Speech

Henry was officially 29 months old on Wednesday (25.5 months adjusted...but we don't really adjust these days). He is simply amazing. He started off the morning telling me "I want to go to Toys R Us and get new toys." I told him that he had to go to school. He said something like "I go to school tomorrow."

Miss R was good for Jeff when it came to the nebulizer. Not so good still when it comes to teeth brushing. We are planning to get her a singing tooth brush, which Alison recommended. Apparently, you can only hear it when you put it in your mouth. We found several on Amazon last night, but Jeff was irked that the shipping cost as much as the tooth brush itself. The sellers wanted over $6 to ship for a $6 tooth brush. I looked at Toys R Us online, but their singing tooth brushes revolve around Hannah Montana or High School Musical. I am not thrilled with either theme. I'd prefer to pay the stupid $6 shipping charge and get her one that sings the Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get Started" or Kiss' "I Want To Rock and Roll."

This morning, Henry and Miss R were very cute playing on the Sit and Spin. It is nice to see them be able to work the spinning part now. Henry was sitting on it at one point, and Miss R stood on it opposite him while he spun it. Very cute.

My parents called Jeff in the afternoon and said that they wanted the kids. It has been about a week since the kids have been over there w/o us. I stayed at school until 7:30PM grading and then got the kids at my parents' house.

All was well. Miss R was delighted to see me. Henry wanted to continue watching a Snoopy Halloween special. As we headed out the door, I looked at Henry and found him completely and utterly soaked despite the fact my parents had changed him 20 minutes earlier. He managed to get the pull-up below his front despite his shorts looking normal. He informed me, "I peed on myself" but didn't seem particularly concerned about it.

Miss R fell asleep in the car. We got home after 9PM. Henry wanted a snack before bed. I acquiesed. He started off with animal crackers and was very cute making them play on his tray. Then, he wanted my chex mix. Then, he wanted dried fruit. And then, he wanted the swiss cheese that I was putting on my black bean burger. He said, "I want a big piece."

His speech has become so well-developed in a short period of time. I believe that he's been rather advanced in the area since about 15 months adjusted when he already had 50 words in his pocket. What amazes us is how he went from short sentences or words to stringing a couple sentences together. Plus, he seems to understand words that are used to describe and compare. I was surprised by his "big piece" request. Looking at the speech milestones, I think that he is several months ahead of his age (adjusted or actual). Speech is one of those areas where he really excels.

While I wouldn't consider Miss R's speech a strength yet, we are incredibly impressed by the trajectory of her speech. Over the last 5 months, she has acquired a lot of words. Her progress is stunning. She learned the names of body parts incredibly quickly to the point where we are able to discuss some nuances like "eyes" vs. "eye brows." I'm obviously not a speech therapist, but I think that she a delayed a couple months on speech when she came into our home. Recently, the one speech area where I was a little concerned was her demonstrating an understanding of how to put two concepts together. She's been saying "hold you" for awhile but I don't think that she had internalized "hold" and "you" as two concepts. Just this past week, however, she put together "No, Mommy." Her demonstration of two concepts would of course involve the word "no." While I wasn't thrilled at her obstinence, I was thrilled that her skills are evolving. She is often soft-spoken when she speaks and that soft nature doesn't illustrate all that she knows. But both Jeff and I have noticed her confidence growing and her enunciation improving. The other day, she mimicked some sounds with perfect clarity. And today, she said some words amazingly well. I suspect that she'll be the kind of child that doesn't necessarily do things gradually. Tomorrow, an evaluator from La Fronterra will be visiting us. I'll be surprised if Miss R doesn't test in the normal range (probably above the 50th percentile).

While I'm unimpressed with the fact that Miss R's developmental coodinator through La Fronterra hasn't seen her personally during the time that she's been with us, I guess it is better late than never. I know that they are overloaded with cases. She was supposed to have a developmental follow up after her initial consultation with Blake a couple days after being in our home. Luckily, Jeff and I have been immersed in developmental issues and had a pretty good sense of where we thought her weaknesses might be and a general sense of what therapists would probably have us do. Her motor skills have vastly improved over the last five months. The other day (or perhaps it was this morning), Henry was jumping at my request (love to see those two feet off the ground) and Miss R tried to do it too. It was pretty darn close. And she landed w/o falling. She hasn't been able to make it down the stairs yet w/o holding onto something, but I think that's more of a confidence issue than a lack of ability. Her fine motor skills have always looked advanced to me. She has nimble fingers. Perhaps she'll be a surgeon.

I'm not really sure how much credit Jeff and I can take for Miss R's amazing progress. We have provided a good environment for learning. We talk and read a lot with the kids. But I suspect that Henry has been a much greater source of inspiration and modeling than Jeff or me. Kids definitely learn from each other. And, simply put, Miss R has had it in her to excel.

After Henry's snack, he read "The Penguin Who Hated the Cold" with Jeff. Henry filled in most of the blanks when Jeff would pause after beginning a sentence. Henry's memorization of books is amazing. I'm pretty sure that he gets it from Jeff. Jeff has an interesting ability to recite quotations from movies, for example, word-for-word. I'm quite good at remembering the gist of an idea, but Jeff knows things verbatim.

I'd better get to bed. It is late, and the house is quiet.