Collin Update

So Collin is starting his 3rd week of speech this week. Sally, the speech pathologist, comes to our house 2-3 times a week. He loves it!! He works so well with her and he thinks it is great that a special person gets to come and play with just him. She makes it fun, they play games and work on different sounds and words along the way. I am already noticing some new words and an increase in his vocabulary in the short time they have been working. I think the biggest thing was getting him to feel confident to even TRY new sounds and words that he maybe knew were a little more difficult for him. We have been signing with Collin since he was a baby and he continued to use the signs we taught him up until more recently. I am now noticing those signs being replaced with the words. It's a little sad to see those go but I'm happy he is making those accomplishments.
Sunday we took a little Sunday drive to Wabasha to visit the Eagle center and spend the beautiful day outside. We stopped and had pizza, ice cream, and not to mention visit the eagles at the Eagle Center. As we were getting ready to head home and get in the car, Collin said "All aboard". Ben and I looked at each other like, did he just say, "all aboard." We had never heard him say anything like that before and I'm still not sure where he got that from or heard it?? Thomas the Train, maybe??
Today he was helping  me pick up blocks and after he gave me high five and said "Good Job, Mom." It may not sound like much but any time he puts a few words together to form a sentence I take notice and it makes me so happy.

I have to take the photos off the camera from our Eagle trip from Sunday. I will post those once I do. Just had to share a little update on Collin.

Turkey Weekend

Well, the turkey weekend is complete. Ben headed out to South Dakota hunting, with 2 other Avery guys last Wednesday. I had plans to meet them out there on Friday after Tayah got on the bus at noon to go to school. We ended up getting a pretty bad snow storm Thursday so I had been debating if I should make the 6+ hour drive out there by myself. School ended up being cancelled Friday but I decided since I was headed in the opposite direction of where the storm hit, I would take off a little early and make the drive. I got there about 6:30 pm on Friday and Ben immediately had me change and took me out to where we would hunt. Didn't see much that night so we just set up to go out Saturday morning.
Last year when I agreed to go turkey hunting with Ben, I did so because I knew the season is in the spring and the weather is usually nice. Well, not this year. Saturday was the coldest day of the weekend and our main hunting day. It was 19 degrees that morning when we woke up and windy. Not ideal, but we made the best of it.
That morning the birds came back to feed just after sunrise, as expected. Ben and I were in one blind and Mark and Nathan were in the other, just down from us. Turkeys decided to come around to Mark and Nathan's decoys and 2 Toms down as Ben and I watched them shoot. We each had a turkey tag to shoot 2 birds. Mark and Nathan had got their 2, Ben got 1 on Thursday before I arrived and was waiting to shoot his 2nd when I arrived. It was my turn. I was up next. I had told Ben that I was not going to shoot a Jake (a young male). I really didn't want to shoot anything unless it was a Tom.
Anyway, long story short. After sitting for probably more than 10 hours, waiting for more birds to come we got our chance. A group of hens and jakes with two Toms came near our blind. Ben shot 1 and I shot 1. 2 more Toms down. And the good part was that it was still early enough that we could clean up to go to dinner to celebrate. It was a fun weekend actually and I would do it again. I'm glad the guys were so encouraging to let this rookie come hang out with them.

Best Wife Ever

....and this is why...Last weekend I spent most of Saturday taking my firearm and hunter education test. Ben drove me out to Bloomington to take my test and then all the way to Le Seur to the gun range to do my shooting test. I had completed the online classes and completed the online test and just had to complete my field day test in person. I passed with flying colors. It was a piece of cake and now it is done. I actually studied and everything and was even a little bit nervous. So, I guess I was prepared.

Next, I am going out to South Dakota for a long weekend to go turkey hunting with Ben and some other guys. I am sorta looking forward to it as long as the weather is descent. Weather at this point is very questionable but I guess we will wait and see. Ben leaves next Wednesday and I will be meeting him out there on Friday.

I figured since my kids are going to be hunters I might as well participate as well. If you can't beat them, join them. I will post pictures.

  

Language Evaluation- Part 2

Collin has finished his language evaluation and does qualify for a language delay. He will be receiving services through the school soon. They now are writing up an Education Plan with some goals and will be coming to the home to work with him. We had a meeting yesterday with a couple of his teachers that will be working with him.

It was also recommended that Collin have a hearing exam from an audiologist to make sure he was hearing everything correctly. This is my kid who has NEVER had a ear infection or any concern with his hearing. I was so not concerned with his hearing but when I heard he has a mild to moderate hearing loss (not permanent) I was shocked. It may be due to fluid in the inner ear. So, we brought him in to his pediatrician to have it checked. She wasn't overly concerned. She said it may be due to his cold. So we are waiting a couple weeks and then retesting.

This could be everything when dealing with his speech. If he isn't hearing correctly (imagine a muffled hearing as if you are under water), that is what he is hearing. So we are going to stay on top of this and make sure those ears are cleared up so we can start making some progress with this speech thing.

The good news is that they tested all areas of his development to make sure nothing was missed. He scored age level or above age level in all other areas. He is a smart kid but is having trouble getting the words out. I'll keep you all informed with his progress as we start his therapy.


Spring Break week starts today! Pray for me...busy house of kids coming up.

I am sick of this winter and wishing now we would have planned a vacation. Already have 2 planned for next year. Not doing that again. I've realized how important those little breaks are to me. They are a must. 

Language Evaluation

Happy Valentines Day!! Nothing planned for tonight. Ben and I are taking a night away in Mpls. this weekend for dinner and shopping. Nice dinner at home tonight and then I am headed to the gym. How romantic!

Kid update:
I decided to have a Language Evaluation done through the school for Collin. It has sorta been in the back of my mind since he was 2. With my background in language and doing birth to 3 speech and language in the past I knew that it wasn't uncommon for boys and second children to develop their language skills a little later. So I had planned on waiting until Collin turned 2 1/2 to see where he was at and knowing that if not much had changed that it would be easier for him to qualify for services when he was a little bit older.

So, Collin had his language evaluation yesterday. They are still finishing but it looks like he will qualify under Expressive Language. It scores it 1 to 100. 100 being the high score. He had to get a 78 to qualify for services. He got a 77, so just barely qualified. Which is what I was assuming he would do. He scored real high on his Receptive Language so he is understanding everything, just can't get the words out. They are also going to do an Articulation Eval. to see how he does on forming the sounds. He may qualify for that too. They will do that testing next Tuesday. Ben is going to take him to an audiologist at the end of the month to check his hearing and/or any fluid blockage although I am not concerned that he does. He has never had any issues with ear infections or anything. I think it is just an overall Language Delay. The speech therapist will come right to our home and work with him. We had the speech therapist and Early Childhood teacher here yesterday and he worked really well with them. Followed their directions really well and didn't even need me in the room when they worked with him. So I think he will respond well to the extra help and get caught up fairly quickly. So, that is the latest with Mr. Collin.

Hope everyone has a lovely Valentine's Day and gets to spend it with the ones they LOVE!!

Birthday Night

Ben and I spent a night in Mpls. at The Grand Hotel to celebrate my birthday. It was newly updated and very modern and cool. Very reasonable in price and would stay there again for sure!!

The big tub with the TV was AWESOME!!

 We did dinner at Union, a new restaurant with a cool glass rooftop that I wanted to try. http://unionmpls.com/

The atmosphere was fun. They have a great drink selection. Food was fancy, smaller portions, but yummy. After dinner Ben and I headed over across the street to one of our favorite spots, Seven, http://www.7mpls.com/, and had a drink and some sushi.

The next morning we actually slept in until like 8:00. I am usually an early riser so the fact that I slept that late is almost amazing. We got up grabbed some coffee then headed to Hell's Kitchen, for breakfast, http://www.hellskitcheninc.com/ The food was so good. We happened to get seated right in front by their entertainment, a Johnny Cash band, called Church of Cash. It was right up our alley and the best stop of the whole weekend, which is saying a lot because it was all so good.

Hell's Kitchen.

Church of Cash

Lobster Bennedict..YUM!!

We stopped at this fun bakery/coffee place, Angel Food, and picked up some treats for mom and dad. They had lots of yummy things too.

MERRYCHRISTMASHAPPYNEWYEARHAPPYBIRTHDAY!!

We have...and still are doing much celebrating around here. The holidays this time of year just get smushed together and in a way just don't seem to end. We have had the last 10 days off and it was really quite nice. A little hard to get back at it today but at least it is a short week.
Celebrating my birthday today..sorta. Ben and I are doing a night away and dinner this coming weekend. And Happy birthday to my brothers' whose birthday is tomorrow!!

We did Christmas eve at the Cade side. Christmas morning at home opening gifts. Christmas afternoon at Papa and Grandma Stumpf's. Then we continued our tradition of doing our weekend at Grand View. We didn't do anything for New Years. Too hard to late night parties with little kids. Almost made it to midnight. It must have been at least 10:30 before I fell asleep. I'd say that is pretty good.

New Years "resolution": (Not really a resolution but just a goal) is to do 280-300 workouts this year. I'm off to a good start, I have 1 in for the year. Hopefully will get one in today too.

Tayah's Christmas Dance Concert. They were toy soldiers.

Girls on stage.

Tayah and her Brave doll.

Collin checking out his game.

Santa came.

Yes, Santa brought my kids decoys.

Collin liked his train table.

New robe and cardboard coloring playhouse.

Tayah waking up.

Big girl bike.

Santa brought me a case of my favorite wine.

Christmas church hat and new jammies.

The group up at Grand View Lodge

Opening gifts at Grand View.

Grandma and Tayah and Tyke.

Bella and Tayah  @Grand View.

Collin and Tayah coloring.

sliding with papa.

Tayah sliding.