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!

Using His Words…

Forever, I thought that ace was never going to talk.  But here lately he has really been jibber-jabbing about everything under the sun.

I recorded this video at dinner time the other night.  Ace had been saying PIIIZZA  all day, and so I figured he was asking for it…  Momma wasn’t home to cook dinner, and I didn’t feel like cooking again, so we ordered some Donatos!!

Looks like he likes pizza just as much as me!  He ate 6 pieces…  😀

[bliptv AwGfpEc]

How Do You Know You Spend Too Much Time Playing Bejeweled Blitz On Facebook?

Bejweled Blitz

Bejweled Blitz

So how do you know when you spend too much time playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook?

Maybe you check the leader board while on break at work to make sure that no one has beaten your score!

Could it be that you find yourself organizing the cans in your cabinets into groups of three?

Do you dream up ways to sabotage that person’s computer who will always get 200,000 points every single week and you’re lucky to get 100, 000?!

Or maybe…just maybe…a good sign would be your two year old, who only speaks the language of Nick Jr, running around the house saying, “One Minute…Go!”…”Bang Bang Crash”…”A New High Score!”

Maybe…just maybe…that would mean that you play just a little too much.  😀

A Stress Reliever…

I drove three hours to Cleveland today to fix some machinery.  That’s what I do.  If you follow me on Facebook, you see my updates every now and again from different parts of the country…fixing machinery.

It is very stressful.  If they call me in to fix the machine there has many times been two or three other people before me that couldn’t. 

Traveling, long hours, tough problems, businesses losing money because their equipment is not running, and it is all on my shoulders to make this large machine do it’s job once again.  I am the last defense.

Well, today I was stressed out because I was waiting for UPS to arrive with the part I needed to fix this particular problem.  It was delaying me by a couple hours already and I really wanted to get out of there and start that three hour drive home, so that I could sleep in my bed tonight…not a hotels. 

My cell phone rang.  The caller ID said it was from our house phone.

I answered, “Hello?” All I heard was silence…

“Heeelllooo?”, I said.

And then plain as day I hear, “Hi Daddy! (Click)” 

I call our house back and Momma answers the phone.  I asked her if she just called me and handed the phone to Ace to say “Hi”, and she said “No?”.

Momma has tried and tried and tried to get Ace to say “Hi Daddy!” over the phone when I am out of town for work, and he never does.  He listens for a while and then starts pushing buttons. 😀

And today?  He picked up the phone and called me all by himself…just to say “Hi Daddy!”

Yup.  Today was a good day.  😀

Hostinger