All about speech therapy

At the Cincinnati Zoo...on the train

Down in the basement workin' the car

Back home in the pool!

I did not post last week since we were on vacation with Greg's family and Timothy did great!

He was insanely good on the car trip to Cincinnati and cried twice for a total of five minutes. He was upset to have to sleep in his car seat rather than a proper crib or even a pack n' play. He resisted and did not sleep. Also he was upset for the last few minutes of our 12 hour trip - seems fair to me. He did so well with all the relatives it was amazing. In fact, he was better behaved on vacation then he is here at home. Of course, here he does not have four people doting on him constantly. The beginning of our trip was rainy and cold and the second half was perfect sunny weather. Even though we didn't get out much at first, Timothy still had fun exploring Susan and Micheal's basement with all of their fun toys - especially the battery-powered Jeep. We went to the Butterfly Exhibit at Krohn's Conservatory and to the Cincinnati Zoo both of which he enjoyed, especially as an opportunity to see other children. Everyone says the same things about him that he is alert, calm, a great eater and very smart. It's nice to hear these things since we have no clue as this is our first, but we are very spoiled, no joke.

One thing that's helped a great deal in understanding how well he is processing is our speech therapy. He's learned about twenty signs - his favorite (obsession) is 'light'. We were to teach him a few signs as a bridge to speech but once I got help from Leslie I just keep showing him more and more and he's picking them up quickly. Today we learned 'car' and he points to our car every time I say the word. Nothing, and I mean nothing is cuter than seeing him do the sign for 'dog' (which is hanging your tongue out of your mouth and panting). He stands kinda bent over to simulate the 'pant' part and sticks his little tongue out, I practically have to hug and kiss him every time he does it.

We have a long way to go with speech as he is only at 10 month level. He's very instructional with his grunting and pointing but he seems so gratified to communicate so much more clearly. We continue to emphasize the 'm' sound - he's actually pretty good at this especially when making the moo sound for a cow and the 'b' sound using baa. He even tries to say 'quack'. Of course he has surgery hopefully in June and we'll almost have to start at the beginning, sigh, with articulation.

It's such a responsibility to teach your child speech! I feel pressure to constantly teach and sometimes I just want him to play. But that's what parenting is all about anyway is teaching your child problem-solving skills, creativity, sharing, discipline. This gig is a lot harder than I thought it would be...the change in lifestyle, freedom - no problem, he's so easy anyway, I get a full night's sleep every night and he's had no problem lately taking his nap. The responsibility of teaching him is overwhelming at times, but he's just so sweet and getting sweeter with each day as he gets more attached.

We had our 18 month check up on Tuesday with the pediatrician - he seems to have grown an inch since we took him to the IA doctor last month but most 12 month clothes are still too big for him. He also had to get 4 vaccines - poor guy, not happy and a tiny bit crabby all day and Wednesday.

He still loves to play ball, any ball and walk outside. He watched his Daddy mow the lawn the other day and was beside himself with fascination and kept following him with his little walker, so cute and adorable. By the way - he knows the sign for Daddy but Mama, not so much.

It the pics above I kinda rushed the whole swimming thing - although it was 83 degrees it was a bit windy and we were in the shade and the water was pretty cold so as you can see he looks freezing. I would have moved the pool to the sunny spot except the pool weighs like 90 tons with water so we stayed put and he would not let me take him out.

Coupla new pics!

We play on the landing to the staircase a lot and practice his signs for Ready! and Go!
Yeah, I got him another haircut, it was just too long. He looks pretty cute though, right? I just can't get him to smile!

Pretending it's spring

This picture doesn't do it justice - when he uses this thing he puts his head down and it all bidness. I had to dress him that warmly because it was that cold.

Grilling for Easter

If you look past the weeds you can see our beautiful flowers.

Strange picture to include but we are excited to actually start composting

Unfortunately, Easter was cold and now it's been raining for the last few days and I am climbing the walls! Must get outside! Thank you, and for the love of God we are supposed to get nice weather tomorrow. There's only so many errands one can do...

We spent Easter at our nearby park for a neighborhood birthday party. Was really cold and luckily had the excuse (though it was true) of his afternoon nap so he missed smashing the pinata, he would have been mesmerized watching that I'm quite certain. He liked his Easter basket of sand toys and eggs filled with goldfish crackers.

We have a long car trip (8 or 9 hours regularly without Timothy depending on who drives more me or Greg) coming up so any suggestions for ease of travel.... We've borrowed a DVD player which might help somewhat but he can barely pay attention during one - of course he won't have much else to do. We plan to stop often obviously and let him run around and play and he'll probably sleep some but what about the other 7 hours? Timothy is only 18 months old so I'm really at a loss here.

Happy 1 1/2

Yesterday we celebrated Timothy's 1 1/2 birthday with cupcakes! He also got a workbench this morning - that really isn't that great but he likes the tools. The handle is similar to my hairbrush so he keeps putting the screwdriver and hammer in his hair. This last pic is terrible, I know, out of focus and he's not smiling on his new firetruck but I love his little hat and note the beginnings of a pot belly. I even took his bib off to take the pic but he will not smile for the camera anymore.

Greg is off today and Timothy is so excited. He squeals each time he realizes he is in the room. One of the reasons he likes his baseball cap so much is because it looks just like Daddy's and they can both wear them together. He won't take it off inside even when it's impeding his vision.

T's friend Sidney

the kiddos gravitate to the back fence to plot their escape

now if we both put our foot here...

daddy, it's my turn!

We pretended that the weather was nice this past Saturday and invited Kate, Bill and Sidney over for kebabs. Sidney wasn't feeling that great but riding in our neighbor's red flyer wagon made all the difference at least for a little while. Her little black pants are from us for her 1st birthday so of course we think they're so cute, note the little ladybug. Her mom gets tired of always dressing her in pink. Timothy is not as aloof with Sidney as he has been in the past (we've been telling him he'd kick himself later for this behavior). He loves Kate and is fascinated with Bill.

Looks like Timothy will need more surgery in June since he still has a large hole in the roof of his mouth. Sigh. The doctor told us it will be outpatient this time and he won't have three other procedures done at the same time but still wish he didn't have to go through this again. He was in a lot of pain last time and the medicines didn't seem to help him that much.

We are celebrating Timothy's 1 1/2 birthday this Saturday since we weren't able to be with him on his first birthday. Just a quiet celebration with just the three of us. I'm making cupcakes and we've gotten him a train set and a work bench. I've already given him two presents early - a little rider firetruck (about two injuries thus far) and a baseball cap that he refuses to wear more than two seconds but it is sooooooooo cute on him, it really is fun to dress him in hats.

People tell us all the time that he's starting to look bigger - friends that have seen him from the beginning - that his body is starting to fill out and legs looking longer. We haven't noticed but are happy that others are seeing progress.

Teaching sign has been a bit challenging since he likes the current system of pointing and grunting and grunting louder if given the wrong item just fine. He does still talk his own little language (or Chinese for all we know) and tries to say words. He will sign to give us an occasional thrill like milk, kiss and more. He does a variation of 'all done' for almost anything and also almost immediately after we sit him in his high chair.

Sorry for delay in posting

riding with Grandpa

my first professional haircut - not happy!

climbing the slide

playing with cousin Meredith

Madelyn has the coolest scooter!

Hi all,

Life is good and all is well. Sorry about not posting for so long, I will do better and strive to post at least once weekly.

Timothy is now almost 18 months. On April 9th he will be 1 1/2 years old.

Bug had his three month (since coming home) check up at the International Adoption (IA) doctor on March 23rd. Turns out he has grown 2 1/8 inches, and is now in the 5 percentile on American growth charts. The doctor thinks that he is growing well and he is finally 22 lbs 1 oz, so is able to sit with the car seat forward (and the passenger seat in the front can now go blessedly further back, so you no longer have to have your knees on the dashboard). His motor skills are at or ahead of age and, of course, his speech is delayed at 10 months of development. We had his hearing tested and he is hearing all speech sounds with no problems, yea!

We've started speech therapy. When he was initially evaluated by the Occupational Therapist (OT) and the Speech Therapist (ST) both felt he had good signs of cognitive development and seemed to be well on his way and would probably gain in leaps and bounds during the next three months. Our ST Leslie is wonderful and Bug likes working with her. Greg and I have homework each week. We've been trying to teach him some sign language including more, all done, ready, go, open and close. And giving him lots of positive reinforcement.

I've found that I don't talk with Timothy that much during the day and so I've been working on that. This surprised me as I tend to be overly talkative. I have to dig deep and narrate our day, talk about what we are doing, explain things I see. I'm also trying to be much more animated. Greg is very good at talking and playing with him and getting him to eat and sleep.

In mid-March we visited my family in Birmingham. Timothy did great on the flights but would not sleep. He was a little guarded during our visit, but did pretty well overall. But he was so happy to be home he almost kissed the ground when we walked in the door, he was practically giddy. It's hard for him to be taken from what he is just getting used to and pulling him to a completely different environment with different people. He loved, loved, loved his cousins. He would smile at Meredith and follow her anywhere. With Madelyn it was more of him watching her constantly and she would whirl past him in a blurry.

His favorite toys these days are his new miniature balls - soccer, football and basketball. He likes to put both the basketball and soccer ball in his arms and let them loose! He's also been 'playing' inside with our little neighbor Carter, who is 19 months. Bug does not like when Carter plays with HIS truck and Carter doesn't like when Bug takes the lid of his snack pack. But Bug will follow him anywhere outside.