Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Birthday
So today is my birthday...it was nice and quiet. We got to spend some time with the family on Saturday and we went to "car and truck day" at Gymboree this morning before lunch, the grocery store, a much needed nap, and a quick trip for my free-birthday hot chocolate at Starbucks this evening.
Birthdays are a little uncomfortable for me. There's something about the spotlight that makes me not want to deal with it. But then at the same time, I feel I should take the opportunity to make something about just 'me'. I think this year was especially this way, because so much of my life is about other people right now. Its not about me and now, but about us and the future. I'm fine with this, but I'm also feeling like I've been getting a little lost in the shuffle.
Along those lines, I've also been meaning to mention that I started a new photo project at the beginning of the year. Its a daily self portrait and I'm hoping that it will help me to focus at least a little bit of each day on myself. I'm not going to post all my pictures here, because it would just be a bit too much. However, the group is available here and through the Flickr Photostream link at the right if anyone is interested.
Thank you for all my happy birthday wishes and here's to another year! Wow - 36, really?
Birthdays are a little uncomfortable for me. There's something about the spotlight that makes me not want to deal with it. But then at the same time, I feel I should take the opportunity to make something about just 'me'. I think this year was especially this way, because so much of my life is about other people right now. Its not about me and now, but about us and the future. I'm fine with this, but I'm also feeling like I've been getting a little lost in the shuffle.
Along those lines, I've also been meaning to mention that I started a new photo project at the beginning of the year. Its a daily self portrait and I'm hoping that it will help me to focus at least a little bit of each day on myself. I'm not going to post all my pictures here, because it would just be a bit too much. However, the group is available here and through the Flickr Photostream link at the right if anyone is interested.
Thank you for all my happy birthday wishes and here's to another year! Wow - 36, really?
Monday, January 24, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Language Update
We recently took Elliott back to the Speech Pathologist for a follow up to our appointment last fall. We aren’t worried about Elliott’s speech development. We know that there are things that ‘most kids’ are doing by now that he isn’t, but we also know that all kids develop language (and everything else for that matter) differently. BUT, given that there are resources at our disposal (that we are already paying for, I might add), we figured that anything we do learn can only help us encourage language use as well as learn more about ourselves as parents through our communication with Elliott.
It took us some time to finally bite the bullet and buy their recommended book, It Takes Two to Talk. But I found a used one through the Amazon marketplace and picked it up for us as a Christmas present. One of the reasons it was so hard to spend the money on this book is that most of the content is available for free online. Unfortunately, it’s not in a very reading-friendly format as we rarely sit for hours on end reading the desktop computer screen and we couldn’t figure out how to otherwise download it. That being said, it has already been worth the purchase price and we have already learned a lot. The main thing we are learning is how to make opportunities for language use and how to let him lead.
As for Elliott? The therapist still feels he is in a good place and ‘just on the verge’ of making up some ground. After going through a review of what (approximately 60 nouns and verbs) and how (mostly single or two word combinations) he spoke, she has placed him at, or slightly above, his age range in comprehension and at about an 18-21 month range for expressive language. This sounds exactly right to me, too. Especially when it sounds like he has a vocabulary on par with our friends’ daughter who is in that range.
However, as is typical, just after our visit, Elliott started doing some of the things that he wasn’t previously, primarily using true 2-3 word sentences (not just 2 word combinations) as well as using language to satisfy need (as in asking for a drink of water – he would previously talk about water or point out water, but not ask for water if he was thirsty). This is really exciting and he seems to either be adding new words to his vocabulary or using language in a new way daily. Just last night he wanted me to sit next to him on the chair and eat Cheerios, so he said ‘sit right there’ and pointed to the spot on the chair next to him :)
The therapist is leaving the next steps up to us. Basically, after reading the book, if we have any questions or want to meet for private classes we can. Otherwise, we can just schedule a follow up meeting in a few months to check back in and see how he’s doing.
It took us some time to finally bite the bullet and buy their recommended book, It Takes Two to Talk. But I found a used one through the Amazon marketplace and picked it up for us as a Christmas present. One of the reasons it was so hard to spend the money on this book is that most of the content is available for free online. Unfortunately, it’s not in a very reading-friendly format as we rarely sit for hours on end reading the desktop computer screen and we couldn’t figure out how to otherwise download it. That being said, it has already been worth the purchase price and we have already learned a lot. The main thing we are learning is how to make opportunities for language use and how to let him lead.
As for Elliott? The therapist still feels he is in a good place and ‘just on the verge’ of making up some ground. After going through a review of what (approximately 60 nouns and verbs) and how (mostly single or two word combinations) he spoke, she has placed him at, or slightly above, his age range in comprehension and at about an 18-21 month range for expressive language. This sounds exactly right to me, too. Especially when it sounds like he has a vocabulary on par with our friends’ daughter who is in that range.
However, as is typical, just after our visit, Elliott started doing some of the things that he wasn’t previously, primarily using true 2-3 word sentences (not just 2 word combinations) as well as using language to satisfy need (as in asking for a drink of water – he would previously talk about water or point out water, but not ask for water if he was thirsty). This is really exciting and he seems to either be adding new words to his vocabulary or using language in a new way daily. Just last night he wanted me to sit next to him on the chair and eat Cheerios, so he said ‘sit right there’ and pointed to the spot on the chair next to him :)
The therapist is leaving the next steps up to us. Basically, after reading the book, if we have any questions or want to meet for private classes we can. Otherwise, we can just schedule a follow up meeting in a few months to check back in and see how he’s doing.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Level 5 Laser Lotus*
The 22 month mark is a transition month at Gymboree in which a child can be enrolled in either the level 4 class or the older, level 5 class. The level 4 class was more convenient for us, so I kept him there through his 22nd month and transitioned him to level 5 at the beginning of January.
This new class was great on the surface for a couple reasons, we could keep our great teacher (turns out she's the regional manager for San Diego) and in the last couple weeks of December, I had become increasingly aware of how young his classmates were. Elliott seemed to get great inspiration from watching the older kids do things he couldn't do (after all that's how he got the courage to walk the balance beam...after he saw Dylan do it all by himself.), so I was looking forward to him being around the older kids. I was also expecting the class to be structured more or less like our level 4 class.
Wow, was I surprised! The class was nothing like our level 4 class. Instead of it being about physical activity...and a lot of it. It was a structured class - the last two weeks it has been about 'making cookies'. We still used the Gymboree equipment, but the focus was on imagination and make-believe (something we are trying to foster in our home in this age of instantaneous gratification and round-the-clock entertainment). The bean bags were 'ingredients'. We also used the 'dive sticks' as rolling pins and the flat foam shapes ended up being our 'cookies'. We placed our cookies in the 'oven' and when they surprisingly disappeared, the kids had to climb on all the gym apparati to find them and put the cookies back in the oven. Once they were all done, we took them out and 'ate' the cookies on one of the low bridges that was serving as our 'table'. The kids then told their grown-ups what kind of cookies they were enjoying. So cute! :)
The kids counting to 10 while they waited for their cookies to finish bakingTo say it was hysterical would be putting it mildly. It was a riot to see these 22-28 month-olds running around and accomplishing all the different parts of the lesson as well as hear them TALKING! Since most of the kids were non-verbal in his last class, he rarely saw other little ones talking. There is also now a verbal component to his class where the teacher is asking for and encouraging verbal responses from the kids. When we heard one of the first kids telling us what colors she was holding, Elliott was completely enthralled. This is going to be so great for Elliott.
The class is a lot more work for me (Elliott is still getting used to a more focused class, so there is a lot more wrangling involved), but it is a lot of fun. The next two weeks will be a different theme and I can't wait to see what they come up with next!
*Bonus points for the first person to correctly identify where this comes from - without Mr. Google.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
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