Sam, I Am Three!

We had so much to celebrate on Sam's third birthday! He has passed so many milestones, seemingly all in the past couple of months. With his speech delay, I tried not to put a timeline on his progress, but I hoped, secretly hoped, that we would hear words from him by 3. And we did! I recently posted about his speech progress, and already I must add to his list of words he says on his own, something I could likely do daily!   (nose, toes, tickle tickle tickle, banana, I love you, shake, eyes, hot, coat, sit down) It's so fun now to watch others with him, like he's a new game. His brother and cousins love asking him, can you say this? Sam, say this. Recently he even said Annabelle. So let me tell you about Sam, because there is so much more to him than the words that come out of his mouth. First off, he is the biggest snuggler! Particularly in the morning. He will come into our room and crawl up on my side and lay down on top of me, literally fully body on my body. Or if he wants to snuggle up on the couch, he finds his greatest comfort sitting up on my chest. While not always the most comfortable for me, I do love it. In many ways he seems younger than he is, and it's allowed me to keep him a baby for a little longer. It's amazing to watch him play more with others and want to engage in activities. Before, it seemed he would prefer to play on his own but now he's becoming more curious, more daring, more eager to participate. At playgrounds, he now climbs and slides instead of only wanting to swing. He loves dogs. He recently discovered (and loves) escalators. His recent fascination is with Wii bowling. Not to play but to watch, and Adam is always happy to fulfill his requests (he brings us the Wii controller). If you miss some pins, he says Oh No. But if you get a strike or spare, he repeats the audio's Nice Spare! We are almost-there with a spoon. He knows how to use it but doesn't like doing it on his own, so I assist by applying just a little pressure and guidance to his elbow. He occasionally will still chew books. Adam is always on alert for this. Ironically, though, he loves baths! Ok, not the hair washing bit which is still traumatic for him, but he is always eager to get in the tub. He doesn't mind the splashing (just don't add bubbles), and it's not uncommon for me to give him a bath even when I didn't plan to. You start taking off his clothes and he runs to the tub... sometimes too eagerly. His favorite food is Life cereal. Or maybe it's popcorn. (Eating is still a challenge for us; he's very picky and won't try things he doesn't recognize.) He has a great memory, and in the car I can ask him which way? and he will point the direction we should turn. Or, if he wants to go to the park, he'll point to the road as we pass it. It sometimes works against us, though, as he will start to fuss if we even slow down near the pediatrician's office or the barber. (He still hates haircuts.)

He doesn't sing (yet) but he fills in the words. I'm a little...sunshine... He will ramble on and on, though, in his own little language. He certainly knows what he is saying.

He knows his letters and letter sounds and shapes and colors. He can draw circles and lines and can write his name. Michael will write other simple words on his chalkboard to have him start tracing those lines and learn other letters.

Here are his 3-year stats:
Height: 36" -- about the same as Adam at the same age (36.5")
Weight: 31.2 lbs -- and just a little heavier (28 lbs)
20/20 vision
Great health

And for your viewing pleasure, here's a fun video of his neatest trick:

We of course had to have a little party to celebrate him! A very special THANK YOU to the Williams, Mauneys, Uncle Daniel, Gramma and Grampa for helping us celebrate!

Sam Speech, 36 months

So much has been happening in little Sam's life and development! It's really exciting to witness and fun for his therapists to see notable progress even after just a couple of weeks.

We added Occupational Therapy to his routine to help sort out some of his sensory issues and hopefully help improve his pickiness in eating. He goes to OT every other week where she works on different textures and working with utensils with the fundamentals of gross motor play, which he loves most. This helps center and regulate him for additional therapies. Unfortunately we had to drop music therapy for the time being to accommodate the OT.

He continues with his private Speech Therapy, and we tried out a Speech social group his ST put together, thinking it would be ideal for his social skills in preparation for preschool. After 4 sessions we decided that his time with his therapist is better spent individually, as he had trouble sitting with circle group and engaging in the group activities.

Sam aged out of the the Help Me Grow (Ohio) program at 3, when he gets turned over to the school system for intervention. (Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our home therapist, who has been so great with him for the past year and a half.) Sam had a home evolution by the local school's psychologist which led to an invitation for further evaluation at the school. We took him to the school where he was observed by a speech therapist, occupational therapist, developmental specialist and school psychologist, all trying to get him to do different tasks. We cooperated very well and, I think, showed a true representation of how he typically is. A few weeks later we were back to review the results, with all the above parties, plus the school assistant principal, his Dept of Disabilities caseworker and his Help Me Grow therapist. It was really moving to have this wonderful team of women surrounding him and intervening to make him the best he can be.


Each of the specialists reviewed their observations, combined with other tests he's had and a survey we completed. All came to the conclusions that, from an educational standpoint, he should be classified as Autistic, but acknowledged he would be on the low end of the spectrum. (The only other classification would be Developmental Delay, but aside from the speech delay he doesn't exhibit enough disability, plus in some areas he's already ahead of his peers (shape, color, letter, letter sound recognition. There are also so many more programs and opportunities available to the Autism diagnosis than Developmental Delay.)

We accepted the diagnosis after some discussion, including whether any ceiling would be placed on him and worries that he would carry the diagnosis throughout his school career. (He'll be reevaluated every 3 years, with a new Individualized Education Plan (IEP) every year.) With all that discussed to our satisfaction, he was accepted into the school system preschool program!

We met once more, this time with the school principal, his preschool teacher, and the speech therapist and occupational therapist assigned to his classroom, to review his IEP they created for him. Each reviewed their area and the goals set for Sam during his time with them. He will have speech therapy twice a week for two 20-minute sessions and occupational therapy once a week for 20 minutes. His therapists will also be on hand if he needs additional assistance in the classroom during regular learning activities. He will be in a blended class with typical children, attending 4 days a week, half days, at the same school as Adam. (Unfortunately their school times don't correspond as conveniently as we hoped, but we're adjusting.)

We are thrilled for this opportunity for him! We feel so good about the staff that has been put in place around him and like them all so much. (I even told Michael I wished we could have them all over for a barbecue... fun people!) We expect wonderful changes in Sam.

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It's been two weeks since Sam started school, and there have been no tears at drop-off! We get little day-to-day feedback about his day, though the first day we were told that he "communicated well and participated in circle time." After his first OT session, we had a note in his backpack that while he did not like the tackiness of the stickers they worked with, he did great overall. And his speech therapist gave a very optimistic report about his attentiveness and participation, eye contact and alerting to his name.

Just within the past two months his sound output and word vocalization has spiked, and he has over 30 words now. He repeats everything he hears and since starting flash cards with him we realize he knows a lot more words than we thought!

A running list -- Dada, Mama, Adam (Ad-duh), ball, bear (Bah), milk (mm-k), shoes, socks, outside, car, cookie, go, cereal, Oh's (cheerios), all done, star, pumpkin, no, door, up (up-ah), off, on, Sam, more, slide, apple, baby, diaper, cheese, please, nose, Elmo, bye bye, carrot, cheese

He doesn't sing songs but will fill in the blanks, like high, star, sky, are on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Adam is so great with helping him, often challenging him to say something (the other day he had Sam saying pineapple) or exclaiming when he hears Sam say a word.

He knows shapes, colors, animals, letters, letter sounds. He can count to 20 and backwards from 10, and each time his pronunciation is better and more distinguishable.

Sam has greatly reduced his stimming, where he would track horizontal planes with his eyes. He still likes to align objects but we can now enter a building with automatic doors without him wanting to stop and watch.

He can write letters! We bought an easel, wrote his name and was shocked when he traced the letters. He now writes his name on his own.

I need to take some updated video of him. These videos are up to 3 months old so just imagine how much more he's doing:

Sam counting down from 10, video from October

Samuel playing with automatic doors, video from September

Sam writing, August 2015

Sam talking, August 2015

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Next up: In December we return to the DDBP (Dept of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics) for what I'm assuming is his annual assessment. Curious to hear what they say about our boy!.

This summer.

I've been away. 

Not to any place in particular; just, you know, around. Busy with kids, afternoon parks, therapies, soccer and piano. Busy with work, little bit of traveling. Busy with Life. And maybe you missed reading new posts. Maybe you didn't. But, a lot happened this summer. A lot of cool, interesting, beautiful, special things. No big beach trips or European vacations for us. But lots of family time, old friend time, new friend time, explorations and developments. 

Sam, oh our Sam. He deserves a post of his own for all the mind-blowing things he's surprising with us with lately. I forget that he's almost THREE, but in my mind he's still clinging to my leg and nuzzling in my lap. But in just a few weeks he'll be off to preschool. Our big boy. Our hearts are so full of this little being. 

And Adam. What a mind in that kid. The other day he described a color Lego he was looking for as the color of the "inside of a banana". His little 5-and-a-half year old brain may not know this color as, say, beige or off-white, but he created this beautiful description to tell me the color he was needing. I'll post about him, too. He's our big Kindergartener now. (And the coolest things about it are the bus and recess.) 

Highlights of our summer as follows:

This girl. Oh my, this little girl. Niece Annabelle Lynn arrives and time is flying too fast. I've already missed bunches of her growing -- she's already rolling and giggling and smiling -- and I don't like it one bit!

This man. My husband is the best at finding little adventures for us to go and explore locally. It's one of the things I love most about him -- his excitement to just Go. Explore. Find. Create an adventure out of an ordinary Saturday when I may want to stay home and catch up on laundry. But he drags me out and I never regret spending the day, usually outside in the beautiful weather, with the 3 of the most important boys in my life.

This job. I'm grateful for my work and the work culture that puts employees first and allows me to balance home with career without too many demands. Occasionally I travel, and this summer brought me to Chicago. M took me there 15 years ago for a Reds-Cubs baseball game, and we returned 10 years later with our 11-month old after Christmas to see the city in lights. But I hadn't really looked at the city itself or introduced myself to the skyline or really felt the city life like this trip. A riverboat architectural tour by myself was really awe-inspiring. Chicago, you won me over. But next time someone else drives me there.

These people. People who make it a point to be a part of your life. People who check in, not just with what you are doing but how you are doing. I'm so grateful. They may never know how much I appreciate them all for making the time and effort and the distance to be with us.

This community. This summer our city really shined with the MLB All-Star weekend. We loved exploring the redesigned riverfront and taking part in some of the festivities. We also made a point to take in local events, fun attractions and new establishments in the surrounding community.

These boots. If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that Adam hardly went anywhere this summer without this Crocs snow boots. These were definitely his footwear of choice, even in 90-degree weather. Go ahead and look back. Hiking, fishing, parks, and yes, even the water splash pad. As my sister said, "those dang boots!"

Sam's Speech, 30 months

If you were to take a peek into Sam's world these days, you'd find a boy that is more vocal than ever! He may not be making discernible words, but when we sit back and look at where we started and the growth he's shown over the last year, he's really come a long way. I really feel like he's starting to blossom these days, in new and wonderful ways. In fact, his speech pathologist commented that he seemed more comfortable in his own skin at his last appointment. I love that. I love that other people are seeing that, too. Maybe he's figuring it all out.

When he's not thinking about it, he's actually quite chatty. Common babbling includes the repetition of sounds such as ab-a, on-a, neh, good (remember that one?), da, uh, duh, ma, ba, pa, deh, tuk, guh, ott and more. This is more sounds than he's ever made, and he's even starting to combine sounds. On rare but exciting occasions he'll actually say a real word, and it's so unexpected that it really stuns and thrills me. Like his speech pathologist says, we think the words are in there; he just has trouble getting them out when he's thinking about it. She's heard him say her name (Amy), wash, rawr (what a lion says), and pop. Gramma has heard Grampa, and I have heard down, on, hush, good and mama (but he'll only say mama if you say it first; he won't call for me with it. For Dada he does the sign for Dada (open hand with thumb on forehead), but instead with both hands on his temples... apparently Daddy is a reindeer. Ha!) Technically, he has no consistent words but all promising sounds.
We continue to give him all the resources available to him and have really appreciated how our behavior therapist through the Help Me Grow program works so closely with our speech pathologist at the children's hospital. She will also bring along another HMG Occupational Therapist or Speech Therapist on occasion, who offer different observation and perspective on therapies.

This is what we've done for him the last 6+ months: Weekly social group. The Department of Disabilities offers an 8-week social group with other children his age. We started the first session in January and he was the youngest one in the class. By the end of the winter session he started to catch on to the routine so we enrolled him in the Spring session, which just wrapped up. We're considering taking a break from the summer session since Adam will be home for the summer with him. A quick visit to an ENT last fall to check to see if his frenulum (the tissue connecting the tongue to the mouth floor) was too tight and restricting speech. His was clipped at his newborn appointment but it can supposedly grow back, but the doctor didn't see it as a problem, nor did he believe it would affect not talking, just pronunciation. Strike that off the list. Follow-up evaluation at the Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (DDBP) in December. This report was basically a compilation of his past ELAP exam and recent speech therapy reports, plus new observations. Nothing new to report, just that he's showing some progress but still has the deficits.  Started The Play Project (www.playproject.org) through the Help Me Grow program. This involves more hands-on training for Michael and I with two behavioral therapists. It's done in our house, often with video recording of our interactions with Sam, which are evaluated by other specialists trained in the program and then reviewed with us. The feedback is valuable to helping Michael and I make the most of our interactions with Sam. They really help coach/guide us to get more engagement from him. Through the program we've also learned a lot about sensory processing -- how Sam prefers to only eat dry or crunchy foods or foods that he recognizes, hates to have his hair washed, and dislikes getting his hands dirty. He also seeks vestibular stimulation through swinging, jumping, being squeezed/hugged, chewing on board books or clothing (for oral stimulation), opening and closing doors (particularly automated sliding doors), aligning objects in a row, and pacing along horizontal planes or picking up a linear option and moving it horizontally across his line of vision.  He becomes fixated on doors, and at his social group the organizer began covering the classroom windows because Sam just wanted to watch the automatic lobby doors the whole time. Twice a month speech therapy sessions. We felt for several months that he was really stagnant in development, but since the new year he has really shown progress. His play imitation is better than ever and his receptive language is much improved. Amy can now get sounds out of him where just a couple of months ago she couldn't get anything. It's always exciting to go to his sessions and see his progress. Weekly music therapy. We've been doing this about a month, and he does really great with it. Our therapist is also Adam's piano teacher, so she comes to the house for a half hour session with each of them. She carries in a keyboard, a guitar, and a bag full of scarves, toys, bells, drums, etc. I could do a whole post on the various techniques used, but all the songs require Sam to move, to make a sound, to make a prompt, to mimic, etc. This is another great way to engage and develop him. He particularly loves the songs using gross motor movement. ADOS-2 evaluation in April. This is an Autism Spectrum evaluation and was given with the general idea of ruling out ASD as a cause for the speech delay. Sam has a couple of "red flags" that his behavioral therapists were concerned about. These include the initial loss of language (he had babbling at 12mos but lost all verbal for awhile), obvious speech delay, and some sensory processing issues, as described above (which are exacerbated in unfamiliar settings, such as where the testing took place.) Results showed a "moderate to severe" concern that he may have ASD. The developmental specialist who conducted the evaluation said that "based on the impressions from the ADOS testing, autism spectrum disorder could be one explanation for Samuel's deficits in social affect, communication skills and functional play skills", but then acknowledged verbally that she wasn't convinced he has ASD. On paper, Sam was flagged as having ASD characteristics, but often his responses to certain stimuli didn't hold across the board for a typical ASD child. And the test didn't account for his many "green flags" of good eye contact, nonverbal communication, social interactions, etc. He seems to confuse the experts. We've been referred back to the Children's Hospital Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, who just said for us to continue our therapies and they'll reassess when he's 3. Upcoming evaluation with the local school district. The school district offers a preschool program for 3 and 4 year olds, and if Sam qualifies for an IEP (individualized education plan, which he should for his speech), he would be able to attend for free when he turns 3. This would be 4 days a week, half days, and would include speech therapy, which he wouldn't get at a private daycare. Plus, he and Adam would be at the same school. I'm really excited about this opportunity for him, as I think being around more children his age every day will be really beneficial. They also help with feeding and potty training, as well. We'll know more after August. Annual Help Me Grow evaluation. His behavior specialist came to the house with a tackle box of objects, and like his initial exam last year, she asked him to perform various tasks like stacking blocks, finding the object, etc. We'll get a full report, but immediate results showed good fine motor, gross motor, adaptive and personal/social skills, with delays in receptive and expressive communication and cognition.

with his behavior therapist Mindy from the parent camera at Speech watching the lobby doors staring at the lobby doors through the gym door

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So, yes! A whole lot going on with our Sweet Sam! He's 2 1/2 now, and I'm constantly surprised at how independent he's becoming (and how big he's getting)! Here are some of his recent antics and fascinations:

• Loves to RUN! Our neighbors often get to watch us chasing Sam down to the cul-de-sac because he's taken off on an impromptu run once again. A couple of them have helped "catch" him for us. On the plus side, it's been a great way to get to know the neighbors!

• Loves opening doors, often opening and slamming them over and over, sometimes at 6:30 in the morning. If the door swings closed by itself, it's even more fun (until he's stuck in the closed garage in the dark). He is also getting skilled at unlocking doors, which is a problem around the house, and we're having to get smarter about locking the front and back doors because he will escape. (Then see point 1.) He loves automatic sliding doors, and when we go anywhere that has them (which is most stores) he will wriggle out of my arms and race for them. Once I manage to pull him away from them he's constantly watching for them throughout the store.

• Recently he's discovered he can open the refrigerator and freezer. We store our milk in the door, at his level, and he'll sometimes come to me lugging the carton, which is really cute. What is not cute is finding refrigerator contents sitting out on the kitchen floor.

• Has started using sign language without prompting. (This is really exciting!) Typically he'll sign more or all done when he wants to continue or stop an activity. It used to be he'd do this only if we ask him but now he'll do this on his own. Most often he'll use more and all done when he's strapped into a swing or his high chair.

• Blows kisses with the "mmm-ah" sound! And the other day Michael said, "I love you!" and Sam blew him a kiss in response. He is a great cuddle and each morning he comes into our room, climbs up on our bed and lays right on top of me.

• Sometimes changes the intonation of sounds to sound like words. He may say a high-low sound for Thank You or a "uh-huh" sound for yes, without actually saying words. For a while, his No was a definite, firm (and rather rude!) grunt, but he only uses this occasionally now.

• When you ask him to say something specifically he has trouble but he can prompt us verbally. It's usually "pah" or "bah" whispered. Hopefully he'll begin to realize he can tell us things or that a verbal response is expected. 

• Is much more aware of his environment and responds. If he hears someone say Mama (and not to him as a directive to repeat it) he'll repeat it. If he hears a song that he knows he'll stop what he's doing and do the motions.

• Loves to throw rocks in the river, which has progressed to throwing mulch on the patio. He recently tried to throw decorative river rocks into a friend's swimming pool. He giggles the whole time. (See video below.)

• Typically does most fine motor skills left handed and more often than not, points to objects with his left thumb.

• His biggest passions, I think, are running, doors and the swing. He will swing until you get tired and he recently discovered the rocking chair is similar movement. Lately he wants to sit on my lap to swing and I love this cuddle time! (I usually get tired long before he does.)

• Loves to play baseball. He'll place a ball on the tee and then swing a bat to hit it. Over and over again. Or he'll chase down Adam's fly balls.

• Loves music -- Wheels on the Bus, Monkeys in a Tree, Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Speckled Frogs, Ring Around the Rosie, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Happy and You Know It, Row Row Row Your Boat, Wiggly Jiggly Car Song, Head Shoulders Knees Toes -- all songs that are interactive and involve gross motor.

• Loves playing with his brother and is starting to play along side him more. They particularly love to rough-house (ka-boom, hammer down and jump/throw on the couch) or chase each other. When playing alone he's typically lining up objects (shoes, cars) in a row or realigning my picture frames to the front edge of the table.

• No more pacifier! He chewed holes in his and they became less desirable. I tossed them and he hasn't seemed to notice. He still likes his little blanket-giraffe for bedtime and will often suck on it or his shirt front instead. We're trying to break that habit next.

• He may not be able to say it, but he sure knows how to show us what he wants by bringing us objects, or leading us to something, or placing our hands on an object he wants or needs help with... particularly shoes. He'll bring you his shoes as indication he wants to go out and he'll bring us each of ours to put on, too. If in the garage he'll stand by the car door as indication he wants to get in and go anywhere you'll take him.

I read a book called Late Talking Children, which profiles other families who have had their child in evaluations, speech therapy, specialists, etc., and all to say the child is completely normal, just speech delayed. Many of these children don't really talk until 3 or 4 or even 5 but otherwise excel in all other areas of development, sometimes beyond typical development for their age. It's been comforting to know that, while uncommon, his behavior is not necessarily abnormal. Likewise, when we had Adam IQ tested I mentioned to the psychologist that Sam was speech delayed, and he interrupted me to say that some of the delayed children he works with are extremely bright and don't start talking until 3 or later and often in full sentences. As our therapist put it, we're hoping he's just speech delayed and not language delayed, which would have longer lasting impact.

I know we are headed in the right direction, and I'm so excited to watch him on this journey. Here's a couple videos of him in action. He has the best laugh!

Sam's Speech, 22 months

It's been two months since Sam started his speech therapy, and my emotions have run the gamut. I've started and stopped this blog post many times, depending on my mood. Some days I'd come here disappointed and filled with discouragement, and other days I'd continue writing excitedly with the latest advancements.

On my frustrated days I would be discouraged, like the day I came across a video of Sam babbling happily at 7 months and realized he stopped saying any consonant sounds. He stopped saying his sole word "Good" a few months ago, replacing all "talk" with a whine or a grunt. Or, when I noticed other toddlers his age babbling or talking, and I had to force myself to not compare and wonder too much about when Sam will speak up, and if and when he does, how far behind he will be. Or, when, a couple of weeks ago, I asked Sam's speech therapist about how often she sees children who lose any language they had, like Sam, and she said she sees it but rarely, and it is a concern. (She didn't elaborate... which of course left me to my wild imagination. We ought to have a dedicated conversation on his progress, best/case scenarios, and any possible timeline. It's a "concern", but what does that mean?)

Sam, 7 months old

And then there are good days where I am astounded watching Sam play with one of his battery toys and answering all the questions the game was requesting. Press the letter S. Press the letter that goes with the word that makes this sound [zipper sound]. Press the ball to play to continue playing. He gets them all right. Or when he opens his shapes book and finds the specific shape you ask, or turns to the page to find the animal in his other book. Or, when he stands in front of our family photos and picks out all of us easily. It's a relief to have him pointing now though it's still not clearly intentional to demonstrate a want (instead he leads us to objects or brings objects to us). Or, when he seems to pick up a new sign language word each day. He consistently signs dog, more, please, bath, bed, book, tree, all done, mom, fan, eat, shoes, car, go and more. This morning he signed moon. It's mostly communicated in response to a request, not as an intentional communication to us, but it's a great start! He knows body parts (head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, belly, hands, toes) and can do motions along with songs. Those are all so encouraging and I have to remind myself he's made all this progress in a quick 2 months! When we had him evaluated in June he was diagnosed as being 9 months language, and here we are 3 months later and he seems to be on target for the age children begin talking (12-15 months).

And then, on Monday, a breakthrough! Or I truly hope it is! Adam and Sam were playing in the other room, and I started hearing sounds that I didn't think were from Adam. Na-na-na-na-na-na with some ma-ma-ma-ma in there, too. We ran to find him, and I'm pretty sure Michael and I both cried a little when we heard his new sounds! Joy. And relief. Each day since then I ask him to say it again, and he does. (I'm fearful he'll lose it just as quickly.) I've also noticed that occasionally he'll stumble across some other consonants like ba-ba or da-da and yesterday he was saying ssssss. We're cautiously encouraged.

Sam continues to work with specialists weekly to help jump-start his language and we had two great sessions this week. Both therapists noticed improvements over the previous visit.

Every other week we take Sam to the children's hospital for speech therapy. Michael usually takes him due to scheduling, but those times that I've attended I really enjoy learning techniques to implement at home.

In addition, we have a behavioral specialist from the Help Me Grow program come to our home each week at 7:30 in the morning (bless her) so I can be involved with Sam's sessions. Occasionally she will bring along an occupational therapist to do additional activities with Sam.

We've learned so much about language development in the last few months. We've learned that there are building blocks of social play, turn-taking, mimicry and nonverbal communication that must be accomplished before he can verbalize. While Sam has always been great at social play and social eye contact, he doesn't always look us in the face when he wants something from us or needs assistance. For example, if take away something that he wants, he reaches for and only stares at the object he wants back. Our play is now focussed on encouraging him to make that "help me" eye contact before we give him what he wants, and he's been doing great at starting to make those connections faster and more frequently.

Sam, 17 months

Additionally, we recently completed a survey as to his daily behaviors to better get a sense of what, if any, sensory issues he may have. Children with sensory issues, it's been explained to us, are overly sensitive to things in their environment which can interfere with normal learning (and speech development). Example, if you're trying to take a test and there's a loud lawnmower outside your window, you may be bothered and can't concentrate/learn. All children have sensory issues that they eventually grow out of. (Sometimes I wonder if there is too much emphasis on trying to peg a behavior as a sensory issue, and I dislike how it makes us question what would be otherwise normal behavior to us. Walking on toes is a sensory issue, and geez, Adam walked on his toes way more than Sam does!)

The thinking is that once we are aware of those areas of his discomfort, we can start working on helping him cope with them (they call it "organize" him) so that he can be more receptive to learning. Initial results showed typical development in most categories and a marginal deviation in just a couple areas. Frankly the report was way over my head, but I did recognize a lot of "typical" results, which is great! Next week the occupational therapist will come with our behavioral specialist to explain and review these more thoroughly.

Sam gives us a "wow" moment each and every day, and it's so exciting to watch him blossom. He has always been wonderful, Sweet Sam, and I knew from his beginning he is something special. Thank you all for the continued prayers and reassurances on his development. I am so optimistic that there will be a time we won't be able to keep him quiet!

Sam, 20 months

Adam Update

With all the attention Sam's been getting lately with his speech therapy, I feel like I haven't updated you all on Adam in some time. At 4 1/2, Adam has been so busy being Adam! He is so full of energy and imagination.

Lately, his favorite show is American Ninja Warrior. If you don't have boys in your house and are not aware of this program, it's a competition where men and women attempt to complete an obstacle course that requires crazy strength and agility, and for the last few weeks, since first seeing the show, Adam runs around our house climbing up and over the furniture and racing to the buzzer. He knows many of the competitors, and even the various obstacles, by name. He runs pretend courses and makes up names of other people racing so they can be introduced. When his cousin Emma was in town, the two of them built an American Ninja Warrior course in the basement, complete with their own version of the Warped Wall.

1st day of Pre-K, 2014

Maybe it's in part due to the show, but Adam is becoming much more the daredevil. Last night he made me catch my breath when he leapt from about 7 steps up, down to the bottom. Michael tells me I'd better get used to it.

Adam is very observant and absorbs everything, and we love that he's in a school that teaches him so much. He can name the planets, and knows which one has rings and which is the smallest and which is no longer a planet. He knows his Reds players and what numbers they wear. He knows about 20 different country flags and can tell you that Italy and Mexico are similar except that Mexico has an eagle on its flag. Last night Michael spilled a drink in the kitchen and at first glance Adam said the spill looked like Russia. We had to look at each other and agree. Adam frequently uses specific shapes to describe things (pentagon, octagon, etc) and the other day he asked if he could have a "cylinder cheese" (string cheese that is indeed in the shape of a cylinder). Lately he's noticed that cars have makes designated on them. He'll say, "That one's made out of Dodge."

This week he moved up to the next classroom (and last before Kindergarten!), and we are excited for him to have more exposure to writing. His reading has always been advanced, and in his last classroom his teacher was sending him to the older class to read. I love that when he reads books aloud he reads with inflection, emphasizes all capital words, is aware of when quotes are used for dialog, and applies appropriate sound to questions. Combine the reading with his strong observations skills, he's a chatterbox in the car as he reads aloud all the various signs. He loves books and every night when I check on him in bed I have to remove a handful of them from under his sleeping body. Lately, Curious George is his favorite.

He is continuing with his swim lessons, and I don't know how much he's getting out of the classes because he sure looks like he's having a blast in his own little world. He's picked up skills such as floating and kicking but still working on stroke.

Common phrases these days involve never. As in, I never get to go to the playground. Or, I've never been to the park before. (Honestly, he does and has!) He also likes to race and will challenge you to whoever gets to the mailbox wins! I haven't informed him that he is omitting the "first." This age is full of excitement and wonder, and it makes me smile to hear him say, "Oh boy!" when I tell him his dinner is ready, or "They're so beautiful!" when he sees deer near our home.

He continues to love baseball and having us pitch to him. Aunt Angie got him a real T-ball tee so he can now play on his own. He loves to toss the bat, run the bases and slide into home ("just like Pete Rose!"). A few occasions we've joined the neighbors in a real backyard game. We love where we live.

The most beautiful thing to watch him do is play with Sam. The two love to {gently} wrestle and chase each other around the house. Sam likes to be playing wherever Adam is, though this can sometimes be a frustration for Adam when Sam wants to grab his cars and trucks. (And oh, do we have plenty of those in the house! He still loooooves his cars. Currently it's a garbage truck that, he'll tell you, says Sanitation and Recycling. And on Friday mornings he will jump out of bed and dash to the window at the first sound of the garbage truck). If you tell Sam to "get him", he'll tentatively fall on Adam and laugh, or Adam will start a pillow fight with him or run the house with Sam close at his heels.

Next year at this time we'll be prepping Adam for Kindergarten, and (I say this now) I think I'll be ready to see him off. He has so much learning he wants to do and we hope he is always so eager. I love listening to the conversations he has in his room with his toys. This little boy has my whole heart!

See, he has been to the park!

Sam I Am, 18 Months

We took Sam to the doctor this morning for his 18 month check-up. We were a little nervous going in because we knew we'd have to have a hard talk about Sam's development. Sam is happy and active, understands and learns new concepts, lets us know what he wants, is social and interactive with other kids, and has strong physical and gross motor skills. He just doesn't say much.

Sam, actually, only says one word routinely: "Good". And, gosh, it's the cutest thing! He really emphasizes the "duh' at the end. One day he discovered these sounds and put them together, and to us, it sounded like 'Good'. We can ask him to say it, and he'll happily repeat it. It's the first word he says on command, and we love watching Adam ask him, "Sam, can you say 'Good'?" and he does. (Then Adam will say, "Mom, ask me if I can say 'Good'!) And we all cheer.  We ask him to say other things -- Mamma, Dadda, Car, Ball, etc., and often we just get "Good". But I love when I tell him 'Good Morning' and he replies, "Good!"

But that's all he says. By a year and a half, children should have a minimum of 8 words. Sure, he'll stumble across a Mamma or Dadda in his verbal ramblings (and he talks a lot), but doesn't use them to refer to us specifically. This is difficult for us because Adam was advanced for his age, so it's hard to make the comparison. Sam is adept at showing us what he needs by running to the door or the swing when he wants those, bringing us the remote control for the tv, reaching up to us to be held, or leading us to the refrigerator when he wants a drink.

I say he's just the Strong Silent Type.

But to rule out any further concerns and to help jump-start his verbal skills, we are making an appointment at the Children's Hospital to have him evaluated. It sounds like it will be a longer appointment where the specialists will observe his interactions with us and others, see how he plays, and get a better idea of his capabilities (versus a quick office visit). From there we will determine the next step. My gut tells me he's just a little behind, and I am all for aiding him through routine appointments with specialists and learning the techniques to help him at home. We had been harboring a fear that his bronchiolitis last year, where his oxygen intake was diminished for days, could have caused some long-term effects, and we were reassured that that is not the case.

So, aside from his these concerns (and we really have nothing to be overly concerned about at this point), Sam is a healthy, happy boy.

Weight: 24 lbs, 5 oz (55%)
Height: 33.5" (85%)
Head: 49 cm (89%)

He's long and lean (with a big head). And, oh, how I adore him! Here are a few things that he does at 18 months:

• Crawls up and down stairs now (loves sliding down backwards fast on his belly)
• Still gets a kick out of peek-a-boo
• Loves to mirror your actions
• RUNS everywhere
• Plays by himself well, particularly rolling and spinning his cups
• Gives kisses (our favorite!) and working on hugs
• Loves being outside and will run to the door whenever it is opened. (He can actually open the lever himself, so we must keep it locked!)
• Loves to watch cars go by (when we're outside he darts to the corner to better observe)
• Loves his swing
• Throws things -- food off his tray, balls down the stairs, toys when he's done with them
• Plays the Up/Down game (standing up, sitting down)
• Still takes 2 naps on most days but sometimes only 1. Heading towards dropping that first nap.
• Not a fan of baths, but it's getting better. We had been putting him in the bigger tub and deeper water with Adam. Lately I've been bathing him in the smaller tub with shallow water alone and he does much better sitting there.
• Enjoys pushing cars around, especially setting them up on a table and pushing them back and forth
• Completely on the sippy cup now. This boy was not a fan of most of the cup spouts and we had trouble switching from the bottle. We finally found the Nuk Active Cup and that made a difference.
• Wearing 18m to 2T clothes
• Loves to sit and flip pages in a board books, which I love, too
• Smiles and laughs when he looks at family pictures. (Hey, I know those people!)
• Knows his tongue, head and sometimes mouth and belly
• And, by the way, his eyes finally changed to brown. I miss the gray.

I must confess, part of me doesn't mind that he isn't developing quickly because that way he can stay my sweet little one a little longer. But it will be so adorable to start to hear him use words, tell us things, sing little songs and not be frustrated by an inability to communicate. 

I feel some guilt about not giving him the attention he deserves. With Adam I was home for all this time with him and working with him daily. With Sam, we are working full time and Sam is so content to play quietly on his own. Plus, our attention is divided with Adam, who at 4, is often more demanding of our focus. It may be time consider a daycare where he can be in an environment with more interaction and stimulation. I'm hoping the specialists can give us some activities and techniques to implement at home to get this boy talking. We are anxious to hear what he has to say!

Take Your Nephew to School Day

That's an official occasion on the calendar, right? Right up there with Take Your Child to Work Day. Whether official or not, Aunt Angie loves to show off her nephews wherever possible, and as an elementary school teacher, her classroom is a fun place to show him off and have him benefit from the experience, too. It's a win-win!

A couple weeks ago Adam stayed over at Aunt Angie's house so he could be ready to wake up early and drive to school with her. (He loved sleeping on Kyle's top bunk, way up high.) Doesn't he already look like a Kindergartener? He was so excited to go to school! (May that always be the case!)

First on the agenda was a bus evacuation drill. He was thrilled to get on the bus! And Angie said all the third graders loved helping him.

He spent much of the day in Ms Grieme's first grade room. They had library class where Adam read aloud to the other students, followed by reading groups.

I hear he held his own, though we need to work on writing, especially lower case letters. (Advice from a first grade teacher -- teach lower case letters first. It makes it much easier down the road.)

He spent a little time in Math class, too.

After lunch he had a little physical education with Aunt Angie as the teacher. We've been teaching Adam how to play baseball, so it was perfect that they were playing t-ball in class.

At the end of the day he got to tag along to a special animal presentation.

Notice those glassy eyes? This kid was pooped from such a full and interesting day! He fell asleep immediately in the car and slept for almost 2 hours when he got home.

Thanks, Angie (and Ms Grieme) for allowing Adam to tag along with you all day!

Opening Day!

We're Cincinnati Reds fans, and Opening Day is a big deal around here. And today the weather is gooooorgeous! Picture perfect for the first pitch.

We may not be going to the first home game of the season, but we nonetheless excited for our annual outings at the ball park with family and friends, singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame with our peanuts and cracker jacks, being downtown on game days, and hopefully this year another post-game Friday night fireworks display.

Adam loves baseball and has been practicing his batting skills lately. His batting is improving so much that we've had to move our baseball "games" outdoors (and yippee! the weather is finally cooperating!).

In honor of Opening Day, here's an encore of his ode to the seventh inning stretch last summer:

Go Reds! Play ball!

Play It Again, Sam!

If you've been to our house, you know our dining room is our catch-all room. It's a play room, party room, occasionally a dining room, and now, most recently it's a music room. We have a piano!

I didn't know you play the piano, you say. Well, you're right! But in Michael's continuing effort to give our children very well-rounded educations and appreciation of the arts, it was important for us to have a piano for our kids.

We found this beauty on craiglist, and it was right in our price range -- Free! (Lamp and bench included!) Seriously, there are pianos posted online all the time for free, and it may need a little cleaning up, but you won't beat the price. All the owner asked was that it go to a good home.

Remarkably, her notes sound pretty good! No tuning required yet. She just needs a good bath. I've been slowing cleaning her ivories, and the outer casement could use a good polishing.

But the boys love it. Sam just recently discovered the instrument and enjoys slapping the keys and laughing at the sounds and he loves listening to other people play.

We are a little premature on starting lessons. (What's the rule on moms sitting in and learning alongside?) But we know it's something we definitely want to start some day.

And we have a rule... if you're going to play you must also sing!

Adam has always enjoyed the piano at Aunt Karen's house... look back at a year ago.

He's available for bookings. Call us for rates!



And a very special thanks to Josh and Dad for helping move this sucker. (Mom and I just moved it across the room and I was shocked at the weight!)