Mommin' It Up!

January 11, 2012January 10, 2012

Wondergirl, the graduate

Yesterday was such a momentous day for our family, and especially for Sophie. As I sit here I can still honestly hardly believe it.

Sophie was discharged from speech therapy yesterday. She “graduated”, after 18 months of hard work. When her first evaluation score came back in October of 2010, when she’d only been in therapy for three months, her speech language pathologist estimated that she would need therapy for three to four years.

My Sophie girl did it in just eighteen months.

It wasn’t easy. Sophie worked hard at therapy, and we both worked hard at home several times a week without fail to practice the skills her SLP wanted us to work on. She also got speech in a group setting once a week at school, and attended a “Social Group” therapy with some other kids this summer while her SLP was on maternity leave.

I say it wasn’t easy, but it could have been a lot harder. Yes, we worked, we worked a lot. I was pretty militant about it. But all of that time spent together was wonderful for Sophie and me. We learned a lot from and about each other. It helped our bond to really tighten. And Sophie proved herself to be a very fast learner. Once she started working on a concept, she generally got it F-A-S-T. She wowed me and her speech language pathologists time and time again with the speed with which she acquired new language skills. I really could not be any prouder of her.

When Sophie’s SLP told me she was ready to discharge her, I wasn’t surprised, I knew it was coming soon. But it is so bittersweet, because Sophie adores “Miss Kristen” and every single second she gets to spend with her! Kristen and I both teared up during Sophie’s “graduation” today.

what's in there?? — Sophie didn't want to wear the mortarboard 🙂

Sophie and Miss Kristen — We'll miss you Miss Kristen!

Driving home from Sophie’s last session, I had to keep from doing the “ugly cry”. I didn’t want to scare my girl, after all. But wow, it was hard to keep those emotions in check! When Sophie first started speech, her delay was so much worse than we actually thought it was. That was a really scary time for me, trying to figure out what she needed and how to get it. But my mom told me, “The Lord made her and the Lord is going to take care of her.”, and she was right. Every step of the way, we met the right people to help us get Sophie caught up. When her first speech clinic closed, I was devastated – we loved her first SLP (hey Miss Tanya!), but that ultimately led us to Kristen, who had just ONE opening left, which we were able to get in right away (which is a miracle in our area where there is at least a three month wait for speech) and watching her with Sophie has been awesome. She HAS a real gift and IS a real gift to those she works with.

Sophie’s journey through developmental delays has been hard, but it is something I am truly thankful for. I am just so amazed by what she has done, I truly believe there is nothing she can’t do.

She’ll be done with occupational therapy in a couple of months and then maybe we’ll have a big party, or another good cry, or both – but whatever we do I will never be able to adequately express how PROUD I am of her!

I love you Sophie girl. Congratulations baby!

January 9, 2012January 8, 2012

Baby Mine

I am sitting on Joshua’s bed as Jonah lays across me, nursing ardently before bed. The room is dark, his blankie lays across his chest, and he is focused on the task at hand. I’ve got one arm under his shoulders, and one arm under his bum, and his long no-longer-a-baby-legs hang off my lap and dangle heavily in the space between the bed and the floor.

How did it come to pass that my baby no longer fits snugly in my arms? It seems like yesterday that his little body barely spanned the width of my chest when he curled against me to nurse.

Sleepily he reaches out with his left arm and grabs my hair, running his hand the length of it. He pushes my face to the side so he can get to my ear, makes a grab at my earring. Recreational activities, fighting sleep while he nurses. Funny baby, I am still his favorite toy. I am wearing my glasses tonight and he gets them about half off of my face before I can pry his fingers off of them. Giving up, he turns his attention to his own ear – like his older brother, he plays with it when he’s tired.

I kiss his face and stroke his hair, I kiss his little fingers and bury my lips in his chubby cheeks. I love my sweet baby boy so much it hurts. Just yesterday I was complaining as I was pumping out a bottle of milk so Bobby and I could go out, but I will be sad when he weans. He’s my last little nursey baby.

How did he get so big? He will be 13 months old this week. Soon he will be too busy to cuddle his mama, to play with my hair, to want to be mine and to want me to be his.

He unlatches himself and gives me a milky, sleepy smile. I squeeze him tight, kiss those pink cheeks again, and gently place him in his crib with his bevy of blankies. He rolls over, gripping one tightly.

Good night, baby mine. Try not to grow too much tonight while you sleep.

January 3, 2012January 3, 2012

Oh, the Toys!

So of course, the toy population around here has increased by three bazillion percent because of Christmas, Jonah’s birthday, and Sophie’s birthday all occurring in a 5-week-period. WHEW! We’ve had to make some room for all this crap great stuff, and have done some reorganizing but we still have a few storage issues to resolve. But, said issues aside, I must say I am super-pleased with most of the toys we purchased this year! YAY! I can’t tell you how discouraged I’ve felt (espeically after Joshua’s birthday last year) when I’ve bought toys that have turned out to be CRAP. So I thought I’d share with you what the kids and parents in this house like the best from this year’s haul.

Sophie’s faves:

Dora Fiesta Favorites Kitchen Playset:

This was the “big-ticket item” that Sophie really wanted, and I’m glad we got it. (Of course I got a sweet deal on it, because regular price is a bit steep for me.) The quality is good, Dora says lots of different phrases, the toy food & dishes are a nice quality, and you can change the window scene if you’re feeling creative. It’s just a great pretend toy with the advantage of having the voice & image of Dora, whom Sophie adores. Jonah absolutely LOVES playing with this also, so BONUS!

Learning Resources Pretend & Play School Set:

This set is SO much fun! I had my mom get this for Sophie because I just really wanted her to have it and I knew she would love it. What I didn’t count on was that Joshua would love it too and that they would love playing it together. Double BONUS! Those two have had so much fun with it. It comes with a school bell, map, dry-erase calendar and board, pointer for the teacher, stickers, worksheets, pencils, hall passes, all kinds of great supplies. The kids have been pretending up a STORM with this thing, and of course I’ve gotten into the act too. It also folds up so nicely for storage or to transport it somewhere – and is very sturdy! It is just a great set. I highly recommend it!

Joshua:

Transformers Kre-O sets by Hasbro:

Confession: I picked these toys out to buy for Joshua because I also knew how much my hubby loved Transformers as a kid. And they have had SO MUCH FUN building them together. Bobby has just been so impressed with the quality of the Kre-O. I hunted down the big Optimus Prime set when it was on a good sale, and took advantage of sales and coupons both in-store and online on some of the other sets. We like these so much that Joshua bought another one with his own Christmas money, and we bought another one for his birthday which is coming up in February (shh, don’t tell!) These bricks work with lego, which is great if you already have those, but they are great in their own right. Bobby and Joshua had a lot of fun and bonding time building and playing with these over the holiday! We will definitely be buying these for awhile I am sure.

Mario Kart K’nex:

Let me first just say that I was super, super worried about spending any $$ on this because up until now, ever Mario toy I’ve bought has been CRAP. But, I crossed my fingers that the respected K’nex brand would not produce crap, and it was a good gamble, because this is AWESOME! The downside is that it is also giant and in my living room, but we will put it away eventually. 🙂 We’re just having too much fun with it right now. The tracks are not hard to put together so it’s no problem to get them back out to play. The cars are FAST and they really stay on the track (of course you CAN build it so that they fly off or crash if you want to). The cars do eat up batteries somewhat but we’ve been playing with them non-stop so that’s not surprising to me. Overall, I am very impressed. The cars work GREAT, are easy to build, the track is nice quality, it’s fun, it’s fast, it’s customizable, and it was a good investment. Once again, I took advantage of a sale and already got Joshua another set of these for his birthday (again with the SHH!)

Jonah:

Playskool Poppin Park Elefun Busy Ball Bopper:

Technically I got this for review, full disclosure, but I have included it as Jonah’s favorite Christmas toy because it’s super-cool and definitely the top of all his toys! It’s my favorite as a parent as well! It’s got fun music, it works GREAT, Jonah figured out how to work it instantly and he adores it. He dances to the music as he plays, it’s pretty much adorable. The big kids like playing it with him as well. I love everything about this toy. I would buy one ten times over. If you know a baby who has a birthday coming up, buy them this!! All Jonah’s boring parents got him were socks and onesies, so thanks Playskool, for this one!

Well, there’s our favorite Christmas toy round-up! All of them were paid for with our own hard-earned money or were given by family except for the Elefun toy. What toys are most glad that your kiddos received for Christmas?