Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Michael and Rory

I know you aren't supposed to compare development of any 2 kids because they all develop at their own rate and blah blah blah, but I took this video of Rory last night and it reminded me of one I took of Michael at a similar age. Michael was actually about 2 months older than Rory is now in this video. This was the first time I heard him say "9" and "8". Also, what sounds like "what's that" is just a sound, not him making useful use of words.



Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Complete 180

Wow, speech therapy today was a complete 180 from last week. Last week we had an epic meltdown that ended with me dragging him out to the car and forcing him into his seat. Today he was chipper and cooperative and did pretend play! He even led a lot of the pretending which was super awesome!

It went something like this:


ST: What kind of juice would you like? Apple juice? Milk?
M: Apple juice! (pretends to drink) Mmmmm
ST: Ooh what do we have in our basket?
M: An apple! (pretends to pick it up and eat it)
ST: Oh do we have some sandwiches in the basket?
M: Yeah!
ST: What kind of sandwiches? Tuna? Grilled Cheese?
M: Peanut butter jelly! (pretends to eat)
Me: Oh can I have a sandwich too? What kind do I get?
M: Here mama, peanut butter jelly!
ST: Oh do we have some cookies in there?
M: Yeah! (pretends to eat one)
ST: What kind of cookie is it?
M: Brown!

:)

The ST and I got talking and she was telling me that the student that was sitting in on her session last week (during the epic meltdown) told her she was very impressed how I handled myself and Michael during all that. Then the ST told me that she thinks I'm meant to be Michael's mom because I handle him so well. I really needed to hear that. :') <--- happy tears!

Visit with Santa!

We've been delaying this ordeal for a couple weeks now after remembering what it was like the past few years. Since Christmas is on Sunday, we figured we better get it done already! We gathered the babies up after getting them dressed in their new Christmas-y outfits and got in the car. Everyone was happy and laughing - phew! Step 1 complete! We got to the mall and did a test drive of our -new to us- stroller. The kids thought it was tons of fun. Step 2 complete! We headed over to Santa and of course he was "out feeding his reindeer". No! The same thing happened last year. So we decided to go grab a bite to eat. This was traveling in dangerous territory...food and new shiny clothes...ahem. Michael only spilled a little bit of soda on his outfit, but nothing that was noticeable. Step 3 complete! We headed back to Santa and there was already a line forming and he wasn't even back yet. So we stood in line for about 20 minutes. Michael just sat in the stroller patiently but Rory was getting impatient and trying to run off into the stores. I chased her around a bit. She was about done with the whole idea. Finally, it was our turn. We decided to ask Santa to stand behind the chair like he did last year and try and have the kids sit on the chair alone. FAIL! Rory was scared out of her mind and would not sit down. She was hopping around, screaming and turning her butt toward the camera. Michael was being so sweet, trying to calm Rory down. After a few seconds of this crazy, we decided to have Santa try and sit on the chair and hold Rory down. Michael did AWESOME and let Santa come sit next to him without any protest. After a few screaming shots, we took Rory off of his lap. Michael then sat on Santa's lap! Santa started asking him if he liked Thomas the Train and of course this perked Michael up and he actually SPOKE to Santa! Then they both got peppermint suckers and were happy as clams after that. :) Michael did SO amazing and I was not expecting that at all. I'm so proud of him!

A conversation!!



I finally got smart and decided to get it on video. :)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

It happened again!!

So today Michael's teacher sent me an email telling me what they did at school. I asked Michael what he did today and he said

M: I went to school.
Me: Oh yeah? What else?
M: I go on school bus
Me: Oh yeah? What else?
M: I did circle time
Me: Anything else? Did you go to an assembly (the teacher said they went to a school-wide assembly)
M: Yeah
Me: Did you make candy canes with the teacher?
M: Yeah

:) This is so stinking awesome!!

Friday, December 16, 2011

The most AMAZING breakthrough!

Last night I had the first semi-reciprocal conversation with Michael! Yeah, this sounds like no biggie, right? Not really. For months when I put him to bed, I'd ask him about his day and see what he would do/say. Usually it was "No way mama!" which recently turned to "Yeah!". But last night I asked him about school and he actually responded with spontaneous speech! I emailed his teacher to see if what he was telling me was really stuff that he did or not, but really it doesn't matter that much because he was having a conversation with me! I mostly led the discussion, but still it was amazing!

It went something like this:

Me: Did you learn about trains today at school?
M: Yeah!
Me: Did you play with sparkles (glitter)?
M: Yeah!
Me: What colors were the sparkles?
M: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple!
Me: Did you also learn about cars?
M: Yeah!
Me: What did you do with the cars?
M: Cars in a circle!
Me: You played with cars in a circle? What else did you do with the cars?
M: Down the slide!
Me: Wow what else did you do?
M: Blocks build a mountain!
Me: You built a mountain with the blocks? What else did the blocks do?
M: Going so fast!
Me: Did you throw them so they were flying so fast?
M: Yeah!
Me: Did you go outside and play?
M: Yeah
Me: After that did you come in and have a snack?
M: Yeah! Popcorn.
Me: You had popcorn? Anything else?
M: Red, Orange, Blue
Me: Were they cookies?
M: Yeah, cookies! Wheels!
Me: The cookies looked like wheels?
M: Yeah! Wheels! Tasty.
Me: What shapes were they?
M: Circles!

Then Rory started crying so I had to stop and put him to bed. I wanted to just stay and have this conversation FOREVER! <3


UPDATE!!! I just got an email from his teacher that said this!
"That’s AWESOME!  We did have popcorn!  And the red, orange and blue was a fruit roll up!  Yes, he did play with blocks and with cars.  He also played with the train.  So, he did give an account of his morning!"

*HAPPY TEARS!!!*