A time of growth

It's not always easy...

Jaden:

Let's start with Jaden. Since he's in the middle there probably won't be too many times when he gets to go first!

Washing the car

The mind of a toddler (at least what I think he's thinking):

Hmmm...this driveway is looking a little dirty...

Look at that tree...It's needs some water too!

Talking. He is doing much better. It seems like it is almost overnight. I swear last week when the Speech Therapist came he barely uttered one word. I figured he might have regressed a little since we were gone so long over the summer, then we started things up again and "Ike" hit and that set us back again. But, now we're back on track! I wanted to keep a record for myself of the things he is saying at least up until this point. I'm hoping to be able to add to my list at least every week until there are just too many to remember! Here's his words right now, in no particular order:

1. Mama
2. Dada
3. baby
4. ball
5. dog
6. please
7. up
8. read
9. teeth
10. shoe
11. mouse
12. cookie
13. "yeah"
14. night, night
15. me
16. bye
17. cheese
18. stuck
19. broke
20. go
21. bath
22. butt
23. ouch
24. "all gone"
25. kitty
26. "Buzz" (as in Buzz Lightyear)
    

*I've actually noticed him say more over the weekend since I put this list together. I've got to start writing them down. Yay!

(Just FMI) Animal sounds: cow, monkey, chicken, duck, horse, cat

Last night (10-1-08) he said "Dada shoe" (he was wearing Chris' shoes). And the other day he said, "Yaya (his "word" for Anna) - something I couldn't undertand - me". He was trying to tell me Anna did something to him. I know that must sound like small potatoes to most of you Mothers but trust me - this is a big deal for us. I really took it for granted that Anna was able to learn to talk without any problems. Fortunately for Jaden he doesn't really seem too bothered with it. He's too busy running, jumping, throwing, climbing. That's pretty much the reason for the speech delay - he's too busy "doing" to pay enough attention and use his mouth for talking. But, we're definitely working on that and we'll get there!

Also, today I tried a pull up on him for the first time. While the Speech Therapist was here he went to the bathroom and told her he needed to go. I went ahead and put him on the potty and he went! The SLP was impressed with him today.

Luke:

He is working on pulling up and crawling. He can pull himself up in his crib if I set him in there in a sitting position. He's not quite able to get himself to sitting from lying down - he's working on that too.

He's very good at getting down to his belly if he's sitting up to try to get something that he wants. He can easily get up on all fours and do all sorts of things with his legs (move them back and forth, straighten them out with his bum in the air) but his arms aren't ready to cooperate yet!

I actually saw Luke get himself to a sitting position from lying down. He's definitely making progress.

Anna:

Anna is working on learning sight words. Her teacher has told us how important the sight words are for reading. Along with learning phonics, of course.

On Monday night Anna had Chris take off her training wheels so she could learn to ride her bike without them. On Tuesday Chris came in to get me so I could see her ride her bike all by herself without training wheels!! We're so proud of her.