Talkin' Talkin' Talkin'

Speech therapy lessons are going fairly well considering they're for me and not Lauren. They're also a bit tough to take. A few weeks ago our homework was to record some time of play, how we interacted, what Lauren wanted to do and what kind of response we got to our word use.

What I found, (when I was trying to do my homework in my head the night before class because I'd forgotten all week to do it) was that I couldn't come up with concrete examples. Every time I played through a day in my mind, I saw us reading frequently, and then, when she gets up to play with toys, I'm happy to leave her to play by herself. I'm not entirely embarrassed by this realization. I want her to be able to play on her own and some days, this is more important to me that her being able to say "in!" or "up!"

What I remembered most from the following week was to not ask questions they can't answer like, "What's wrong?" "what happened?" "What do you want?" The open ended questions are killers. I also need to simplify the questions she can answer like when I'm giving her choices, "Do you want juice or water?" It should be "Juice? Water?" and show her the cups.

This week was a reiteration that because Lauren's spoken language acquisition is delayed, I have to simplify my conversations with her. By the time she gets through all the words she doesn't know, she's lost track of the words that are supposed to be important.

This doesn't mean to not comment on things or to dumb it down but rather to shorten things. My tendency would be to say something like, "Okay! It's time to go to town for groceries. Let's go downstairs and get our shoes and hats on..." This could be said in tighter packages that Lauren would have a better chance of repeating: "Okay! To town. Get your shoes and hats!" "To town" tells her we're going somewhere and she doesn't need to be told where the shoes and hats are. She already knows she needs to go downstairs.

The difficulty for me is the mental shift I have to make. Roman took full sentences from the start. The nugget for me is that I HAVE to change my speech patterns with Lauren in order for her to make the same verbal gains. If she'd been speaking like Roman at this age we wouldn't be in this position. Because we are, I need to make the change and that's that.

No feeling sorry. No feeling guilty for not doing it sooner but a conscious effort by me and Kevin is needed to get her on track.

She is making great strides all on her own though. We've had new animal sounds this week - Doo! Baa! Neeey! even a few EEE EEE EEE for monkeys and clucks for chickens. She's also added a few consistent words like duck and chig (cken). Plus, if you read Moo Baa La La La, the last page says "It's all quiet now, what do you say?" She responds, "Hi Doggie!"

We get very excited when she has new words we don't expect.

Meanwhile she's working on getting her next four (or eight) teeth so nights have been really rough. We're all getting pretty exhausted and cranky. I know it will pass but there's only so much Tylenol. For her too. I expect the teething and associated lack of sleep has a significant impact on her ability to learn anything and my willingness to teach it. I suspect too that there may be some growing going on. It's like her body has to build up enough growth hormone before it will do anything and then all at once, height and teeth!

There's a lot of finger crossing going on here but hopefully, all eight of her remaining teeth will be in very soon and we can move on to the next dramatic piece of life. .

The past two weeks, as captured on film

It's been a busy two weeks.



October 30: For the Hallowe'en party at school, Roman was a cat. He wouldn't let me do whiskers and nose and I never saw his ears on but his teacher said it was 'not a problem'...



Lauren wears the cat ears... for just a moment.



October 31: Roman helps carve our jack-o-lantern by pushing/pulling my hand. It was a pretty neat cat when all was done. No kids came to our door but we had fun making him anyways.



Roman helps Papa rake and load leaves. Better enjoy it now. I'm sure we'll never see this sight when he's a teenager!



November 7: Playing together. What you can't hear is the radio blasting in the background while they bang on the piano. When I suggested, after a while, that perhaps we could turn it down, Roman said, "Well if it can't be loud then I guess we better turn it off" and he did.



November 8: On a beautiful November day, Roman helps Oma put outdoor Christmas lights up before spending an hour at the play park. Both kids when down slides on their own. Lauren even learned to get up the stairs i



November 12: Lauren has decided to be like Roman and use the big potty. I love how her little legs stick straight out. She's figuring out how to get off the potty again but down from the step stool is the next challenge.



November 14: "Painting" the deck. For many, this activity on a November day may not be unusual. Last year at this time snow covered this deck.



November 15 (today): At the local Santa Claus parade, Roman lights up with the approach of a big truck or tractor... or ambulance... or... It was colder than predicted but the kids had fun. Lauren was almost as excited as Roman by anything with wheels.

Maybe there's a vaccine for that?

We're back in the land of interrupted sleep. Given the return to finger chewing, it`s a pretty good bet we`re finally getting those canine teeth in.

It makes for miserable nights for Lauren and for us. Even Roman has, on occasion, gotten out of bed to come ask "what's wrong with Lauren?"

Tylenol and Advil seem to take a bit of the edge off but even that's hit and miss. I can only hope that these four, like the last set, all come in at the same time. It makes for a horrible few weeks but at least it's then done.

I remember Roman started to sleep through the night on his own once all his teeth were in. Fingers crossed for Lauren. Her second birthday is coming up so hopefully her last four molars will too!

Along with horrible sleeping also comes the return of "Why me?" Why us? Why Lauren? Why do I not have the live I thought I would have?

This is not the life I thought I would have. I'm not sure what I thought it would be but this isn't it.

On miserable mornings, and it's always the mornings, I hate that she's been born with Noonan Syndrome. Because why? Why did one stupid little nucleotide have to get screwed up? Why did it have to result in such obvious, and some not so obvious, ways? Why did a wonderful little girl get cursed with a dramatically appearance? And why did we get saddled with it? With her?

Yep. it's a severe case of "Why Me?"

It will pass and indeed, it's usually gone by the time we get dressed. I don't have time to dwell on such things and by the end of the day when everyone's been happy and playing well together, I've moved back securely into the "lucky me" phase.

But the see-saw is starting to make me nauseous. With they way they jump onto vaccines for everything else, perhaps someone can make one for this too? Wonder how long the line ups would be...

Thankfully with the Why Me's primarily a new kind of morning-sickness, the rest of the days are filled with wonderful moments.

We spent Sunday at Oma and Opa's where Roman was happy pretty much the whole day. He helped Oma put up Christmas lights then when with Oma, Papa and Lauren to the park when they played on slides, balance beams and swings. Lauren learned to climb up the stairs and go down the slide on her own and was the proudest child on the planet. Of course no cameras were along to capture the moment when the two of them went down the twin slides side by side. Perhaps next time.

Today, with Roman home from school and the weather a balmy 14 degrees, we spent most of the afternoon outside putting up the Christmas lights, Roman riding his bike, Lauren playing with gravel and toodling around.

Who knows what tonight and tomorrow will bring. Wishing for good sleep usually backfires so I`ll settle for a good morning instead.

Does Salty Have NS?

Knorr has a really cute commercial advertising their line of reduced salt Sidekicks.

When we saw it last night it struck me, quite humourously, how much Salty reminds me of Lauren... Seriously! He's tiny, with this cute round belly. He has an adorable round face with wide apart eyes and his ears down low. When he sits, his little legs don't touch the ground and when he walks he waddles just like Lauren in her big ol' cloth diapers!

So.. is Lauren just like a famous salt shaker or does Salty have Noonan Syndrome?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OekR7Ocu86M