It's been a while since my mom has posted, but look at me NOW!

Just listen to me sing! This is Mommy's Christmas gift, for sure!

A New Playgroup!

Today Declan starts his new transition playgroup at the KDC in Attleboro. This is the part about being a working mom that I HATE. I can't take him to these fun, exciting things. But the next best person can-his "Nee-Nee." This playgroup targets speech and language, has models, and is one hour, fifteen minutes long. He'll love it, I'm sure. Grammy gets to drop him off, too, so it's a lot like preschool. Hopefully it will indicate how super his transition to preschool will be in a few weeks. He continues to see Diane, and her grad student, Lisa. Declan was a little unsure about working with someone different last week, but Diane reassured him and he was fine. He's doing so well, and we are so proud of him.

Preschool, Here We Come!

We went to D's Preschool Open House and Meet the Teacher Day on Friday. Declan LOVED school! He got to play on the Fire Truck on the playground and loved being around all of the other kids. His teacher seemed very nice. Her classroom was very cute! D loved playing in the kitchen with the tongs and the play toaster oven. At one point, when I had relaxed enough to talk to another mother from my neighborhood, I heard laughter erupting all around, and I heard D saying "Up, Momma, Up." I couldn't believe it, but the little skinny-pickle's pants had fallen down around his ankles and everyone was cracking up at his little shuffle towards me to help him pull them up. I even put a belt on him that morning trying to avoid such an event!

The classroom is a mix of some 3, but mostly 4 year olds which should be great for D. Older kids will definitely talk more that 3 year olds, so any language modeling he gets is always great. 7 out of 15 kids are on IEPs for speech and language issues and the speech pathologist works right in the room most of the day, except for individualized services (like D's 30 mins.X2 every week). The SLP is a guy, (I've never met a male SLP) and maybe this will interest D. He's only ever worked with women, and this change may be a super thing! As always, we shall see. He got a little Home-School Folder just like the ones I give out at school with forms for me to sign and a school calendar. How fun!

Going to the Zoo!

We went to the R.W. Zoo for one last day trip before summer comes to an end. D loved the company of Liz, Katie, and Marie! It's always fun when those girls are around. D attempted to name lots of animals. He REALLY liked the giraffe's black tongue.

While driving to the zoo today, we did our usual car ride conversations: what do you see?, what do you think?, what will we do next? etc. I try to constantly talk to him and solicit responses whenever the opportunity presents itself. Anyway, today we were talking about school. D thinks it is a riot that his teacher's name is Mrs. Carr. He thinks I'm kidding with him and cracks up every time I mention his teacher's name. If his teacher could have any name, Mrs. Carr would be the one that I would pick--car is a word he has said perfectly since he was 1. Now, we just have to work on the Mrs. part.

Driving through the center of Norton today, we had to slow down because of PGA traffic in front of Norton High School. Upon seeing the landmark red trailer parked across from the schools, D shouted, "Yum, yum. Hot dog man!"

I've never taken him there, so naturally, I asked, "What? How do you know that?"

And he repeated, "Hot dog man!" This time while pointing out the window at the Norton Hot Dog stand.

I said, "D, have you ever gone there?"

And he said, "Yeah, Momma."

I asked him, "When?" He said, "Nee-nee," which is D's endearing term for his grandmother, Granny.

I asked him, "D, did you eat a hot dog?" He answered me with, "Yeah, Momma!" (For anyone who knows D, yeah, right you ate a hot dog!)

It's FANTASTIC to finally hear what is going on in that head of his even if he is lying to me about eating a hot dog!

Back to School for Mom and Dad

We've really enjoyed our time with D (and M, too!) this summer. It's been wonderful to watch his language develop so much in such a short time. Today during Speech Therapy he said, "One more minute please." So proud of our buddy!

Yesterday we went to his last play group session. It was nice to sing songs and play with other kids for D. He also had a re-evaluation from Early Intervention yesterday. They concluded that he is developing beyond his age in all areas (excluding expressive language), and he is making gains in expressive language, too! We will start to go to late afternoon appts. at Morton/Northwoods for D next week, which should work out well with our new back to work schedule.

Friday, Sept. 11 is D's Preschool Open House. Can't wait to go and meet his teacher and classmates. Talked to a neighbor today, and she told us all about D's teacher. She said her son had her (who is also the vice-principal) and loved her! I hope she is wonderful.

Which brings me to my last pondering....I wonder what the parents say about me.....

And so it goes....

This week we are continuing therapy as usual, with just 2 changes: First, Declan has a new speech therapist who is returning from maternity leave, AND Declan will go with his grandmothers to his appts. because mommy and daddy are going on vacation! It will be nice for them to see just how great his therapy works! Lots of new words this week (airplane, Olive Garden just to name a few!) which is so very exciting for us! So proud of our buddy!

The Second Opinion

Today, a SLP came to do a second opinion eval. on D. She was pleased with his progress, and thinks we are on the right track with all that we are doing, so we should continue. She doesn't have time to fit him into her schedule right now, but things could change. Thus, we will continue with what we are doing.

She also gave us some exercises to strengthen D's oral-motor muscles that entail licking chocolate off of straws! Lucky kid! No more thumb sucking or sippy cups--don't know how we'll break him of the thumb sucking! Any suggestions? I've seen "devices" in magazines, but they look so freaky!

Anyways, we're happy that we are on the right track, and we look forward to hearing from the schools to see if they will add a day of services for D.