Evan

Speech Evaluation

danielle — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:56:40 -0500

Well, we finally had Evan's speech evaluated. He has always been one of those kids whose speech plateaus, and just when you get worried he makes a big jump. The problem with Evan is that the jumps are not big enough to really put him ahead, they just get him up to low normal... then he plateaus again! Brian has been after me to have him evaluated, and I finally agreed just to see were he is at.

So yesterday Early Intervention did a full evaluation. It actually took the full 2 hours and the evaluator had to start looking up certain parts of the test because she never gets far enough to have to do them! She actually finally just stopped because it was obvious that he was developmentally AHEAD, not delayed! I don't have the full report yet, but they called to say that he does not qualify for services since there is no issue except for speech and that is not delayed enough. The evaluator actually said she thought that if he "were around a group of his peers, he would catch right up!" i.e. put him in preschool.

Thanks, but no thanks. If not being in preschool is the only reason my son's speech is in the low normal/slightly delayed range, then I don't think we have a problem here. It's like when they told me that Miriam's gross motor "problems" were caused because I "held her too much". Um, yeah, sure. That's a "problem" I'm not too worried about! My mommy gut tells me that one day in the not-so-distant future my son will start to really speak. And when he does, his vocabulary will quickly reflect the fact that he spends his day talking one-on-one or one-on-two with his college educated mother. And just like his sister, with her 3-4 syllable words, he will blow by his age-mates who spend all day with their peers.

Milestone of the Heart

danielle — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:39:41 -0400

Evan reached another milestone tonight. One that touches close to a mother's heart. Tonight my son said "I love you, Momma" for the very first time. I love you too, baby boy.

Well, that explains it!

danielle — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:34:11 -0400

So little dude has been uncharacteristically grumpy for the last week or so, acting out and getting more than his fair share of timeouts. He has also taken to running when I call him. Hmmm, need to nip that in the bud! Anyway, I think I found the reason for the grumpiness this AM... he is cutting both lower two year old molars. OUCH!!

Nose!! Owie!!

danielle — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:31:12 -0400

Poor Evan has his first major "little boy battle scar"! He and Sissy where playing twirling Dervish which, of course, ended in "we all fall down!" Things were fine until Evan literally took a nose dive into the Ikea chair. I didn't even know the chair has a corner on it!! But my boy (and his nose) found that wooden corner! I knew we were in trouble when I saw it happen... the screams and blood confirmed my fears.

The first thought into my head was "Oh crap, my son has broken his nose and is going to need stitches! WHAT am I going to do with Miriam?? It's NAP time!!" My second thought was "DOUBLE crap, I haven't taken a shower today and my hair looks like an oil slick." Isn't it good to know I have my priorities straight? :-)

Then as I'm running around the house... think up and down stairs with screaming, bleeding child in arms... frantically looking for a 4x4 or 2x2 or ANY kind of gauze, it hits me. What is the point of being a nurse and working at a hospital if you can't remember to rip off some gauze before you quit!?!?! It also hits me that as the mother of a boy (and to be fair a crazy girl) I really need a "cut-and-bleeding-profusely" emergency kit.

Anyway, I finally get the bleeding mostly stopped (without the help of gauze) and assess that the nose is not broken. Cleaning the wound reveals, that while nasty and likely to scar, it isn't deep enough for stitches. (Whew... that was close. Mental note to self, take shower FIRST thing in AM instead of waiting until nap time!) This is where I sure wished I had ripped off some steri-strips or a few butterflies... Then the wonderful Aunt Jen both reminds me I can MAKE a butterfly bandaid out of a regular one AND offers to come over and help me get it on Evan. Whew.

So thirty minutes later a very tired Evan was sporting two butterflies holding his cut closed and a Curious George bandaid over it all. The boy did great. The momma did ok sans the cuss words (but at least they were just in my head!) And the nose... well, it may never be quite the same, especially since 2 year olds aren't known for leaving bandaids on!

Lessons learned

danielle — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:07:48 -0400

Poor Evan. He learned his first lesson about female behavior today.

Miriam woke up today rather grumpy. Evan had two books of hers and was running around with them. I asked him to return them to her room where they belong. As he was doing this, she called after him, "One book, Please!!" He kept going and yelled "NO!!" over his shoulder. Immediately, she turned on the tears... full out fake crying! Poor Evan fell for it. He came back and offered her both books. While she DID stop crying, she humphed and turned away refusing to take either book. Evan offered each book in turn and each time she humphed and turned away. Poor Evan. He looked at me with a look of complete confusion and exasperation. Sorry dude... it just gets worse. As your father said, "You're never going to understand and you're rarely going to win!" (Hummm... should I be offended by that???)

Two years 2 months & Three years 2 months statistics

danielle — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:21:26 -0400

Because I'm ~~a bad mother~~ a bad blogger, I am just now writing the kids' 2 & 3 year updates or as the case really is 2.2 and 3.2 year update!

Evan at 2 (and 2 months): weight 33 pounds ( 94 percentile) and height 34.5 inches ( 46 percentile). Evan is starting to talk more finally. I really think he just has no need to talk with M always talking. He is now saying two word phrases/ sentences on a regular basic and will repeat things for me now if he's in the mood (ex. tonight I got him to say "napkin please"). He understands about anything I say to him, and he is Momma's little helper! He is in a whining stage which I will be very glad to get through!! He runs around like a crazy boy and LOVES to jump. He'll go anywhere Sissy goes. :)

Miriam at 3 (and 2 months): weight 34 pounds ( 75 percentile) and height 39.5 inches ( 88 percentile). This girl is nothing but TALK, TALK, TALK! She also has quite the imagination these days and loves to pretend things. She also likes to tell her brother what to do and even tell him what he is feeling! She is getting more and more independent. She still loves to read and sing and now dance.

Weekend swim

danielle — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:29:43 -0400

Well, after two chances to swim in a pool in two days, Mr Evan is showing off his stuff. We had him in one of those float swimsuits with a pair of wings on. He was nervous at first but soon begin to move away from us. Within about 15 minutes, Brian had him "swimming" laps! Brian would call him and move away and Evan used his arms and legs to follow and even turn! It was too cute! See video below.

They're going to get a bellyache!

danielle — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:54:07 -0400

So after recovering from the charlie horse from Hell (I could barely walk for 24 hours!), I decided it was time to take back my garden from 2 weeks worth of unchecked weed growth this morning. So M & E and I headed out the door. Things were going well until I realized they were doing more then "just resting" under the apple tree. The little rascals had helped themselves to the green apples and had taken bites out of 3-4 each before settling on one that was not quite as sour and eating 1/3 of it! Sheeeeee.....

The duck and the fish

danielle — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:32:57 -0400

Yesterday we attended a church pool party with both kids. It is the first time Miriam had been in a real pool that she could remember.

A bitty and a bitey

danielle — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:05:06 -0400

I have a new song: (sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It")

Oh I wish I could kill a mosquito
Oh I wish I could kill a mosquito
For their a bitty and a bitey over everybody's hidy
Oh I wish I could kill a mosquito