Speech

Hi! Hi! Hi! (as Noah would say)
Noah saw the speech pathologist again today. She did a full eval of his language cognition and speech production. Fortunately he is only about 25% delayed in the language part which is only one standard deviation from normal and not statistically significant enough to qualify for Early Access. However, she does think that he is significantly delayed in speech and will try to get him early access for speech production. This would be monthly visits and specific exercises to work on in speech production. Their exercises are geared for kids his age through playtime and toys, and are not structured rigid lessons like you may be thinking of.

Right now we are focusing on "w" questions (I don't mean questions about the current pres, although I do have many-ha!) -who, what, when, where, why and how (even though how does not start with a w). Also, "p" sounds. These are two areas that he is behind in and needs to be challenged to learn these skills. He does understand and use "where" everyday. Cognitively, he understands many of the other "w" questions and understands words with p's, but it is the production of this information that he is struggling with. He is also using a common error pattern called assimilation which means he is replacing the correct consonant with another consonant in the word. For instance, he now says his name "Woa-wa" instead of "Noah" because he is focusing on the "w" sound that the "oa" combination makes. He also does this with "all done" and it is said, "all none."

That is all I have to update you with. Bye-bye! (one of "Woa-wa's" favorites;)

The lost has been found...

Well I said that today was going to be a power posting day, but I did not know that it was going to be this big! While loading up some pictures from our other camera, I found some pictures that we took in May while we were down in Florida over Noah's birthday.


This is the creek that runs through Matt's parents "pasture." Doesn't look much like a creek or a pasture. This was the first time the creek flooded. The major floods actually came about 4-6 weeks after this.


There were lots of new, and some repeat experiences to be had in Florida.



A new trend in baby bathtubs...This is Noah's second time being bathed in a cooler. The first was at Dairy Expo last year. This is at the Searby's house. Not only stylish, but green too! Just think of all of the water we saved!



Playing in the swimming pool, or more like running around the swimming pool.


Driving the Golf Cart.




Picking- and eating- blueberries from Baga's blueberry bushes with cousin Brilei.



Two years old birthday party complete with hats and those blower thingies.




Sandy joins in on the fun...




The toy that made the ride home much more enjoyable...literally hours of fun!


And a new dessert from a Pampered Chef cookbook to finish the visit off- Warm Apple Tart Pastry, yummy!

Gardening again!?!

While I was gone to Chicago, Noah and Matt did some gardening.


When I came home, there was a whole lot of broccoli to be harvested.
The broccoli is in a 7L bowl to give you an idea of how much broccoli there in the bowl Matt is holding.

We have also eaten romaine, a green pepper and a jalepeño from our garden. Our onions are almost ready and tomato plants are loaded up with little greenies everywhere. Salsa making here we come!

Caterpillars have eaten about 1/3 of my collarg greens (120 bunches)- Yikes! I know of the book called the Very Hungery Caterpillar, and they were not kidding.

Wednesday July 16th. Niabi Zoo, Moline, IL

We had a great opportunity to get together with Jen and Evan while they were up in Illinios, so we took them up on it. Jen and I planned out where to meet and our first place didn't seem like it was going to work. Then we happened upon the Niabi Zoo. With admission of just $5 per adult, we both decided that it was affordable and we would meet there. Little did we know it would be the hottest day of the year so far, but that did not stop us! Our boys were such troopers, too.

Noah stops for a cool drink.

We are all so glad that we went to that zoo! They had beautiful facilities for all of the animals. Some of our favorites were...

First, the baby elephant (well obviously not a live one, but a statue). Our boys posed for a picture for us. Notice matching shoes on our boys! There were two live, older, female elephants at the zoo that were donated by Ringling Bros.

Then we saw some really strange looking monkeys! One of the real White-Handed Gibbons came and sat right next to the glass while the boys were watching them.


We then looked at the fish, turtles, ducks, geese and swans. The gold fish were huge! Deana, Jen's mom said they looked like carp. When we came back later, one of the swans decided to "kiss" Noah's foot. He was not too excited about the idea. I think he finally decided it was ok though when I told him it was a kiss.

The Black Leopard. It (because I do not know the sex of the leopard) was very intrigued by Evan and Noah. They were playing by the fence, more interested in leaves and grass than the large cat and it came right over to the fence to greet our boys. Then we decided to walk around to the other side of the fence and it followed us over there too. We went over to the Reptiles building and when we came out, the Leopard still followed our kids every step. We were just glad that there were two fences and a fence over top between our beautiful boys and this curious cat!

With our boys both being born in Gainsville, I thought it was only natural that they both loved the gators.

The Giraffes. They were definately the favorite of the day! We happened upon one of the employees who was giving his family a tour and got to feed the giraffes with his family! It is a program that they are trying to start at the zoo. We were all so enthused! Did you know that giraffes have a black tongue so that it does not get sunburned? A little piece of trivia I learned being at the Niabi Zoo.

We stopped for one more photo op with the boys. They both did a good job of posing for us. Noah is sporting his new giraffe glasses. His other sunglasses are MIA and were getting too small. I thought it was funny that he posed almost exactly like his last sunglasses photos. Check out the previous post to compare. You have to scroll to the bottom of the post.

The last event of the day was a hippo ride that Jen I decided to take, but the hippo charged our photographer, so the hippo got cut off in the pictures!

Hope you enjoyed our day at the zoo as much as we did! Anybody up for a trip to the zoo?

Playing with our neighbor's grandkids

When Noah sees the red van pull in, he knows what is in store. Two little blonde girls and a little boy his size. Noah get so excited and runs over to play with them. Allison 4, Autumn 3, and Tucker 18mos are Noah's best friends. The little girls just love on him and he plays well with Tucker. The other night, Cindy gave the kids chocolate ice cream cones and I couldn't resist a picture of Tucker with his. Allison and Noah sat down on a little bench together and it was a perfect picture op. Then once Allison had her picture with Noah, Autumn wanted hers too. It is such a blessing to have those kids come over right next door and adopt Noah just like he was their own. Allison asked the first time we met, "Do you have any girl babies?" The innocents of babes, gotta love it!

Before the kids came to Cindy's house, Daddy and Noah chillin' in the front yard.

Tucker enjoys his ice cream!

Allison and Noah

Autumn and Noah

Allison and Noah sitttin on the bench

Autumn and Noah take a picture too.

Pampered Chef Convention in Chicago

I was fortunate enough to get to go to the Pampered Chef convention July 10-12 The girls I went with were a lot of fun. Dawn and I shared a bed at convention and man is she a riot! It was really great to get to know them all personally. I have a goal to promote to director by Sept. 1st. I just need 2 more people on my team and right now we have a half off rebate for the start up kit. If you are interested, or know of someone who might be interested, just leave me a message and I will get back to you!

Our ride to Chicago!

My Tuxedo Cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory.

A cool building in downtown Chicago

Doris Christopher, the founder of Pampered Chef at the opening session of convention

Shelley and Deanne

Becky and Robin

Denise Tiedore's cluster

Dawn and I, isn't it cute that we match? Can you believe that my other foot is actually on the ground?

Lazar our waiter. He was such a good sport and took really good care of our table! I figured someone should take their picture with him?!? He even called Carol "your majesty" because she told him she was the queen. HA!

While I was gone, Matt and Noah spoted a rainbow. And Noah promptly learned how to say "Rainbow!" Here is the picture of the rainbow that taught Noah what a rainbow was...