A Post About Boy

Last summer, at his 2-year well visit, Boy's pediatrician was shocked when I said he maybe knew a dozen words and regularly said maybe 5 of them.  She said he should be closer to 200 words by then!  It's not that Boy didn't talk--he just didn't speak English.  She agree to wait another month or so to see if he caught on but after summer was over, I knew he just wasn't progressing so we initiated a speech therapist to come evaluate him.

Boy's evaluation shocked me a little bit--he actually scored normal in every area, even above normal in some areas, except for his expressive speech.  The lady doing the evaluation thought maybe he was so bright that he figured his language was understood by him and that it was us adults who had the problem for not knowing what he was saying.  His speech therapist later agreed and said that one day it would all just 'click.'  Which is exactly what happened.

We've grown to love our days that the speech therapist comes.  J is Boy's new buddy and he looks forward to having an hour of uninterrupted play time with her.  He now repeats almost everything we say and knows his vowels and consonants very well.  I think once he realized that when he spoke our language, his needs were met much more quickly.  Now he can also count to 10+, knows (and loves) the ABC song, and is constantly pointing out words and pictures and asking, "Wa's that, momma?"

(Boy playing with snow on a warm spring day.  Our weather has been so weird this year...)

It was kind of an assumption on everyone's part that Boy would be going to special-ed preschool this upcoming fall--he scored so low on his expressive speech.  But now it looks like he might not qualify.  I was telling his speech therapist that I consider this a good thing!  We'll know for sure after he is tested closer to his 3rd birthday.  I did learn, however, that this preschool welcomes 'normal' kids as model children for the other kids, we just have to pay for his enrollment.  We are already leaning towards this option because a speech pathologist is involved in this preschool so that, in case he started having further delays, they would notice it right away.  Plus they said there is a bus available to come pick up the kids.  Boy would freak out!  Boy and his buses...

Boy continues to be such a blessing, and a challenge, and a delight, all at once.  He loves riding Bean's old pink tricycle.  He knows all of the princesses' names by heart.  Yet he is such a Boy!  His favorite expressions are 'Right Back' (said while holding one finger up and giving me a stern look) 'Bus..uh-huh,,School' and 'Play...outside?'  He definitely keeps me on my toes, but he has me laughing all of the time.  Sweet, sweet Boy!

A Post About Bean

Bean just completed her 100 days of school.  I can't believe it!  She loves school so much.  And she loves homework!  One day recently I could tell she wasn't feeling very good but she insisted on going to school--so against my better judgement I let her.  A few hours later we got a call that she needed to be picked up and she ended up being sick the whole next day.  Her biggest concern was that she was 'going to miss all the fun things at school.'  I remember one time when I was really sick (like almost for a whole month of kindergarten) that the highlight of my week was when my mom would go pick up my homework.  Like mother, like daughter.

At the end of the 2nd quarter, Bean's strengths include knowing all of her numbers, letters, colors (which she knew going into Preschool so no surprise there.)  She can count to 100, do simple addition and subtraction, and is on a mid-1st grade reading level (also no surprise there seeing as she was reading before Kindergarten even started.)  She is still working on her penmanship and spelling correctly--but I guess there really is such a thing as 'Kindergarten Spelling.'  No spelling tests yet!

(This picture was taken when our neighbors, who raise bunnies, brought one over on St. Patrick's Day for Bean and Boy to hold.  It was so soft--Bean loved it!)

Another hugely exciting thing in Bean's life is that she lost her first tooth!  And her adult tooth is already almost grown in!  Actually, her second adult bottom front tooth is almost completely grown in behind the baby tooth too.  My mom calls them 'barracuda teeth' and says I was the same way.  Which means that Bean will most definitely be getting braces.

She was excited at the prospect of losing a tooth, but not entirely sold on the idea of us helping it along.  We even made a dentist appointment to go have it pulled because it was just not going anywhere.  But one day she bumped it at school, and with a little floss and quick thinking, S was able to pull it out--the day before the dentist would have!

The tooth fairy didn't disappoint.  If you follow me on instagram then you know that our tooth fairy has glittered money and doesn't hand out anything higher than a dollar bill.  She was so excited the next morning that she asked S to put it up high on her shelf so she could admire it shining in the sunlight.

I doubt she will ever spend it.

I don't know that I have even mentioned Bean's dancing this year.  I kept her in the exact same class.  Because she is in PM Kindergarten, it just made sense.  But I can tell she's starting to get a little bored and is ready to move on to an older class.  She loves showing me her pirouettes and really wants to dance on the Company team so that she can do the 'big dancing shows.'  I'm not sure I'm quite ready to do the competition thing yet, but it's exciting that she wants to!

Naturally, the morning after her tooth fell out was picture day so she has a cute gap-toothed smile.  My friend, and neighbor, has a daughter in the same class and she told me it's a 'Memory Picture.'  I liked that!  It was so crazy to think that, only a few years ago she was the smallest girl in the front now and now she's the tallest in back!  All of the fun things going on in her life lately are evidence that she is growing up so fast!