Round two.

Our second round of speech therapy for Kennen is about to commence. We had speech therapy from the time he was around 16 month until he was just under 2 years old. It took him that entire 6 months to actually say Mama. Since then, his cache of words has exploded to an uncountable number. But, he says very few of the words correctly. He pretty much has the right number of syllables in every word, but he only uses vowels to emphasize each syllable. I told my father in law that he is a vowel boy and so he taught Kennen how to say, "A, E, I, O, U". It's pretty cute.

Today when we had his 2 year speech evaluation, I asked them about getting his hearing checked. They said of course it's a good idea, but then one of the women said that she thinks that his problem is probably Apraxia of Speech. Before, we thought that he just had delayed language skills which would eventually correct itself as he went to school. Apraxia of Speech is not something that will correct on it's own. :( Basically he can hear the word correctly but somewhere as he is processing it in his brain, there is a hiccup and he cannot figure out how to get the word out correctly. It goes along with motor, and sensory development. His other physical motor skills are fine but I would agree that he has some sensory issues. Little things cause him to freak out big time.

I was kind of skirting the issue of whether to sign him up by using the 'I have to ask my husband' crutch. It always comes in handy when I'm trying to be sold anything...even though I am the one that handles all our money. The SLP (speech language pathologist) pretty much told me though that there are ways to 'rewire' the way he thinks about language, and the younger the better. I definitely don't want him to be behind by the time school starts so I went ahead and signed him up. Our first appointment is Friday at 3:00pm and my 'assignment' is to get him to say 'Puppy'. Right now he pronounces it "Uh-Eeeeee". She told me to drag out the vowel sounds and and that if I sort of sing it, another part of his brain will be activated and he will be able to process it better. I was tucking him in for his nap and I tried it.

Mommy: "PuuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuuuuuupeeeeee"

Kennen: "UuuuuuuuUUUUuuuuuueeeeeeee"

Mommy: "PuuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuuuuuupeeeeee"

Kennen: "puuuUUUUUuuuEeeeee"

Mommy: "PuuuuuuuuuUUUuuuuuuuuupeeeeee"

Kennen: "PuuuuUUUuuuuuh-eeee"

Mommy: Puppy"

Kennen: "Puh-ee"

I cried. This seems like nothing really but it's the first time that he has said a word that starts with the letter 'P'. It's a big deal. I'm proud. And I'm hopeful that this is going to work.

It's hard not to beat yourself up as a parent when something like this happens. I wonder what I did wrong. I'm a full time stay at home mom and my child cannot speak clearly. If I was the nanny, I would have fired me by now.

La di dah...

I am an official Texan now. I ran over my first armadillo today! I never realized how s.lo.w. they walk. That must be why there are so many dead ones all over the road. Kind of like squirrels in Illinois. Road kill used to really disturb me but it doesn't anymore. I wonder if I have tracked any germs into my garage via the tire-o-death, but that's about it.

I was seriously traumatized by a particular squirrel in Illinois. It was in the center median and as I was coming upon it, I could see it was perched to dart out into oncoming traffic. It started to run...it was going to make it...oh wait...it changed it's mind and ran back to the median...oh...it changed it's mind again and turned right back around and leapt right into the fender of a car. It did a starfish flip in the air (imagine all limbs stretched out) and then landed limply and continued to get run over. If only the little soul didn't hesitate.

I cried for that sweet little squirrel and then that soft spot in my heart for dead animals in the road had crusted over with a big old scab. I just don't go there anymore...it's too painful. The up side is that I can now kill bugs in my house without trying to trap them under a glass and walk them to a shady spot in the yard. No mercy. Kimmy-girl is even tougher than me.

Speaking of animals, I'm getting sick of webkinz. I have enough rooms. I have enough beds. I have enough plants in my garden. I'm almost sick of hustling the 8 year olds in checkers. Oh, actually that is still pretty fun to me. Anyway, I have decided to run an experiment. I have my webkinz running on a treadmill. Will they run indefinitely? How hungry will they get? I dunno! Cocopuff the chihuahua has been running aobut 10 minutes now and when I stopped her for a moment, she said she had stinky feet.

LOL! Those darn webkinz crack me up.

B.A.S.*

* acronym for buggy ass state.

First I had mosquito hawks in my house. I didn't mind them because they are harmless to people and they eat mosquitos and Kimberly and Kennen lovingly named all of them Tasha and now all the neighbor kids do too. Then I had real mosquitos. I've always had spiders in the upper corners of my ceilings. Then I had flies. Lots and lots of flies. Now I have ants. IN MY BEDROOM! All over my carpet. Underneath my laundry monster. Why aren't they in the kitchen where all the food is? I have no idea. So anyway, today I am dedicating my day to doing laundry and them I am gonna vacuum up all the little fuckers. I can't wait!

Jeff was my hero last night because when I started freaking out he went out in the pitch ass dark and sprayed Ortho-Klor (the strongest stuff from Home Depot that will kill anything...even black widow spiders) all over the perimeter and the exterior walls of the house.

Want to know the best thing about laundry day? I have lots of free time in between loads to play Webkinz. I am obsessed. My favorite thing to do is to play tournament checkers against all the 8 year olds. The only bad thing about playing against 8 year olds is that if I play too well they will just quit the game early and then I wont get as much kinzcash. I've learned not only to be good at checkers, but to be good at checkers after letting my opponent win for the first half of the game. Then I will win at the end and get all the money but then the kids will request a rematch because they thought it was a close game and i will take them to the cleaners again! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.

i.am.such.a.loser.

Chocolate cake every day...es no bien!

Ugh! One more day until everything is back to normal. I guess I am much less flexible than I used to be. As much as I loved spending every day over the last week with my husband and his family, I an so over it. I have been eating too much, drinking too much, staying up too late and just being a big lazy sloth. My in-laws visit allows me to sleep in, come and go as I please, eat at lots of restaurants etc. I did actually clean my kitchen last night before my mother in law got to it. Is this what it will feel like to be retired? No kids to be responsible for. No job for Jeff to get up early for every day.

Will we look at each other every day when we are 65 and say, 'what do you want to do?' 'I dunno, what do you want to do?' 'We have all this free time so we should do something.' 'Yeah, I know are there any movies playing?' Then we will go and see 2 movies in one day just like we did a few days ago. Of course one was Ratatoulle and we saw that in the morning with the kids and then the other was Transformers at night but still. All I want to do is this whole housewife thing (because I have been seriously slacking and my laundry monster is back with a venegance.) Jeff has a huge pile of work to face today but this morning he skipped off happily to face the real world. He did feign some dread about the morning commute, because that's what you are supposed to say. But we all know that as soon as he walked out the door, lit a cigarette (yes, he still smokes) and turned on talk radio in his truck, he sang, "I got no strings on meeeeee!"

Transformers...es bien!

Jeff and I actually escaped the house last night without the kids! He ended up talking me into seeing the Transformers since we have no life and have no idea what 'date night' could include other than dinner and a movie. It was a little more fun than usual because we found a movie theatre that serves food and booze to you while you watch the movie. I had pizza and 3 drinks and Jeff had a bunless burger and a diet coke since he was a big dumb animal the other day and his drinking privelidges have been revoked. :) This means I had a designated driver.

The movie, despite being a man movie, was actually pretty entertaining. Except for the hour long battle scene at the end. Well, it seems like an hour because I got up and peed twice and because I had no concept of time at that point since I was buzzed.

My in-laws are visiting and I'm really enjoying it. And taking advantage of their eagerness to do everything kid related. Kennen went to sleep at 5:30 pm last night and woke up at 4:00am ready to party. Jeff changed his diaper and then we let him tear apart our room while we dozed. I kept waking up and falling back asleep and these are the snippets I remember:

-Kennen standing on my window seat smearing lotion all over the glass
-Kennen wiping the lotion off the glass with baby wipes.
-Kennen unrolling a full roll of toilet paper to wipe the lotion off the glass.
-Kennen sitting on the window seat staring off into space until he sees me looking at him...then he smiled.
-Kennen making 'vrooming' noises.
-Kennen climbing over me so he could lay down in the middle of the bed.
-Kennen climbing over me to get out of bed because he left his binky on the window seat.
-Kennen climbing over me to lay down in the middle of the bed...this time with the binky in his mouth.

Finally at 8:00 Kimberly knocked on the door and said, "Let Kennen out, Mommy!"

Apparently he had locked the door while he was in our room. Little love. Then grandma and grandpa, fed, played with and dressed the kids for me. I slept in until 10:00am. I love it when they visit!

business travel

Ok, so i have a few friends that have husbands that travel. They would tell me that they kind of liked it when their men traveled. Jeff has pretty much traveled 3-5 days per week since the beginning of the year. I missed him like crazy while he was gone and wandered around aimlessly like a love sick puppy until he got home. But something changed. I got used to him being gone during the week. I got used to doing everything by myself all week long. I got used to my own schedule, my own way of handling the kids. I got used to him not draping his clothes over the bedroom door(grrr). I got used to his pile of crap on the counter (wallet, hat, smokes, passport, reciepts, coins) being cleared away. I got used to my bed being easy to make in the morning because the sheets weren't crumpled up at the foot of the bed and the pillows aren't bent in half when it's just me sleeping.

Now lets talk about this week. He is not traveling this week and today is the only day he is actually going to the office. And I'm going nucking futs. I can't stand to have the tv on all day. I can't stand washing all the tupperware that he eats out of (why won't he use a regular plate? I have no idea!). Jeff is great with the kids but Kennen is still kind of scared of Jeff so he cries much more when Daddy is home. Well, it's more like a combination of hysterical laughing and crying mixed together. Kennen wants to play with Daddy, but Daddy is big and furry and talks really loud.

Today when Jeff was getting ready for work, he announced that he had to go to the office for a few hours and I smiled and said, "Okay, BYE!"

He laughed and hugged me and said, 'Look who is shooing me out the door.'

Then he said, "You want me out of the house now, but you will miss me as soon as I'm gone."

And I guess he's right. :)

Damn you webkinz!

Ok, so a few weeks ago I heard about webkinz for the first time. I wasn't too interested because I hate (HATE) video games. My brother tortured me by making me watch him play nintendo when we were little so now whenever I see people playing video games, I feel really really angry inside. I know, I have issues.

Anyway, a girl at our playdate has one and her mom was telling me about it and if I had not heard about Webkinz yet, I would as soon as she started kindergarten. Since I am really shallow and I desperately want Kimberly to fit in when she goes to school, I decided to check into these little toys. I was surprised to see how cheap they were. Just about $12 a pop with nothing else to buy ever. She loves it. Kimberly wanted the Chihuahua and fortunately for us, they happened to have that one at the store. I guess it's pretty rare to find the one you want.

The stuffed animal goes everywhere with her...but the online pet? Yeah, that one is all mine. I love playing the tournament games, I love shopping, I love gardening farm fresh food, I love decorating their little rooms. And when I say 'their' little rooms, I mean Cocopuff the chihuahua and the two other webkinz I just won on ebay. The frog and the Clydesdale horse are on their way. I think I have problems. Scratch that. I know I have problems. My number one problem? Hiding this purchase from my husband. :) Aren't they so ding dang cute though? In no particular order:

Clydesdale:


Chihuahua: aka Cocopuff

Frog:

If you think their little mugs are cute in these pictures, just imagine how adorable they are in their virtual world pooping on the potty (yes! you can make them go potty!)