What have we learned exactly?

Michael has chronic nasal congestion. To be honest, we didn't prioritize it until recently. At first he had just started preschool and seemed to be sick all the time. Then it was winter and he still seemed to be sick all the time. However, this spring, we simply had to acknowledge something more was going on.

We took him to the pediatrician (paying our co-pay) and she referred us to an allergist and to an ENT. We went to the allergist (paying another, more expensive co-pay) who did skin testing. Many things showed up positive on that skin test but somehow I was still left with no clear answers. Then we went to the pediatric ENT (paying a third co-pay) who said that everything looked fairly normal. Come back in 3 months if pursuing the allergy hypothesis doesn't clear things up and he'll scope him to get a good look at his adenoids at that time.

So, following three different doctor visits, one allergy skin test, and two new medications we're left with some improvement in the nasal congestion and no concrete answers. I hate ambiguity.


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A year ago I did a post on therapy techniques for helping children move from one-word to two-word utterances.

It started so well...

I was solo parenting the other night and decided that a super long bath would be a great way to finish off the evening. I set the kids up in the tub with some bath paints (mix shaving cream with liquid tempera paints). They were excited. The paints looked great. I left the room and sat in the armchair in Michael's room eavesdropping while simultaneously relaxing.

Over the next 50 minutes I listened to them happily playing together. I heard them decide to paint families (the discussion about how big a mama should be was particularly funny). They shared paint with each other. They erased and started over. Conversation never ceased. It was lovely. I could hear them showing off their art to each other.

Then Ava called, "Mama, mama! Come see what we did." I knew I had been lucky to get 50 minutes and it was time to put them to bed anyway, so I headed to the bathroom expecting to see two adorable pictures of families on the tub walls. After all, that was what they had been discussing the entire time.

I was a bit surprised to find this:

They were terribly proud of it though. And it gave us the opportunity to review that when all colors are mixed they make brown. It really only took a couple of minutes with a shower to clean everyone up and move on with the night. It certainly wasn't two adorable family self-portraits though.

The Weekly Review: Week 56

SLP Idea of the Week

Viktorya at Speech Language Play has such a fun idea for what to do with articulation cards that have been mastered. She prints out my free articulation cards in black and white and uses them with her students. Then, when the students have thoroughly mastered a card and no longer need to drill with it they get to feed it through a little hand crank powered mini paper shredder. What fun! I can think of lots of variations on this children would enjoy. Tear it up. Cut it with scissors. Run it through a paper crimper. Crumple it and try to throw it in the trash can. I'll definitely have to print some on regular paper in b/w (instead of in full color on cardstock) just so we can try this. I think my kids will love it.

Ava this Week

One night I was getting some extra work in on the computer after dinner, but before the children went to bed. My husband was doing dishes in the kitchen. Ava came up to me and asked if she could have the stack of speech cards sitting next to me on my desk. I'll admit I looked at her a little suspiciously and asked her why she wanted them. She replied, "So I can do speech with Daddy!". I handed them over and watched her find a spot on the carpet, sit down, and start laying the cards face up on the carpet waiting patiently for her Daddy to come join her. She didn't actually notice that she'd neglected to invite him to play. I snuck into the kitchen to tell him what was going on. He abandoned his dishes and let her teach him "speech". It was so adorable.

Weekly Michael

Fine motor is finally kicking in for Michael. He's enjoying drawing pictures. He prefers his magnadoodle, dry erase board, or an iPad, but will use colored pencils or crayons and paper when necessary. He always tells elaborate stories about his pictures. One day this week he was staying at my mom's house and drew this picture on her iPad. I love seeing him find a new way to exercise his imagination. (It is a hot air balloon. What looks like hair on the passenger is actually the hot air balloon's flame.)

Ava's and Michael's Weekly Home Therapy Notes

/s/, /f/, /l/, and blends are falling into place for Ava. We've also recently re-introduced /k/ (only in final position) and she's finally making progress there. If she isn't paying attention, /k/ will always be /t/. When she is paying attention, with multiple types of cues, she's getting a back sound about 65% of the time. Yea! Progress. Hopefully it will all be downhill from here.

Michael's doing well with his /s/ and /f/. His /s/ sound can be easily corrected now when he's paying attention. His /f/ production is starting to lighten up a little and sound a bit more natural. I'm going to let him settle into those for at least another couple of weeks before even considering starting /th/ with him.

Weekly Homeschooling

I went ahead and ordered a couple of homeschooling curriculum programs. This week we did a math lesson and a handwriting lesson. They took about 20 minutes each (not consecutively) and the children and I had a great time. I look forward to continuing as soon as our schedule permits. I'll write more about the specific curriculum materials I purchased and what I think of them soon.