Seriously?

It's really hard for me to write here, not sure why. I have tons to say, but never the time to say it. James is doing so well these days. He talks NON STOP. He can be difficult to understand, but I'd say almost everyone can understand him if they have the right context for whatever he is talking about. Last summer was really the push he needed. Garrett has stalled in his speech and I am trying to not freak out over it. I really think that he can say more than he does, but it just hasn't "clicked" yet. You Moms know the "click" I'm speaking of. When they figure out they can open their mouth and say anything you can. He is a good communicator and very happy child. He loves to babble to himself and dance to music.

James was moved up to the afternoon preschool in January because he was doing so well. He is able to write his name, with a little prompting and is recognizing all sorts of letters AND sounds, something I had feared would be hard for him. He can count forever. He is so smart & compassionate and is always trying to problem solve every situation so that it ends with him getting his way, which is cute if only a little annoying. He is really growing up, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet! He turned four in February, how did I get a four year old? We are continuing to work hard on articulation and grammatics with James. We took him back to The Kaufman Center in Early November, Nancy took one look at him and said He was out of the woods! On his evals, it said "residual" apraxia, not "severe". I can't believe we really did it! We worked so hard to get all those sounds and words - I love that he can sing now. He can sing songs, a favorite right now is Row, Row, Row your boat.

I am going to try and update this thing everyday for the entire Month of May. May is Better Hearing and Speech Month, so I'm going to try and raise awareness from this little corner of the web.

Oops I did it again..

I don't mean to not write here. I just get so into life, that it gets pushed aside.

I'll do something different and start with Garrett. He continues to amaze me. He is walking like a toddler now, no awkward gaunt to it anymore. He is speaking more. His words consist of "That" with pointing, bye bye, mama, uh oh, da da, cat, button (buhbuhbuh), up and no. Obviously this is different for us. Oh, i forgot our most important word. Uh Oh. He worried me for a while, because he quit saying it. That is a trademark sign of apraxia. But then I realized that I had stopped saying it to him. So once I started, he started saying it again unprompted. I think his language will be just fine if I just stop being so paranoid about it. He is also starting to become a picky eater. But really, it depends on the time of day for him. Sometimes he eats GREAT, others, not so much. He also REALLY enjoys playing outside and playing in water. I have to stop him from going full on swimming in the bath tub. He's my little side Kick.

James is being so sweet lately. Not to mention chattering up an apraxic storm. He said the sweetest thing today. The child loves his milk. We were out this morning. He went to summer camp and I went to the store and bought milk of course. He gets in the car and See's the milk and says the following: "More Milk, More Milk, Oh Thank you Mommy, Thank you!". I had tears in my eyes, it was the sweetest thing I had ever heard. So many words at one time! So many heartfelt words at one time! It hasn't all been sunshine and roses the past week, but those sweet words made me so grateful to have him as my boy. For the experiences he's giving me. For the person he is making me. Trying as it might be, we're going to come out the other end of all this better for it.

Monday, August 4

Today was a good day. The kids went with me to work, which is great, except for when it's not. I work for a fun place for kids, but for a child with Sensory Issue's, it can be a nightmare. James enjoys himself (sometimes too much and too rough), so it's typically pretty stressful on us all. I spend my day wondering if the kids are OK or if James is playing too rough, but he had a great day apparently and kept his body in check quite nicely. It honestly made my day. Garrett doesn't mind one bit about being there and doesn't bother a soul, but I always worry about my JJ. He is growing up and into his body and I just hope we can all catch up. We spent the rest of our afternoon in Whitehall at a friends beach house. It was just breath taking. It was an old style cottage, with no air, no heat and all the bedrooms and doors that opened up to a breath taking view of the water. Oh, to wake up to that each morning. I called my Mother and told her that she and my Dad just simply had to come up next September (In the off season) and stay a week or 2 and enjoy that type of vacation. We had yummy sandwiches, tasty tomato's, watermelon, brownies and good cheese. It was just the perfect day. The kids played together nicely with a water hose all afternoon. I love those simple days.

New Stuff

Well, I have a tendency to do that. Start something and not finish it right away. We've had a lot of stuff come up. We just finished up a 3 week intense program at the Kaufman Center with Nancy Kaufman and her staff. It was true to it's word, it was very intense. However, we made a lot of progress. James is now regularly speaking in 3+ word phrases. He corrected his "Dye Dye" to "Bye Bye" and now says "Yes" instead of "yeah" as well as "Baby" instead of "Beb". These are just a small, small fraction of the things we were able to accomplish. They may seem so small to others, but to us, It literally brings tears to my eyes each time I hear them come out of his mouth correctly. Each time he spontaneously tells us details about something random. Each time he talks to us about his brother or his friends. Each time, it is as new and as exciting as the first. I can't speak highly enough about our experience there. On the downside, We did discover that the Apraxia has affected more than just his verbal motor plans, it's affected his large and fine motor plans as well. We have a whole host of things we need to work on, but we know how, and knowledge is power. I feel lucky to have this information now, and not have missed it until he was in first or second grade and have it be too late to do much of anything about it.

Garrett is growing like a weed. He is walking, has been since the first of June. He has a few words under his belt. Mama, Up, Down, Button, Cat, Book, to name a few. I'm trying really hard to push for early language so that I will feel a little more confident when he's 18 months, 24 months, etc. I want to enjoy these times, not analyse and worry if he is going to be affected by apraxia too.

I hope to go back and post more information about our time at the Kaufman Center. It's so overwhelming to go back and re hash and re write everything, But I know that God is giving me the experiences for a reason. I am supposed to do something with it and I will figure out what that is in time.

James at 2 days old

Garrett at 2 days old.

I make some incredibly cute babies. Everyone has something they excel at. For some people it's Art. Some, it's math. Others, like myself, it's procreating and making adorable, fun, and happy children.

Not much to report today. Garrett is feeling much better, James was still under the weather. Fell asleep in my bed for a short nap and woke up with a raging fever again. He did put two "old" words together today, "No More". He said it fairly easily too, and was able to replicate it again and again. One of the hardest thing for him is to put multiple words together. He has "I do" and "Go ____" (Fill in with familar to him word) but thats about it. Hopefully the more confident he gets with his words, the easier it will come to him.

Garrett was into everything today! He loves the cat food, litter box, toliet, and anything else he shouldn't touch. It was easier to childproof with just one, now I have a big brother coming behind me and undoing all this child proofing I am doing.

So I don't forget, Garrett has also offically learned to wave Bye bye, it's adorable.

I guess I had more to say than I thought.

Attempt # Too many

I've attempted blogs, diarys, flickers, blah blah blah's, so many times before. I never had a lot to say. I think I finally have enough to say to keep this going. We'll give it a shot!

I am Shelley - Mom to James and Garrett. James, the main subject of this blog, is 3 years old (February 2005) and is severely verbally apraxic. He is beautiful, smart, funny and witty - just with less words. Garrett is barreling towards 1 year old (May 2007) and about as happy of a baby that you will ever see.

I hope to share our story and get some sort of awareness out there about speech and language disorders, specifically apraxia. I fully admit to giving weird looks to children who didn't speak or didn't speak as clearly, until I was served up a big ol' slice of humble pie and given the gift of James. We are learning together. He's learning to speak and I am learning about patience, tolerance and advocacy.

I hope to use this blog to document his progress and give any tips that I pick up along the way for the Parents of Newly diagnosed children.