Ready for kindergarten...almost

Anna had her last day of preschool today. When I arrived at the school some of the parents from her class and the woman at the front desk were talking about how emotional the kids had been. One child would start to cry and then another would see them and start to cry and so on. I tried to prepare myself for the comforting I was sure Anna would need. She is constantly shedding tears when it's time to go home from playing with a friend. So much so that I find myself thinking "is it really worth all of this to let her play with other kids?" (yes, it is) and "are my boys going to be this emotional?"

When I got back to the classroom the only tears were from the Mommies! The kids that were still in the classroom were laughing and having fun. Later, when I asked Anna if she was sad that it was her last day of preschool she said "No". Whew! I think she's looking forward to visiting with her friends this summer and going to kindergarten in the fall.

Jessica, Anna, and Cody Belle

(with the sunvisors Cody Belle made for everyone!)

She's learned so much this year. We are very proud of her. We certainly owe it all to her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Pena!

End of the year interview with Anna (I typed exactly what she said!):

1. What was your favorite thing about preschool? "playing on the playground"
2. What is one thing you learned this year? "I learned about undersea animals and rainbows and frogs"
3. What are you going to miss the most about preschool? "the playground and contract time"
4. What did you think about your teacher? "She teaches us stuff and she does it very, very well."
5. What are you looking forward to about Kindergarten? "I've never been to kindergarten before. I'm just going to learn about it. I'm a little bit afraid"

There's definitely nothing wrong with him physically

...or cognitively for that matter. But my little Jaden is a little delayed with his speech. Rather than continuing to wait-and-see if he would start speaking more on his own I decided to have him evaluated. What could it hurt? If he didn't need services all I was out was 2 hours of our day. Though I'll say that he thoroughly enjoyed every minute of individual attention he was showered with during the evaluation! Individual attention is a prized commodity around here. And if he did need the services than he'd get the help he needs sooner and he might start talking sooner. It turned out that he did qualify for services. He will be seen by the Speech-Language Pathologist twice a month in our home for 45 minutes. She came for the first time this week. Jaden had so much fun! I'm sure he had no idea he was receiving therapy. He thinks he's got a very cool playdate - just for him!

Because the sessions take place in our home I can easily observe what the therapist is doing with Jaden. Anna does too! This way we can continue to practice with him during our normal activities. Chris and I have recommendations to follow as well. We've already started to notice some small improvements. He is trying to say more words but he is still very difficult to understand and he usually only says the beginning sounds (mostly ones with "b" or "m"). I've noticed him say the end part of some words a few times (e.g., with "k").

I was a little slow to realize it but yesterday he got his foot caught in a toy and was hollering "stuck". Still kinda in "jaden-ese" but much better than I've heard before. He is trying to say "yes" and "please" (with a prompt) and he tried to say "muffin" this morning at breakfast. When I called about the evaluation he was pretty much only saying "mama", "dada", "baby", "gaga" (dog), baba (bottle/drink), "uh" (up), and "me" (if prompted). He could sign "more", "please", and "thank you".