Yesterday was such a momentous day for our family, and especially for Sophie.  As I sit here I can still honestly hardly believe it.

Sophie was discharged from speech therapy yesterday.  She “graduated”, after 18 months of hard work.  When her first  evaluation score came back in October of 2010, when she’d only been in therapy for three months, her speech language pathologist estimated that she would need therapy for three to four years.

My Sophie girl did it in just eighteen months.

It wasn’t easy.  Sophie worked hard at therapy, and we both worked hard at home several times a week without fail to practice the skills her SLP wanted us to work on.  She also got speech in a group setting once a week at school, and attended a “Social Group” therapy with some other kids this summer while her SLP was on maternity leave.

I say it wasn’t easy, but it could have been a lot harder.  Yes, we worked, we worked a lot.  I was pretty militant about it.  But all of that time spent together was wonderful for Sophie and me.  We learned a lot from and about each other.  It helped our bond to really tighten. And Sophie proved herself to be a very fast learner.  Once she started working on a concept, she generally got it F-A-S-T.  She wowed me and her speech language pathologists time and time again with the speed with which she acquired new language skills.  I really could not be any prouder of her.

When Sophie’s SLP told me she was ready to discharge her, I wasn’t surprised, I knew it was coming soon.  But it is so bittersweet, because Sophie adores “Miss Kristen” and every single second she gets to spend with her!  Kristen and I both teared up during Sophie’s “graduation” today.

Sophie didn't want to wear the mortarboard

We'll miss you Miss Kristen!

Driving home from Sophie’s last session, I had to keep from doing the “ugly cry”.  I didn’t want to scare my girl, after all.  But wow, it was hard to keep those emotions in check! When Sophie first started speech, her delay was so much worse than we actually thought it was. That was a really scary time for me, trying to figure out what she needed and how to get it.  But my mom told me, “The Lord made her and the Lord is going to take care of her.”, and she was right.  Every step of the way, we met the right people to help us get Sophie caught up.  When her first speech clinic closed, I was devastated – we loved her first SLP (hey Miss Tanya!), but that ultimately led us to Kristen, who had just ONE opening left, which we were able to get in right away (which is a miracle in our area where there is at least a three month wait for speech) and watching her with Sophie has been awesome. She HAS a real gift and IS a real gift to those she works with.

Sophie’s journey through developmental delays has been hard, but it is something I am truly thankful for. I am just so amazed by what she has done, I truly believe there is nothing she can’t do.

She’ll be done with occupational therapy in a couple of months and then maybe we’ll have a big party, or another good cry, or both – but whatever we do I will never be able to adequately express how PROUD I am of her!

I love you Sophie girl. Congratulations baby!

ready to dive in...

delight!

Then, Friday after Joshua got out of school, we picked Daddy up at work and headed slightly south to CoCo Key, an indoor waterpark in Cincinnati. We stayed the night so we got to play Friday night and Saturday. It was awesome! I will post a full review later, but we had a fantastic time. Sophie and Joshua were in HEAVEN!

The CoCo Key kids!

Finally, FINALLY, yesterday we had the main event – Sophie’s Hello Kitty birthday party. Usually we just do a family party, because we have a big family, but this year since it was the first birthday Sophie really was excited about, we went all-out. We had all her friends from church and a couple special other friends as well! It…was…HUGE!  And even though it was totally crazy and I almost had a panic attack during the chaos that ensued the busting of the ($20!!!) Hello Kitty pinata, Sophie had an awesome time!

Hello Kitty Cake by Cortney

The "Happy Birthday" song

Hello Kitty is mocking me, I think!

We had a wonderful few days celebrating our little girl. And I think she was feeling pretty special about it all. Happy Birthday, Sophie! But I gotta warn you, next year is probably gonna seem pretty lame.

Happy birthday, baby. I can’t believe you are FIVE.  When you were born, with all that almost-black hair and that perfect face, I could not imagine you as a five-year-old girl. And now, look at you:

You are sweeter and more beautiful that I ever could have dreamed you would be. My imagination just wasn’t capable of seeing and knowing all the many kinds of wonderful that you are.

Last year on your birthday, I made a wish for you.  I wished that you would share your awesomeness with others.  You were, at that point, not really spreading your greatness around so much.  And oh, girl, these past twelve months you have really made that wish come true!  You are SO social, so good at making friends, so sweet to others – I couldn’t be more proud.  I am so proud that you LOVE being YOU.  This year, I wish that you will always love yourself, that you will see yourself as God sees you – perfectly imperfect, and created exactly the way you are supposed to be.

Sweet girl.  You have  made me so proud this year.  You can read. You can write. Your speech is amazing.   You have gotten so strong in gymnastics! You make up the funniest songs, and just like me, you think life should be a musical and it is fun to sing what you are doing. I love singing with you about eating lunch or coloring a picture. I love being silly with you!

You are SUCH a good big sister. Last year on your birthday you were still the little sister, but now you are both!  I was so afraid you would be jealous of your baby brother, but you’ve been nothing but loving. I have loved seeing you be so sweet and motherly toward Jonah.  You are so good at taking care of him and at playing with him. I love how you talk to him and reassure him.  I love how you can’t wait to share the exciting things in your day with him.  I love how he lights up when he sees you!

You light up my world, baby girl.  Five seems like a big, big deal to me.  I’m a little sad because I always want you to be my baby girl.  I always want you to say to me, like you often do, that I’m your best friend.  But I promise I will be even when you think I’m not. No one could love you more than I do, Sophie.

Happy Birthday!

Princess Sophie

Be prepared to hear a lot in the next few days about Sophie’s 5th birthday (which is Wednesday, November 16th).  I’m sorry, people, but I need to emote.

This birthday is a really big deal for me, as Sophie’s mom.  Because you see, it’s the first one she’s ever cared about.  The receptive part of Sophie’s speech delay had kept her from really understanding exactly what a birthday was.  Last year was the first year she really got it, but she was pretty shy then, and didn’t like being the center 0f attention, or being at parties and large gatherings. So, last year, we didn’t even really have a party.  Just a small, family-only gathering at my mom’s house. She opened her presents away from the group, in the dining room with just Bobby and me and my mom.  She just really was not into people staring at her while she did so!  We didn’t do singing, no candles, just a very low-key celebration.  She liked her gifts, but they were all things I had picked out because she hadn’t really grasped the idea that you could ask for things for your birthday, even.

But, oh, how a year has changed things.

Now she is so excited about her birthday party, her friends, her Hello Kitty cake, her pinata, and oh, the presents.  The presents, the presents, the presents.  As I mentioned a few days ago, she has already made quite the list of things she wants for her birthday and Christmas.  She got twenty bucks in an early birthday card from my Grandma yesterday and immediately wanted to go to Target and spend it.  (Which we did, as I am the indulgent mother).  Up and down the aisles of Target we strolled, Sophie pointing joyously to everything she saw, saying, “I want this for my birthday! I want this for my birthday! I want that, too!”  It’s so fun for me to see her so excited about stuff.  I know it’s just stuff, and it’s not that I want to raise a material girl, but the fact that she’s caught up and is acting in such an age-appropriate way about her birthday has me giddy.

She wants it all.  And because she finally wants it all, and because honestly, the child has worked her butt off in therapy an at home for the last 13 months, I want to give it to her. So I *may* have gone a wee bit overboard this year.  But I’ll try not to make a habit of it.

Because what she doesn’t know, but I know, when I look at her, is that she already has it all.  She’s all caught up, she’s where she needs to be.  She is sweet, smart, beautiful, and loved. She has it all.

And Sophie my girl, so do I. So do I.

___________

Thanks, Shannon, for the photo

FIVE. Years old.

I can hardly believe it.  And, it totally freaks me out.  For a long time, I thought she would always be my baby. Not just because she’s my kid, but because I thought she’d be my last. So, Jonah changed all that, but I still feel very reluctant for Sophie to get so old. I’m having a hard time letting her get there.

Sophie’s developmental delays have necessitated that she and I spend a lot (and I mean A.LOT. ) of time one-on-one.  (And I don’t want to brag but a certain almost-five-year-old scored “advanced” on the school readiness test they gave her in September at preschool. WHAT UP!?) And so over the past 13 months or so we’ve grown super-tight.  No one can melt my heart quicker or make my blood boil faster than my Sophie can.  And I think if an almost-five-year old could express such sentiments, she’d say the same about me.  We bring out the best and the fiercest in each other.

She’s had a banner year and I am SO proud of her.  But I still want her to stay four for at least another six months!

FIVE? My heart can’t take it!

As I have mentioned before, Sophie looooves school. She loves being there, loves her friends, her teachers, and all their activities.  She was ALL excited to go back after summer break. She loves school so much that she was none too pleased when I kept her home Tuesday because she had a cold.

So imagine my surprise yesterday when I picked up my happy girl from school, before we had even made it halfway down the sidewalk, she said, “Mom, guess what?  I got a time out.”  I was shocked! First of all, I didn’t even know they gave time outs in her class, but I guess they have to do something when the kids misbehave.  And secondly, I couldn’t believe my little angel had been the misbehaver!

“Why did you get a time out?” I asked her.

“Because I pushed Ashley off the computer.”

My jaw dropped. Now I was really aghast.  ’You PUSHED ASHLEY??”

She then proceeded to confess the whole story.  They have a computer center in their class and Sophie got a little impatient when Ashley didn’t immediately vacate that center when her turn was up.  So she resorted to violence. What can I say, the girl loves her some computer!  All kidding aside though, I was pretty flummoxed.  That’s just not like Soph and she looooooves Ashley. Ashley and Julio were the first two friends she mentioned when she started this school last fall, and her affection for Ashley had not waned.

Fortunately, my little brute expressed the appropriate remorse, and we talked ad nauseum about how she should handle such situations in the future.  And then, I made her write an apology note:

I’m sure Ashley will cherish it for-ev-er. It’s like the preschool version of a yearbook signature. Today it’s “I’m sorry I pushed you”, tomorrow it’s “LYLAS, never change, have a great summer”.
Or, if I fail terribly at mothering, “Get your @$$ out of my chair before I CUT you!”

Eleven months ago, I was 7 months pregnant, my grandfather had just died, and I’d just been bowled over by the fact that Sophie’s developmental delays were more significant than I realized.  The first week of October, 2010, was pretty much the worst week of my life.

I’ve never written about this in detail, and I have my reasons, which you’ll just have to trust.  I am comfortable talking about it now is because we’ve come almost all the way through it – eleven months later, Sophie is pretty much caught up – she is still getting both speech and occupational therapy but I expect she’ll be all done with that within the year.

Back in October 2010, I knew that Sophie had a speech delay, but I thought it was more expressive – what she couldn’t say, rather than receptive, what she understood.  Then some test results showed I was WAY wrong, and that her delay was more receptive.  At the same time, Sophie’s preschool teacher shared some concerns with me about how she was doing in class , and based on those two things, I decided we needed to change some things and take action to get her on track.

I started working intensely with Sophie at home, got her signed up for occupational therapy as well as speech, and took steps to get her into a preschool class where there were other kids with delays, and where she could also receive speech and OT at school.

And as I said, it’s all gone wonderfully.  Sophie is doing amazing and as you saw a couple weeks ago, she’s even reading already at age 4!

But through this whole process I’ve learned a TON, and now I want to share it with you.  So, I am going to start a series here about overcoming developmental delays, playing with your child in an educational way, and just giving tips and ideas about how to target certain problem areas.  You’ll find these posts in the categories “developmental delays”, “speech therapy”, and “occupational therapy”.   I’ll be covering strategies, games, activities, and supplies that are helpful in working with your kids in an intentional way – whether for fun, or if you have a specific goal in mind.

So stay tuned, I hope I can help some readers and maybe we’ll all learn something together!

Last year at this time, I sent a very shy, uncooperative, crazy girl off to preschool.  She wanted to play but didn’t want to do any work!

Today I sent a social butterfly, a helper, a “big kid” in her class – a child who loves drawing, painting, glueing, cutting, and most of all – FRIENDS!

A year ago Sophie wasn’t a big talker and had some trouble making herself understood. This year, I sometimes want to duct tape her mouth shut in a good way, ha ha! And she has no trouble communicating effectively.

She was so excited to go to school today! She had her backpack on 20 minutes before it was time to leave. She was delighted to see her friends and teachers. She didn’t even look back at me as I dropped her off. I had to call her back for a hug!

I could not possibly be any more proud of her!! As I left her there without a qualm, I was happy for her, and happy for me. I know we’ll both have a great year!

So, at the beginning of summer when I received a pitch from School Zone Publishing asking if I’d like to review their “Start to Read” series of phonics readers, I was all, “Why not?”  They arrived just as summer began and we got started.

The set comes with 5 readers, a comprehension workbook, and a CD. At first I thought listening to the books on CD while looking at them was going to be weird and unnecessary(I mean, after all, can’t she listen to ME reading them?) but she LOVED listening to the book being read on CD while she looked at it. And then, loved reading along with the CD.  After that, we progressed to where I’d read a page, then she’d read the next page.  Soon she was reading on her own.  We went through all five books like that and then the workbook, which she ADORED.  Sophie loves a good workbook!  There was a good variety of comprehension activities in the workbook and she really had fun with it.  I had to stop her from doing the whole thing in one sitting like she wanted to do.

We went on vacation July 2, and we were done with the series by then.  Since then, we have not picked up any of those books to read, so last night, I got out Sophie’s favorite from the series, Get Lost, Becka and bribed her with a piece of candy to read it on video.  So, again, she hasn’t read this book for 6 or 7 weeks – I think she did great!  What do you think? (Oh, and um, sorry about all the snot wiping, she had been crying a few minutes before over something I was denying her because I am SUCH A MEAN MOM, I can’t even remember what. Oh, and then sorry also about Joshua’s BANSHEE yelling in the background, he was entertaining Jonah while Sophie and I made the video!)

What do you think? I think she did a great job! We’ve since moved on to an Usborne Books phonics set and she is doing great with those as well. I am proud of my little reader!

Thanks, School Zone, for letting us try the books!

When Joshua was little, there were a few words and phrases he said that were incorrect, but sooo cute, that we wanted to perpetuate them for as long as possible.  So, um, he possibly thought that the word huge was pronounced fuge until he was 5.  And Bobby and I *might* just still say it that way.  (It’s so funny! I swear!)

Since Sophie was speech delayed, we were more focused on her using words correctly for a long time, and are just now to the place where we can get giggly about some of her funny phrases.  Since she also has a not-at-all-delayed flair for the dramatic (wonder where she got that), one of her favorite phrases is “Very so”.  As in, “I’m very so sad, I’m very so scared, I’m very so pretty, I very so want to play ‘Pretty Pretty Princess.’”

So now it’s not at all uncommon for you to hear me say, “I’m very so tired” or for Bobby to say, “I very so don’t want the weekend to be over” or even for Joshua to say “I very so want to play Wii”.

Because when our Sophie says it, it’s very so cute.

And we all very so love to hear her say it!

What cute things did your kiddos say that you wished they’d never stop saying?