A Moment of Clarity

Driving home from school today, Christian and I were having our usual little conversations. I usually ask him what he did in school, who he played with (working on answering "wh" questions, can't you tell!), if he had fun, and then I talk about all the things we see on our drive home. Not only is it a good language opportunity, I try my hardest to keep him up on our trip home so he actually will take a good nap when we get home.

Today, before I even had to ask, as we were pulling away from school, Christian just started telling me ALL about his day:

Christian- "Mommy, basketball in gym (prounounced bah-ket-ball in gym)!Mommy! Play bahketball in gym!"

Me- "Oh, Wow Christian, did you play in the gym today?"

Christian-"Shoot blue bah-ket-ball! OH BOY!"

Me-(Now with tears welling in my eyes, as I'm pulling out onto Massachusetts Ave.) "Christian, that is awesome! Did you have fun playing basketball in the gym?"

Christian-"Awesome basketball!"


At this point, it was full on niagra falls for me. I know I've been a ball of emotions lately, but complete and profound joy overcame me on the ride home today. To think that I thought I would never hear his voice. And my loving little boy is in the backseat of my car, telling me all about his awesome day playing basketball in the gym at school. Using his sweet, beautiful words.

Mmmm COOKIES!

We had Christian's school holiday party yesterday. I'm one of the Room Mom's, and organized a cookie decorating party. The kids loved the sprinkles and frosting. And I loved watching all of them (especially my little man) actually dig in and enjoy the fun! And of course, it was a great language opportunity...we talked all about shaking the sprinkles, the colors, and of course, how yummy the cookies were.

I feel so fortunate to be able to be there to volunteer and be a part of Christian's school. Even though I feel like my days as a stay-at-home Mom lately have been more than difficult, yesterday was a reminder of just how lucky I am to be able to be there for my little guy always.

Making the best out of a stinky situation...

Christian came down with the worst stomach virus I've seen last week. This poor little guy was the most sick I've ever seen him. It started after school on Tuesday where everything he had that day came out while he was sitting on his high-chair (thank goodness I have the Chicco Polly Chair with 2 WASHABLE PADS!)! My little man was terrified, and he is just now getting back to his normal self.

Both Chuck and I caught the virus towards the end of the week. There is NOTHING fun about having the stomach flu at 33 weeks pregnant. In addition to an almost trip to the ER for me, Chuck missing 4 days of work, and me missing 3 parties (1 of which I was scheduled to host), we actually did try to make the best of the situation. It's very rare that we get so much time together as a family. Christian really liked having his Dad around to take care of him all day long, and I appreciated Chuck taking the days off in the beginning before he was sick to take care of our little man to try to keep me from getting sick (even though it didn't work).

As always, we make every situation a language opportunity. Here are some of the words that Christian learned and used this past week:

Yucky Tummy
Ouch
Sick
and most importantly
PEEE---U

Lollipop

Very early on in Christian's journey, I used to make the differentiation between "play-time" and "listening-time". I had a hard time bouncing between Mommy and then Therapist. I remember venting my frustrations to our EI teacher, and she helped me realize that I could (and must) do both at the same time. For little ones, she reminded me that "Play is work". So, since that day last year, I've kept that mantra. Christian's play IS his work. It IS his therapy. So, we just make EVERY playtime a listening opportunity.

As Christian has gotten older, I've been able to demand more structured listening out of him, such as requesting his Ling Sounds during our morning listening check (which also occurs during breakfast, or coloring). We're really working on 2-3 word combinations, so I've been able to request more of those as we're in our playroom stacking blocks, putting together a puzzle or play-doh.

I took this video last week right after he woke up from his PM nap. Most Moms of toddlers will tell you that the hardest part of the day is the time in between nap and when Daddy gets home. I always like to find an activity for us to do together (that is usually out of the house) for the witching hour. This video captures one of those conversations, along with a Lollipop that he was rewarded with on a recent shopping trip.

Just when we got the hang of it...

First of all, I am proud (ok ELATED) to report that Christian has been CONSISTENTLY responding and producing all 6 Ling Sounds for the past week. WAHOO!

We went up to the mall yesterday to fill some time before dinner, and I was shocked to see that Santa was already holding post with his elves. Wasn't Halloween just 2.5 weeks ago? Didn't we JUST carve pumpkins. And most importantly, haven't we finally JUST mastered the fall vocabulary that we've been working on? I was so not ready to replace our little conversations about turkeys, mashed potatoes, football, and pilgrims with Santa, Snowmen, Baby Jesus, and Elves.

I don't think I have to worry about Christian getting the vocab for this season. When we walked by Santa and I asked him to wave to him, he promptly said "Hiiii Danta". He told me all about the "NO-Man" and the "No-Dars" (he thinks snowflakes are snow-stars). And when Santa's elves appeared, he laughed and said "Ed-Hat" (red hat).

So, I'll be working on Christmas vocab cards this week...and I guess I might as well start Christmas shopping too!

Another Farm Trip!

This is our 3rd trip to a farm this fall, and Christian is loving every single one. I'm all about completely saturating him in vocab!

Today we went to Sharp's Farm with our D/HOH group. Christian got to spend the whole morning with his teachers. He's totally sucking in all the wonderful fall vocab we've been working on, and showed off today by pointing out tractors (trah-tor), and all of the animals and their sounds. We even saw the big red barn that we've been reading about at his school and at home. He was in heaven when we went to his 2nd pumpkin patch of the season, and picked out a very nice little pumpkin of his own.

Lady...you can't go back there...

So, today was our morning full of errands. After Christian's EI appointment today with the Divine Miss M , we headed out to go pick up print cartridges, groceries, drop-off library books, and pick-up Chuck's Birthday Cake.

We went to the Social Safeway (no, not the one in Georgetown) here in our town, where I usually run into at least 3 of my neighbors. As we pulled in, a HUGE truck FULL of pumpkins was being off-loaded. Now, where I come from, you actually go to the pumpkin patch, have your Dad bring a pocket knife, and you actually cut your pumpkin off the vine. You have cider and donuts, maybe pick some apples, and take a hayride. I still haven't found the perfect patch here in the DC area, so we go to this commercial orchard about 15 minutes from our house for all of our pumpkins.

Anyway, while this truck was being off-loaded, Christian was going nuts.

PUMP-KEH! PUMP-KEY! WOOOOW!

His sweet little voice was echoing throughout the entire lot. So, I did what any other Mom utlizing auditory/verbal therapy would do...I snuck him into the back of the store to watch the entire process.

We hung out for a good 10 minutes before a very nice, but very annoyed Safeway employee told me I couldn't bring my "baby" (yeah, what baby weighs 34 pounds and wears size 7.5 shoes?) into the receiving area of the store for safety reasons. This whole time, Christian was just in heaven. He was so excited. We talked about the trucks, the men with the hats, the pumpkins, the leaves on the pumpkins.

We then went on to grocery shop, which is always a good language opportunity, but not as good as watching thousands of pumpkins come off a truck.

Fall Vocab Is So FUN!

We're working on our fall vocabulary. We've got pumpkins, acorns, apples, leaves, Halloween decorations, not to mention all the farm and cider mill words that we've been working on for some time. Everything (as always) is a language opportunity in our house, and we've been playing in the leaves outside, talking all about their texture, their color (well, lack there of...peak color doesn't hit us in DC until about Halloween), and even playing with our little pumpkins and gourds. It's been so much fun, especially now that the weather is cooler. Fall is my favorite season, and I love showing and teaching Christian all these new things. He's mastered pumpkin (UMPKEH), and says Trick-or-Treat (Treh OOOO TREE).

Leah has this AMAZING recipe and activity on her blog today for Mini-Candied Apples...what a great way language opportunity and a FUN activity. Not to mention, at 6 months pregnant, I will never turn down sweets!

THE BEACH

There's something about my parents that just turns Christian into a little parrot. Every time that we are around them, the kid picks up a bunch of new words. I always said that in my family, you couldn't get a word in edgewise. We are a bunch of talkers. If my Mom wasn't singing to him or telling him a silly story, Uncle Nick and Aunt Sarah were playing games and being silly with him. I think it's safe to say that he definitely got ALOT of auditory input on this trip! Before I get into my re-cap of our amazing vacation with my family in Dewey Beach, I have to brag and post the 6 new words Christian learned this week and is using consistently and in perfect context. Go BABY!

The Beach (Pronounced by the monkey as "Da Bee").
By day 3 of the vacation, we'd ask him where he would want to go, and he would respond Da Bee. We asked him where the waves were, and we got Da Bee. He would point to the dunes and say Da Bee. I love my little beach bum.

Moon (pronounced Mooom)
Mister Personality decided to wake up at 5am SEVERAL days on vacation. Chuck would wake up to a little boy staring out of the crib screaming for Daddy, while the rest of the house was still asleep. On their early morning walks, Christian saw the moon in the daybreak sky, and constantly looks for it and asks for it now.

Spoon (pronounced Poom)
Let's just say he ate ALOT of ice cream on this trip.

Na Na (pronounced just right)
My Mom's dream come true...she finally heard her name this week.

Nick (pronounced Nih)
Christian LOVES his Uncle Nick, who was a constant source of amusement on the beach and in the house. AND CHECK OUT THAT AMAZING "N" sound AGAIN! WAHOO!

Sarah (pronounced Rah Rah)
His Aunt Sarah is the one who spoils him rotten.

Sammy (AMMEE)
I guess his stand-off with our siamese is over. The moment we walked in the door today, he pointed, laughed and said "Hi AMMEE". If only we can get that S sound.

What's That?

Well, it's sounds more like "Wha Daaat?", but I'll take it anyway.

Christian has picked up on Mommy constantly pointing and asking him what things were, and for the past few days has been curiously pointing to EVERYTHING and then asking 'What's That?". What makes me even more proud of him, is that it's not just for things that he's asking. IT'S ALSO FOR SOUNDS.

We were in our backyard today, and the house directly behind us has some construction going on. We have a nice, big, and tree-filled backyard and were sitting on our patio. What sounded like saws through wood came from the house behind us. Christian stopped in his tracks, put his index finger on his ear, turned to me and said 'Wha Daat?"

And of course, I started crying big crocodile tears of joy. And then they turned into big sobs. I haven't prayed out loud much these days, but I actually stopped mid-sob and thanked St. Theresa for prayers answered. I scooped Christian up, and Googled an image of a saw, all the while telling him all about it.

10 seconds later, we were running around the block (on a hot and sticky DC day) so I could show Christian what made that noise that he liked so much. And HE LOVED IT!

I'm so proud of my sweet boy. He's working SO hard to listen and talk.

On a side note, especially to my neighbors....no, I did not call the Fire Department today just so Christian could see the firetruck (although ya'll know I've done stranger things for a language opportunity for this kid). A truck hit the top of an electrical wire that was hanging really low in front of my house, and it fell onto my neighbor's fence and in the road. Since my kitchen bay window is my command station (I mean, I am the eyes and ears of our street), I witnessed the whole thing. The nice boys from the station were here in minutes.

And Christian got to touch the truck AND the wheel.

It was a good afternoon.