school system, the SLPs at our hospital's speech clinic.  Everyone.  I learned about Rock Star through a good friend.  My gut was telling me Little Dude has Apraxia like his sister.  Now I'm not as sure.  I'll admit it.  I'm a little scared about what I might learn at this appointment, but I need to move out of this place called Denial.  It might keep me sane for a little while, but it's certainly no good for Little Dude.

Crap vs. Clap

If you have a child with a speech disorder, you know the struggles as you try to communicate.  She can't get the words out correctly and you can't understand what she's trying to say.  It can lead to some interesting conversations!

As I was working on beading a necklace with my daughter, she looked up suddenly and said (what sounded like) "Who crapped in my bathroom?"  I was beyond startled by these words from my angelic looking daughter, so I composed myself and asked the usual question...what did you say??

She repeated herself.  "Who crapped in MY bathroom?"

I looked at her with a frown and explained that we don't say words like that.  Puzzled, she said "crap?" and proceeded to c-l-a-p her hands.  Ahhhh... the lightbulb flashed!  She had been asking me who "clapped" in her bathroom.  Her older brother had gone into the bathroom and for some unknown reason clapped his hands together.

Turning my misunderstanding into a learning opportunity, I modeled the way to move your mouth as you say the c-l blend and we practiced saying the word clap over and over and over until..yes!  She had it!

We practiced this morning.  Perfect words.  Unfortunately, in her pride to show of her new word to Grandpa when he showed up, she looked at him and said "Crap" loud and clear and with a beautiful smile.  Imagine HIS surprise!  I quickly explained what happened, modeled the word for her again and she proceeded to say the word correctly. 

Life with Apraxia has it's ups and downs. this week has been a rough week with a sick child, overloads at work and a broken garage door.  Hearing my little girl say "clap" made me forget all the bad things and brought a little needed joy into my life.

The Fascinating World of Preschoolers

Today my daughter begged to go outside. It was bitterly cold so the answer from Dad was "no". She begged and pleaded until he finally gave in while I was absorbed in another task.

She got herself ready and went outside. My husband told me I needed to look out the window because she was making snow angels. Yup. There in the snow was my adorable little angel, waving her arms and legs as she lay in the snow. The smile on her face was beautiful.

She didn't stay outside long. Just long enough to enjoy the beauty of the snow and get some fresh air. As she came inside, I asked if she was all done and she replied that her hands were too cold to stay outside. I began to help her take off her snow gear and that's when I discovered she got dressed for playing outside by herself. Without help from Dad.

I took off her lightweight knit gloves, all caked in snow and ice and I cringed. Her fingers were red and cold but she was babbling and enjoying the moment because she got her way and got to go outside to play. As I helped her off with her boots I cringed again - no socks. As I proceeded to help her with her coat, I was glad to see that although she had chosen pants that were much too lightweight for playing in the snow, at least she had on a long sleeve shirt.

As she stepped away from the pile of cold weather gear and the puddles of melting snow, she began to take off the rest of her clothes and strip down to her bathing suit. Yes, a bathing suit.

I took a moment to compose myself and then asked her about this interesting clothing choice. "Mommy, I need it for my pretend lake."

I watched as she walked to the living room, climbed onto the couch and then jumped as if she was jumping off the side of a pool. She laughed gleefully and proceeded to run around in the "water". I will never cease to be amazed at the fascinating and imaginative world of children.

Life with speech delays

Today DH and I met with a SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) to learn some techniques to help us work with our youngest two children.

To give you a little background, our middle child had a noticeable speech delay at age 2. Everyone kept telling us that her older brother talked for her so we shrugged it off. When there was no more denying that there was a problem, we took a deep breath and called our state for early childhood intervention and she was assigned an SLP to work wih her for an hour each week until she turned age 3.

After age 3, she began getting speech therapy through our local school system. We've been very fortunate to have great professionals to work with through all of our language and communication problems. Imagine my excitment (and tears of joy!) when she finally said "I love you Mommy" after about a year and a half of therapy!

This past summer, we had her evaluated by a private speech therapist who diagnosed her with Childhood Apraxia of Speech at age 4. To put it in the simplest way possible, she has a clear understanding of what is said to her. She has a clear understanding of what she wants to say to us, but her brain and muscles don't work together to get the words out correctly. Imagine wanting to talk and not being able to. I can't even imagine her frustration and it really put the temper tantrums and other behavior problems into perspective.

Fast forward a few months and we've had our youngest evaluated and he now gets speech therapy weekly for a speech delay. He has not been diagnosed yet, but seems to show some of the same speech patterns his sister shows. Only time will tell if his speech will develop normally or if he has a disorder like his sister.

With the struggles both our younger children are facing, we decided we needed professional help as well. As I mentioned, we met with an SLP today to learn "cues" to help our kids with their speech. Little did we know that we would discover entirely new languages! It was a little overwhelming when reality hit. We are facing a huge learning curve. Fortunately, our SLP is fabulous and pointed out that we can take this in small steps. She made us feel much better by explaining that anything we do with these tools is better than doing nothing, so it's ok to take them one step at a time.

So, my husband and I are going to learn to "speak" using verbal cues, tactile cues and sign language. I joked that some couples get to have a romantic night out, but we get the joy of staying in to practice our tactile cues *wink, wink*.

Nobody said parenting was going to be easy...

Adventure at Great Wolf Lodge

We haven't been able to take a vacation in quite a while, so I convinced my DH that we should take the family to an indoor waterpark for fall break. I began checking TripAdvisor reviews for various waterpark hotels within reasonable driving distance from our home and the one that stood out was Great Wolf Lodg. Fortunately, the one in Mason, Ohio is only a little over 2 hours away. So, we answered the call of the wolf and booked our room.

With a longer fall break this year, we were able to go on weekdays when the hotel and waterpark are less busy AND the prices are lower. Bonus! We departed from home on Sunday and arrived at check in well before our room was ready. Reading information online beforehand prepared us well. We had a separate bag packed with our suits and headed off to the pool. The front desk called as soon as our room was ready.

It took our kids a little while to feel comfortable with the waterpark environment, but they caught on quickly. I was concerned that we would be pulled in several different directions with three kids of various ages, but it turns out that my two youngest were quite happy in the area designed with young children in mind and the wave pool. My oldest was perfectly happy in the lazy river, the wave pool and the big slides.

When we figured our little ones needed a break, we headed to our room to change and check it out. We splurged and booked the Kid Kabin room and boy were we happy! I had seen the floor plan online, but it didn't prepare me for the size of the room. There was more than enough room for our family of five. The separate area for the three kids was great and they loved having their own space.

Our oldest loved the interactive MagiQuest game. The only thing that surprised me was how many kids were running around without their parents. After many trips back and forth and up and down stairs, I started to understand. Much to my son's disappointment, I still didn't let him go without a parent, so I counted it as my workout. It really is an interesting game and the kids seem to have a lot of fun playing it. Ok, so there were several adults that were clearly having fun with it too.

Great Wolf Lodge does a great job of keeping kids entertained. Between the time spent in the waterpark and playing the MagiQuest games, our kids were so busy we didn't even check out the arcade or the kid's club. From the first day, my kids begged to come back. We departed on Tuesday and the kids were begging to stay at the pool or play just one more "Quest". Based on the fun our family had, I'm sure we'll go back. At least next time we will know what to expect. For one, we'll plan a little better for our meals. I leaarned that we could pay for our breakfast in advance when we made reservations and checked in at a cost of $40. Instead, we paid the morning of and were shocked that for a family of 4 (little guy was free) we paid over $60 for breakfast.

All said, it was an expensive trip for three days, but everyone had fun and it was a nice break from reality for a few days. I'll be watching for specials and seeing what kind of deal we might find to convince us to go back!

The things kids say

There are some days I have to wonder what the outside world must think of us based on the things kids say. Yesterday, I was working with my middle child on her homework from her speech therapy session. We were working on the concept of sizes as description when using them in a sentence. For example, "I like little pumpkins." We practiced several sentences before we got to a new set of words; teeny weeny. My child had not hear this term before and with all the innocence and confusion of a 4 year old girl, she looked up at me, scrunched up her face in confusion and said "is that penis?" Honestly, it was hard to contain my laughter. Note to self-talk to oldest son about the use of the words weenie and weiner.

Later that evening, I took my oldest son to the store with me to purchase a birthday card for my father. As we scoured the racks looking for cards that said "Dad" or "Grandpa", my son found a card with sound. On the front was a picutre of a chicken and a cow with the words "What are the two sexiest farm animals?". He opened the card and a voice singing "brown chicken brown cow" in a way that made is sound like music from a porn movie. We both laughed out loud (for different reasons) and he started singing and dancing repeating "brown chicken brown cow" over and over. Ah, the questions that will go through the teachers minds at school the next day. I'm sure they have a different thought about our family movie nights now!