maybe fingerpaint?

The Mister and I went for a walk last night and he asked me about my spare time and my future. We were talking about long term goals. It is obvious that he has them, though they may not be seen to fruition yet. But he stopped his train of thought and asked what "I" wanted to do in a couple years. To be totally honest, I have no idea what I am doing next month. I mean, I know what I am doing, just not really. I have things on my calendar. I never have really had the luxury of planning out years ahead. I have been a mom since I was 17. I kinda lost my long term goals then (not that I really had the mental capacity to do it before that age). Wes said I should go back to school but I don't really want to. I never did well because of my severe attention deficit and I have lots of problems with math. I am not really the smart, academic type anyway.

I was talking to a friend at "this One's" sewing class and I was telling her how much she loved coming to her house and that it was the highlight of her week because she got so bored. She said "I have never been bored a day in my life." Wow. Now as she said that, I looked at her - and she was sewing- no wonder.

Today, I was supposed to go somewhere with a friend. I had planned my day that way. When things fell through I decided to stay home for awhile and clean out the home school room closet. I ran across some paints and some photography supplies that I used many years ago. It's obvious that I will not have time to do either of these things any time soon. I decided that I needed to do something about them.

I kept the photography things because I couldn't justify giving them away to someone who wouldn't know what a reel, 6x loop and a film loader even were. They'd probably end up in the dumpster. So I kept them. Not really in hopes of using them some day because, lets be honest- I don't/nor will I have a dark room. I won't get rid of them and buy a digital camera because I think digital photography is stupid trash - for the most part. So they are still up in the closet.

This is a box of paints that I inherited from my grandmother when she passed many years ago - though some paints were mine

I decided to go ahead and throw these away since I found one that expired in February of 1996 and the rest were no fresher. I did however keep some of my own things that may come in handy later on.

This is all I kept. A plate that I used, some brushes and some oil paints that I never really figured out how to use (who knew oil painting was so tricky).

Maybe we will finger paint when we start school on Monday. That's exciting.

some words from the "other one"

The kids with their new adorable matching hats

Over the past 8 months or so it has become painfully obvious that the youngest one has some speech delay. After much hemming and hawing and red tape, I was able to get him in to a private pediatric therapy company (I happened upon a friend of a friend who worked at this company). He started seeing "Miss Lucy" late in the spring. Miss Lucy is the highlight of his day because she gives him undivided attention and sisters aren't allowed to participate and she is super fun to play with! When he started, he was only able to say Momma and used that for everything. He could sign 'more', 'drink' and 'all-done'. My how he has grown! Here are some things he is working on:

• He can repeat any word you say like pizza, hot dog, wheelbarrow (I like that one), chicken, meat, zoo, juice, water, tower, zebra, donut, please, push, Coke (yikes, I know), and pretty much anything else including 2 and 3 syllable words.

• He was not working on colors and numbers before now because it was much too difficult for him to pronounce them. Now he is masters 1,2,3,4 and 5 and can recognize blue, yellow, white, black and red.

• Miss Lucy also said the he completely understand pronouns which is really a very good thing for his age. He understands that when you say 'mine' it is yours and when he says 'mine' it is his.

• He is putting two words together now. He came and told me to 'wake up' today! I hear him trying to say full sentences but I am probably the only one to hear them since I am his mother. :-)

• He has very good receptive language and understands most everything you tell him and he follows directions very well. He is very sociable and recognizes social cues. I am sure this has helped speed his progress a long because of his ability to do these before therapy started. For that I am super thankful.
  

I know it may sound like it is a slow progress since he should have mastered a lot of these skills nearly a full year ago but I am so happy with his progress. If this has only been 3 months worth of therapy, I can't imagine where he will be this time next year. Rejoice with me!

♥~Amy