Mar 31, 2012

From the Mouths of Babes

Lily is quite verbal. When the early-intervention specialists came for James, one of them called her "precocious". Despite her using it slightly negatively, I agree. She says things that I haven't heard other three year olds say, and she makes me laugh quite often. Most recently she has said:

(After Grandpa mentioned the full moon) "What is the moon full of, Grampa?"


I taught Lily how to use the remote control so she can watch the next episode of Dora on Netflix and she exclaimed "You are a good mommy to teach me things!"

After convincing James to "share" with her (ie give her his toy) she said "Heavenly Father is so happy when you share with me."


Lily will be saying the prayer in Primary in two weeks, so Mike was teaching her why we pray. I suppose Lily wanted more specifics when she said "But what does He want to hear?"

After her bedtime story a month ago, Mike said he wouldn't tell her anymore stories. She asked "Will you tell yourself a story and I will just listen?"


And of course, her almost constant stream of "When I'm a mommy..." and "When I was a baby..." For example, "when I was a baby I cried and cried and then you hugged me" or "when I'm a mommy will I wear socks with shoes?" after I've told her she must wear socks, but then I slip on my flats without socks. Guess I'm a hypocrite ;)

James says his share of funny things. Around 7:15 the other night, James started tugging at me: "Mama clock. Look clock! Mama look! Look clock." I finally looked at the clock and said "What, is it time for night-night?" He said "Yesh bed" and took off for his bed. Guess he was up way too late :)



Comparing My Children

WARNING:
Flipping long post ahead :)
This blog is really the only kind of journal I keep,
so this post is more for me than any of you!

He sure wants to ride Lily's tricycle.
I've been reminded this month how unfair it is of me to compare my littles progress to each other. James is 22 months and I've been quite concerned about his lack of speaking, based only on the fact that Lily spoke so early and so well. I will acknowledge that James has been better at motor skills (opens doors, climbs bookshelves and does other physical activities better than Lily does even now), but I was still worried about his speech. He has always sounded just a bit "deaf" to me. You know how someone who has been deaf their whole life speaks with a certain roundness? James had that same quality in his speaking, even though I know he hears and understands us.


Several months ago we ran into a woman at the McDonald's playland (what a great place to meet new friends, by the way!). She had adopted her 20 month old daughter from Korea. When they brought her home, she spoke no English or Korean (despite having lived in Korea until 14 months). As she started to learn to talk, her mother noticed she was speaking as though she couldn't hear how she sounded (that same "roundness" of speaking that I'd noticed in James). She got her daughter into an early-intervention program and was diagnosed with apraxia of speech. It's similar to dyslexia, where the child can hear and understand, but can't form the words they know (one website describes it as a neurological disorder that affects the brain’s ability to send the proper signals to move the muscles involved in speech). Her daughter's development sounded so similar to James that she gave me the name and number of their early-intervention specialist. I don't know how we even ended up talking about our kids' speech delays, so I'm positive she was prompted by the Lord to say something about it.


Fast forward to a few weeks ago. After filling out loads of paperwork, countless emails, and phonecalls to establish a need for a specialist to come test James, we had our home visit. I was curious to see how they could diagnose speech problems in a (shy) 21 month old little boy. Three specialists showed up, and as one interacted with James, the other two took notes. Then they'd switch positions so all three had the chance to work one-on-one with him. It was a LONG visit. My first eye-opener came just minutes after they had arrived: Lily was positive these new friends were here for her to entertain and would not get out of their faces. They were very polite about redirecting their attention back to James, and I spent most of the 90 minutes distracting her (and mostly consoling her because she was being ignored). What I saw was how loud and pushy Lily is when it comes to James - she rarely lets him answer questions directed to him, and is constantly speaking "for" him (and quite often incorrectly, as we soon saw).


Now, James is quite a shy little guy. He prefers to sit in my lap during the library's story time, rather than run around with the other kids. I was expecting that shyness to keep him from playing with the specialists and was I ever proven wrong! As soon as he saw that Lily was being corralled, and these guests were for HIM (!), he was such a little ham! He said words I have NEVER heard him say before: after building with legos, he was asked "What is that?" (and after Lily spoke for him and said "a monster"), he said "Boat". WHAT?! He said three-word-sentences (while he has only ever put two words together for us) like "Look, a monster" (at the lego tower Lily was building). Yes, he slurred a little, and said many things that aren't words, but after the evaluation was over, I was assured that while James may be several month behind in his verbal skills, he is also several months advanced in his motor-skills, and that leads the specialists to believe that he's focused all of his energy on motor-skills and will catch up on his verbal skills eventually.


He loves "rock-climbing" and is really good at it!
I'm relieved that he won't need speech therapy, and was so humbled to see how thrilled he was with being given special attention. I can see that I need to be especially vigilant to make sure Lily gives him space to grow into his own person, and I need to nurture those talents in him that he already possesses (one of the specialists said "He is going to be such a jock! Look at him run, jump, kick, and throw! Get him into sports!"). I'm so so thankful for a Heavenly Father who inspires people to help, comfort, and teach us. Even though the information about early intervention didn't end up with us using the service, it was such a comfort to know that it was there if we did need it.

Mar 30, 2012

Working in the Yard

This last weekend the kids helped us get our yard ready for Spring! We pruned some bushes and trees (hopefully not too late in the season) and tilled compost into our raised beds. The kids got their own garden tools as an early Easter gift and loved digging in the dirt!


 I love how James is kneeling just like Mike was!


Mmm, how's that dirt taste, James?

Mar 24, 2012

Back Porch BBQ

Tonight we decided to visit a Bayfield restaurant, Back Porch BBQ. It's a laid back little place with great BBQ. The options for dining out in Bayfield are scarce, but it's ok - we'll be visiting Back Porch again. They also do to-go orders and catering for larger events.

I got their Platter Meal with smoked chicken, mac and cheese (that the kids split), corn bread, and an extra side of baked beans. Mike got their Grilled Shrimp Salad. Their bbq sauce was good and quite smokey. I was pleased that the mac and cheese was "homemade" (aka NOT Kraft or any other boxed product). Both the kids loved the noodles and the cornbread. I LOVED the chicken and the cornbread, and Mike said the shrimp was good. The shrimp were glazed in BBQ sauce and tossed in a green salad.

On the rare instances that I'm craving MEAT we will be going to Back Porch BBQ!

Mar 18, 2012

What's for Dinner 3/19

This week we'll try a few new recipes and re-try to make some new ones I didn't get to. Again, almost every "new" recipe is going to have to be modified, but that's half the fun, right?

Monday: Bacon, Tomato, Cheddar Breakfast Bake (subbing hashbrowns for the bread cubes)
Tuesday: Coconut-Lime Chicken (I really hope I get to make this, and since Mike is home this day, I better get to!)
Wednesday: Oven Meatball Stew
Thursday: Albacore Tuna Salad (didn't get a chance to make it last week)
Friday: South of the Border Chicken (subbing "creamof" soups, frozen veggies for canned, in the crockpot)
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Brisket Quesadillas (no brie for me, no Dr Pepper for Mike or the kids, so I'm on the hunt for a sub for that)

I hope I'm luckier than last week - only one of the recipes made it into our future "rotation". Of course, I only made half the recipes. This week, I'll do better :)

Mar 12, 2012

16 Weeks and Visiting Utah

Yup, I'm a little late posting this for more than one reason - I was in Utah last Wednesday and didn't want to take time away from my family to blog, and then when we got back, I got lazy :)

Baby is the size of: AN AVOCADO
Is it just me, or is that a very small avocado?

Mama looks like:

I felt better last week than I had in months, probably because visiting Gramma and Grampa Barrus means I get to sleep in and take regular (long) naps. The kids had lots of fun hanging out with Aunt Lynsey and Uncle Matt (when he wasn't studying his bum off).


 Lily LOVED that Aunt Lynsey would read book after book after book to her.

 We had a campfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows.






Lily loved when Gramma put her hair in Bear Ears. She's asked for it every day since!

James helped Grampa feed the cats every day (so did Lily, but I never got a picture of her).

What's For Dinner?

This weeks menu came courtesy of Pinterest. Man, I'm addicted to that site. Since I'm constantly drooling over the recipes I see on there, I figured I better actually make some of them. On the menu this week:

Tonight: Mini Omelets
Tuesday: Sour Cream & Bacon Chicken
Wednesday: San Francisco Pork Chops
Thursday: Albacore Tuna Salad (I'm surprisingly looking forward to this one)
Friday: Coconut-Lime Chicken
Saturday is leftover day
Sunday: Italian BBQ. The only recipe not from Pinterest, I pulled this recipe out of my book 101 Things to do with a Slowcooker. It's on page 64 if you have it, or if you want to use Amazon's "Look Inside!" function.

If any of these are hits, I'll add them to my recipe blog - mainly because almost every recipe is going to be modified for the ingredients already in the house (for example, we don't have pork chops, we have pork butt steaks, or I'll be using homemade "cream of" soups instead of store bought).

Maybe actually blogging about these will motivate me to actually make them :)

***UPDATE*** 3/18/2012

We all loved the omelets - James most of all. He ate a whole, 3-egg omelet by himself. Mike and James enjoyed the bacon chicken, but the smell of it in the crockpot all day made me want to barf. I was so happy when I realized (around 4 pm) that at 6 that night was a RS dinner so I didn't have to eat it! The pork chops were a HUGE success (didn't smell bad, easy to make, Mike LOVED them) so I've posted our modified recipe HERE. We didn't get to the rest of the menu, but they're on this weeks menu :) Guess I should only plan 3 meals a week, since that's all I seem to get to!

Mar 1, 2012

Snow Days

We've been getting a bunch of snow. It makes me want to curl up inside with books, hot cocoa, and the fireplace. The kids, however, have different ideas. I try to let them out to play often enough that James will learn to leave his hat and gloves on.