I know I always say this, but it’s always true–I can’t believe my baby is 1! What a sweet little man we got with our Liam. The way his face lights up when he sees me, the way he kicks his legs in excitement, the way he is always so patient while I tend to the needs of our other children…he is just an angel and we are so glad he is part of our family.

What’s over there, baby?

Smiles!

At 1 year old, Liam can pull himself up to standing, army crawl like a pro (he has the calluses along the top of his feet and the sides of his arms to prove it!), and say “Hi.”

Don’t you just want to kiss those sweet cheeks?

My two April babies.

Every day of my life is better because of my sweet Liam. Happy birthday, Sweetheart!

Easton is 3 years old! He’s now at that mind-boggling age where he can be tender, sweet, and loving one minute and frustrated, obstinate, and angry the next. The joys of realizing that you have thoughts and opinions, but that you don’t quite know how to communicate them and get what you want! Underneath all of that, however, he is my sweet Easton. I have so much fun with him and he makes me laugh on a daily basis. Just the way he talks, in his very high-pitched distinctive way, delights me.

My friend Adam took some fantastic pictures of Mr. Easton.

My cute little man.

Just thinking…

A stick!

I’m much too busy here. Come back later.

So sweet.

Our little birthday interview:

M: What is your favorite color?

E: Uh, black! And white. And black. And white!

M: What is your favorite show?

E: Um, one like this! (Proceeds to act out scenes like a ninja.) How about “Santa Claus coming to town”?

M: What do you like to eat?

E: Pizza.

M: What is your favorite thing to do?

E: Paint, like you and Grandpa. (Grandpa?)

M: What do you want to get for your birthday?

E: Cake. Present. Present! Present!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sweetheart! You are sure loved!

I just have to say it: my Calder rocks! Shortly after we moved, Calder started preschool at this great Montessori school just a couple minutes down the road from us. After his teacher mentioned that she was really struggling to understand Calder’s speech, I learned that a private speech therapist met with students at the preschool for private sessions. I’ve known for a while now that Calder needed therapy to help with his articulation, but when we had him tested by the school district down in Pleasant Grove, he didn’t qualify for aid. Well, now, a year or so later, he clearly qualified.

When the therapist performed her usual diagnostic tests, she told me that she was able to understand about 50% of what Calder said. And that’s coming from someone with a very trained and professional ear. For someone without all that training, it was probably almost impossible to understand him. As his mother, I’m pretty well-versed in Calder’s language. To hear how hard it was for an outsider to understand him was a little shocking. So, we signed him up for sessions with this therapist twice a week. He progressed amazingly well! His therapist said that he progressed quicker then almost any of her past students (and she’s been a therapist for 30 years). With her private instruction and our daily practice at home, Calder’s speech improved by leaps and bounds.

A picture taken by his preschool teacher on Wacky Wednesday (the day of the year when the kids come to school in a wacky outfit).

However, this all came at a cost. Private speech therapy is not cheap and our insurance doesn’t help with costs until we’ve met a certain deductible. After about 6 weeks of therapy, we really couldn’t afford the fees any longer. I took Calder into the school district offices for our new area and had him assessed. Two good things came of that. First of all, the therapists said that they could understand about 75% of what he was saying–pretty amazing progress for a little over a month of work! Secondly, they approved him for free aid through the district. So, now, Calder and I go to this fun class called Speech School once a week. There are four other children joined by a parent and we spend an hour working on different sounds, sound blends, and working those into sentences. They get to do a craft at the end of the hour, something related to the sound we’re studying that week.  We have homework and practice work for home. Calder loves Speech School!

I am so proud of my Calder. He has been working really hard on his speech. At Speech School he pays attention, is eager to answer questions, and tries his very best. Learning how to break bad habits and correctly form sounds is really hard–I can see how hard it is for him as I practice with him. But he is doing it and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

Found this poem that I wrote last year and thought I’d share it.

Boys

Screaming—with delight?

                   with terror?

Those boys.

Often needing a full name

called LOUDLY and c-l-e-a-r-l-y

to grab their racing minds.

Whizzing, buzzing,

horsie one minute

tickle monster the next

Vroom vroom!

I gonna get you!

And then the inevitable

     — CRASH —

and the wet angry cheeks.

Mad, mad, MAD!

Three minutes pass.

Back to tumbling, shoving

around and around and around the table.

Shrieks—of joy?

               of pain?

Those boys.

Ah, the living room. The place where we spend most of our time. Here’s a couple pictures–again, please excuse the lack of photography skills.

The couch. This couch is so comfortable and seats all of us comfortably. We had planned to get a coffee table, but I’m actually liking all the open space where the kids can lounge around and play. Also, this picture shows me that our rug has migrated away from the couch too much to the left. Time to go fix that.

Our entertainment center. I’m enjoying all the storage for books and toys. We have plans to put a big wall clock on the wall to the left of the entertainment center.