Out Cold

We had a playgroup meeting at Ellery Park this afternoon, so both the boys are exhausted and OUT COLD! I totally believe in miracles now- two kids napping at the same time. Though Nolan may get nominated for "What Not to Wear"- I was looking for a pair of socks and grabbed the first ones I could find.

We are having a busy speech therapy week. Nolan continues to verbalize, but hasn't added any more consonants to his repertoire. He is babbling with "N" and "B" again, though "M" is still missing. Those sounds are in the same region on the speech banana, so it looks like we just took a brief hiatus from trying those out.

Matthew is getting evaluated by Early Intervention this week. He is at age level (or above) for receptive language, but his expressive is probably a tad behind. He is starting to use 4 word sentences, but does not use plurals or verbs ending in "ing." He should be starting to say things like "boys running," but would say "boy run" instead. Actually, he'd probably say, "boy we" since he can't say any of the sounds in the word "run." We're doing the articulation testing on Wednesday, since his eligibility for EI rests on the results of that test. He doesn't have a hearing impairment (that we know about), so if he has gone from a "severe articulation delay" to a "moderate articulation delay," he will graduate from EI. If he fails to improve on his own, then he'll re-enter the system later on. Hopefully he'll either graduate and improve, or stay in the system. I don't really want him doing a yo-yo into and out of services.

We have a new song/game to play with Nolan. You do need two "rhythm sticks" (two thick, short dowels or cylindrical blocks). I can't find the music for this one (and I can't carry a tune in a bucket, so I'm not going to sing it), but the gist of it is:



We hit the sticks up high

Hit the sticks up high

Hit the sticks up high

Because its fun to do.


You then alter the instructions to "hit the sticks down low," "hit the sticks behind us," and "roll them on the floor." Any variation will work- Matthew actually follows along with the action and Nolan just enjoys whacking the sticks together. It does introduce positional concepts, and the kids love banging things together.