Half Way There…

Did I mention that we were expecting again?  I did, but if you didn’t read closely you would have missed it.

So, yeah!  Twenty weeks in…twenty more to go!

We have been trying since shortly after Ace was born three and a half years ago.  We were successful at making Mr Sperm meet Mrs Egg three times now, but the past two times didn’t quite work out the way we were hoping.

So, now, this third time, we are pretty much in the clear.  Momma is already feeling movement, and we have an ultrasound scheduled for a week from Tuesday.  We should be able to find out the sex of the baby…if it cooperates.  😀

I won’t get to go however because I have to go to Dayton for training for work.  Big bummer!  But I asked Momma to make sure to tell the Ultrasound Tech to print plenty of pictures…and of course I will share them here on the blog as well.

So there it is…the official announcement.  Twenty more weeks to go!  It will be here before we know it…

Count Your Blessings? Easy For You To Say!

We have been concerned for a while about Ace’s lack of speech. He can talk…it’s not like he can’t talk…he just chooses not to most of the time.

Most parents tell us to count our blessings that he is so quiet, but they don’t see how frustrated he gets because he can not communicate his wants and needs.

So, we took him to a speech therapy evaluation, and they told us pretty much what we thought they would say. He is very smart, understands and can follow instructions, but has the speaking skills of an 18-24 month old…and he is 3 1/2.

While we were expecting these results, it is still hard to accept that your son, who is perfect in your eyes, is not quite perfect.

Ace will be going to speech therapy once a week for a while. They told us it will probably take at least 6 months to get him up to speed. Way faster than I expected…

He is so far behind in his speech skills that it is officially considered a learning disability, and so he qualifies to go to pre-school a year early…part of the “No Child Left Behind Act”.

So, wish us luck!

And to offset all of the bad news I figured I should give you all some good news…we are expecting again! 😉

We are at about 18-19 weeks…almost half way there! Ace we be a big brother in a few more months!

Speech Therapy?

I cannot believe it.  Ace will be 3 years old in 6 days!

At three years old there is the three year check up with the doctor…

Ace has always been small for his age, 4th to 5th percentile for his weight, but it looks like he is making some progress!  He was in the 25th percentile this time!

Ace  has entered the “parrot stage” and that leads to some interesting moments in our household.  😀  Special thanks goes out to his uncle Mike and Jason for teaching him to chant “Whitey Tighteys!  Whitey Tighteys!”…or more recently….”JEEEEESSSSSUUUSSSSSSS!!!!”

Ace is a jibber-jabberrer.  Constantly talking about who knows what.  It is mostly repeating what he hears on his cartoons, or his more recent past time…his Sesame Street game on the “COMPUUUUUTER”.

Ace is smart.  I would have to say quite a bit smarter than the average soon to be 3 year old…but he gets that honest.  😀  Just kidding…

No really… he knows all of his letters, upper and lower case…all of his numbers up to 20…the names of almost any animal that can be found in one of his books…the sounds that all of these animals make…and just about every inanimate object in our house…including the refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer…you name it, he can tell you what it is.  The names of all the characters in the cartoons he watches…hell, he can even sing along with many of the songs on the radio..!

He knows how things work, and if he doesn’t he will play with them until he does. Ever see a kid roll his cars over to check that the wheels spin freely before playing with it?  Well, then you have never seen Ace.  😀

Ever seen a soon to be three year old hop up to the laptop, close all of the open programs, save your work if you left it open, then open a game for him to play?  Well, then you have never seen Ace.  😀

But there is one thing that concerns his doctor (and me and Momma too a little bit).  He has never asked for anything.  Ever! If he is thirsty, he might bring you his empty cup, but he has never verbally asked.

If he is tired, he may grab your hand and pull you upstairs to his bedroom.  But not once has he said “Bedtime!”

If I point to a picture of  Momma and I, he will call us Momma and Daddy.  If I say, “Go get your Momma!”, he will run to her.  But, he never says “Mommy come here.” or “Daddy, I’m hungry”

He is very self sufficient.  If he wants something, and can do it himself…he does.  If he can’t do it himself…he finds  some way to communicate to us what he wants.

I guess that asking for things is a very important step in the learning process. And somehow Ace is behind in that aspect according to all of the “experts”.

So, we get to go see a speech therapist for a consult just to make sure that Ace is on track.

Which, I guess is a good thing.  If he does need help learning in some areas, it would definitely be better to know now, rather than when he starts Kindergarten in a few years.

Have you ever had to take your children to a speech therapist?  What do they do there?  What can we expect?  Please share your stories in the comments!

Like A Tank

Back in October 2007 I bought a new truck…a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 4×4. 

It was big and roomy.  It could haul the whole family and a load of firewood at the same time.  It was as good on the highway as it was in the mud.  It could gently pull in the driveway to keep from waking Ace, or it could let ‘er rip and pull a stump out of Grandpa’s yard.

Most importantly, it was safe.  One of the main reasons we decided on this truck was to protect Ace in the case of an accident.  I’m not the only dad that thinks this way either.  Check out BusyDad’s Dada Truck.

Unfortunately I was involved in an accident not too long ago (Thank goodness Ace was not riding with me).  I am not going to go into details about how it happened, because everything is not settled yet, but I will say that there was an accident.  There was damage to the front end of the other car, which happened to be a Honda Civic,  and the rear end of my truck.

I did not get a picture of the other vehicle, but I found a picture online that looks very similar to the Civic that I was involved in an accident with.

Wrecked Honda Civic

WOW!  Right?  The damage was extensive!  I would guess that it was totalled.

So what did the Dodge look like?

Dodge Ram Rear End Damage

That is an actual picture of my truck.  Would you guess that it was in the same accident as the Civic?  Me neither.

While I am sad that my truck was damaged in this accident, I am happy that it performed so well. 

People laugh at me all the time about how much gas I go through, about how big my truck is, about how uncomfortable it must be to drive it long distances…but it’s all worth it to me.  I walked away unscathed.   Anyone else who could have been inside would have too.  What else can you ask for?

The Village

It’s been pretty hot here lately.  Somewhere around 90 degrees every day…and 98 degrees in our house!

Yup, our air conditioner took a big ole crap!  Why do these things break when they are needed the most?

And on top of that Ace came down with strep throat.  When he’s feeling good…he is lying around.  When he is feeling bad, he needs to be held.

I can barely stand the heat just sitting here by myself, let alone holding a 100 degree, crying, 25 lb boy!

So, we’ve been staying at Grandma’s house (which has AC) until the parts for our AC unit come in and I have time to install them.  😀

It really does take a village sometimes… 😀

Hostinger