Snap? Crackle? Pop?

Tyler is intrigued by Rice Krispies and he loves them! He listens to the sounds they make every morning...

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Night with Daddy

Tyler enjoyed a Cincinnati Reds game tonight with Daddy. He was glad daddy's client stood him up!!

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Waiting to ride the Tractor

Down in Georgia......doing our Georgia things!!

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New beds!

This weekend, we bought bunkbeds for the boys to sleep in and they are so happy! Needless to say, they aren't falling asleep too easily because of the excitement, but I'm sure that will catch up with them.

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Playdoh eggs

Adam shaped his playdoh into his favorite word......eyeballs!!

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Happy Easter!

The Lord is risen! We had a great Easter this year with beautiful weather provided by our God, a crazy egg hunt at our church, a wonderful Easter day service from our new senior pastor, and topped off with a fabulous lunch at Sue and Larry's condo with extended family.

I am, however, mad at myself for not taking a single family picture yesterday all dressed up! I was a little stressed about the deviled eggs I was supposed to make. :)

Here are a few pics that I did catch on my phone......from adam's egg hunt at school, dying eggs at home, and Easter bunny treats.

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Rug surgery

Ben took a box cutter to the boys' rug today. Tyler threw up in the middle of the night a few days ago, and unfortunately, my cleaning efforts weren't good enough. So instead of throwing the "spot clean" rug entirely away, we shortened it. We'll see how long it lasts now!

Thanks Nana and Sue Sue for the wonderful rug that has lasted a pretty long time, don't you think? :)

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Parking cars.....

These boys are silly! They dumped out all the Hot Wheels and parked them in straight rows. I sure love when they play well together!

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Tyler's Speech Updates

Date: 3/17/10

Service Summary: Mom reports that he is doing well with his speech lately. Chooses to play with playdoh and use words like "roll," "ball," etc. Play a game and overemphasize words "my turn," "spin it" while playing. Using some new sounds today including final sounds in words like t/k etc. Noticed h/g, h/d in duck and game ("huck" and "hame"). Trying more 2 word phrases "my turn," "want that." Using cues to put on sounds for final sounds. Used one 3 word phrase "let me help."

Family Ideas: Build on having him use more words when taking you to what he wants.

Plan for Next Session: Build on 2-3 word phrases and final sounds.

Date: 3/24/10

Service Summary: Mom reports that he's using a lot more words. Using words for requesting - "cut it up" and "more help." Playing a fishing game and requested "more help." He's using 2 word phrases on a more regular basis. Repeating words/phrases after a model while reading a book. Answering questions while reading a book with 1-2 words. Using "no, my cars" while playing with his brother. Using some final sounds in words.

Family Ideas: Building on final sounds in words.

Plan for Next Session: Continue touch cues for sounds in words.

Fun at Home Depot

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Adam's Chore Chart

Time to try something new! Adam has a new chore chart. We are hoping this helps with some of his erratic behavior lately. His favorite restaurant these days is Skyline Chili for 2 hot dogs with shredded cheese on top, so that is one of the incentives for him to be good all week. If he has 15 stars on his chart for his actual chores each week, he gets to pick something out at the Dollar Tree.

Wish us luck!!!


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Tyler's Speech Therapy

The following post is going to be pretty boring to most of you..........I want to keep track of Tyler's speech therapy sessions, so I'm going to type his weekly session notes here so I have a reference to how he's doing.

At Tyler's 2 year check up back in October 2009, Dr. Kelly recommended I call First Steps about Tyler's speech delay. He said at age 2, children should be putting two words together, and Tyler barely had a vocabulary of 5-10 words all together. So, we called First Steps, and within about 6 weeks, Tyler was starting therapy once a week in our home. Our speech pathologist is awesome, and we've really enjoyed getting to know her. She comes once a week to our house and interacts with Tyler through play. Being in his own element really helps him, and he's come such a long way! There's a lot of room for improvement, but he has definitely improved since we started.

So, the rest of this particular post will be all of his session notes since he started therapy back in December. His therapist takes notes while we are playing, so these evaluations are written by her.

Date: 12/9/09
Service Summary: Tyler is happy and ready to play. Reading a book and introduce signs for book and turn. He repeats "hooray" "mine" and "tweet tweet." Introduced a touch cue for M in "more" and t t t for "turn" and he repeats the sounds. Really trying to repeat words. Discussed ways to help Tyler with his speech and had mom try sound cues with Tyler. Used "no ime" in protest while playing with trains.
Family Ideas: Collect labels and work on picture list to develop words
Plan for Next Session: Overemphasize sounds in words


Date: 12/16/09
Service Summary: Mom reports that he's been making some choices with cereal and snacks. Use touch cue for M, P, and he's not too interested. Overemphasizing sounds in words. Modeled help and he did a word approx. of it. Uses "uh huh" to answer some questions. Labels the color blue, uses "boo." Repeated "bike" after a model and said "beep beep" on own. Discussed ways to help at home with his speech.
Family Ideas: Continue overemphasizing sounds in words.
Plan for Next Session: Bring poster with refrigerator items to reinforce words.

Date: 12/23/09

Service Summary: Tyler is ready to play. Mom reports that he's now saying yogurt. He chooses to play with puzzles and labels some pieces. Using some commenting words: "wee," "go," "boom." Using some final sounds in words. Makes a "thth" sound for train word. Overemphasizing sounds in words. He said "help" after a model. Chose to play with train table. Using "ought oh," "choo choo," "cookie," etc. while we play. Tried the word approx. train and then used "zzz."

Family Ideas: Expanding his words into phrases.

Plan for Next Session: Continue overemphasizing sounds in words.

Date: 1/6/10

Service Summary: Mom reports that he's using lots of words - "milk," etc. Repeating some words after a model. Using "off," "down," "here," "pink," "duck," etc. Playing a duck game and he's repeating lots of words - two syllable words: "circle," "purple." Overemphasizing 2 word phrases "my turn" during a game. Used his "thth" (for train) to request to play trains. Reinforced choo choo and he repeated "choo choo." Used "bus" and put on the final sounds. Answering questions with one word. Trying to use his brother's name "Adam."

Family Ideas: Modeling words and phrases for him to repeat.

Plan for Next Session: Continue expanding his words/phrases, overemphasizing sounds.

Date: 1/20/10

Service Summary: Tyler's using more words now. He's using "yes" and "no" more. He uses "up" to have mom help him. Used "open" and "my turn" after a model. Playing a mine game labeling a few lace-n-shape items. Using "help" while playing a game. Used "ish" for fish. While playing a fishing game, a little tired today. "Yeah me." Uses "more" and "up" while driving a train. Makes train sound.

Family Ideas: Work with favorite items to label during play.

Plan for Next Session: Build on using words to gain items or comment during play.

Date: 1/27/10

Service Summary: Tyler is ready to play. He chooses to read a book. Mom reports that he's using between 2-3 word phrases now. Answering questions using final sounds today. Mom reports that he's leaving off some initial sounds in words. Overemphasizing initial sounds in words. Using "out," "green" ("geen"), "I done," "all done" while playing with puzzles. Used "out" on own when dumping some things. Uses "stop" ("op") and "go," "oom" for boom.

Family Ideas: Build on initial sounds. Overemphasize sounds in words.

Plan for Next Session: Build on initial sounds in words.

Date: 2/13/10 (with Daddy)

Service Summary: Dad reports that he is doing well. He used the word "read" this week. Choose dump truck and blocks to play with. Using "in," "yes," "book," "back," "stack," and "milk." He uses "in" "over" and carries it over into other activities. He requests items from dad and he uses word approximations. Answering questions using one word. Using "yellow," "bee," "match" after a model. Using lots of final sounds in words today: s, p, n, t, k and r. Trying some two word phrases after a model playing.

Family Ideas: Build on final sounds and 2 word phrases.

Plan for Next Session: Work on two word phrases.

Date: 2/20/10

Service Summary: Tyler is ready to play. Repeats some words after a model. Discuss his progress with mom. Working on final sounds in words and modeling 2 word phrases. Using final s, p, m, z in words. Modeling ways to try and have Tyler use 2 word phrases. Consistently using final p in "up" and other words. Discussed ways to work Tyler at home with mom and dad.

Family Ideas: Build on final sounds in words and repeating words back to him.

Plan for Next Session: Oral motor fun and water play.

Date: 3/3/10

Service Summary: Tyler is ready to play. Mom reports that he is using 2 word phrases now. Uses final sounds in words k, s, r, p, f, and n today. Repeating multi-syllable words after a model. Trying "yogurt," "Maggie," "doodles" while playing. He uses "mea" and "minea" at home mom reported. Reading a book and he labels pictures: frog, snake, fish, fly. Prompting jump frog jump while reading and he repeats. Used "my mommy," "my turn," etc. Repeats 1, 2, 3 dump after a model. Used a touch cue for s blends st (star) finger @ elbow and get to hand and put on t sound.

Family Ideas: Try s blend cue.

Plan for Next Session: Build on consistent 2 word phrases.

Date: 3/10/10

Service Summary: Mom reports that he's using more 2 word phrases and some new words. They've been using the touch cue for s blends. Using 2 word phrases while we're playing: "hi daddy," "hi mommy" while talking on the phone. Building on compound word books - butter + fly = butterfly after a model. Using plurals and possessives - "eggs," "yours." Labeling items with color words and uses final sounds. Counting with mom.

Family Ideas: Build on phrases and using touch cue for blends.

Plan for Next Session: Build on phrases.

Balloons

Adam is blowing up a balloon by himself!

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Disneyworld 2010

In January, the Souther family took a huge family trip to Orlando to see Mickey! It was so much fun to hang out with the whole family, including cousins who live in Florida. Tyler and Adam had an awesome time!

In the photo below, I took this picture in our kitchen. The frame on the left is a picture of Ben and me at Epcot in 2000. The frame on the right is a picture of all four of us in the exact same place 10 years later, 2010.

More pictures from the trip.......

Disney World 2010

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Adam's Sock Hop

Adam's preschool has a cute little sock hop dance each year as part of an outreach program. The kids bring in new socks to donate to the needy - very creative idea! It was fun to dress Adam up as a 50's guy, but I should have found some gel for his hair rather than mousse.

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Sickness all around!

For the past few weeks, someone has been running a fever. First, it was Tyler for a few days. Then, Adam ran a fever for 5 days straight. Two days after Adam was fever free, tyler's came back. So, I was slightly alarmed by the return of tyler's fever. I don't usually jump at calling the doctor, considering I just pick up the phone and call my dad. But something was telling me to take Tyler to the Take Care Clinic at Walgreens just to check his ears and chest.

The NP decided to treat Tyler for pneumonia!! Good gracious! He really seems fine, just sounds bad when he coughs. We kid around with Adam that he sounds like he has been smoking a pack of cigerettes when he coughs.

Does this look like a sick child??

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Tyler and fruit snacks

Tyler is such a compassionate little boy. Every day after his nap, he goes to the pantry to get fruit snacks. But he doesn't walk away until I hand him a pack for bubba, too. So sweet!

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Snow, snow, and more snow

We had so much snow this year! ( and sometimes the big snows come in March, too, so I shouldn't say we're done yet). We had a record total for the year somewhere around 30-33 inches (usually average around 25, I think).

Adam loved it......Tyler hated it! Tyler stayed in the garage a lot while I was shoveling the driveway while Adam ran around with the neighborhood kids.

Here are a few pictures I took....

The snow blob....

The snow is finally melting this week after being around about a month. We definitely got a taste of what it's like for chris and stefany in Chicago every year!

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Test post from my iPod

Test, test, 1, 2, 3......

Just found a cool app for posting on my blog from my iPod. Maybe I will update more often this way!

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Wow, where have we been??

It's been a while.........actually almost 4 months! We've certainly had things to blog about just no time to do so! One of the last few posts I made was Ben and his triathlon in June. Well, he just completed the October triathlon, so I guess it's time to post on that. Adam started preschool at our church in September, a new school for him! Tyler is growing like a weed and trying to do everything "Bubba" does. I am teaching piano again this year, and as of today, I have 13 students, possibly 14. That keeps me busy!!

So, life has been busy for all of us, but it's no excuse to not share pictures with family and friends. At least there have been no emergencies to post about! Here's hoping I'll be able to post a few stories this week......