This.

This. Just THIS.

Finally Officially "Gradually Entered!!"

I know the gradual entry thing is probably best for the kids going into Kindergarten... but MAN does it make things challenging on me here at home.  Back and forth and back and forth and Jonathan's napping and in and out of the carseat....  GAHHHhh.... Thankfully, yesterday was the last day of the gradual stuff. Today is the first official FULL DAY.

Simon's shocking the heck out of me in a wonderfully good way! He just loves it. Every minute. He's SO proud to finally be at the big school. Yesterday when I picked him up and asked how his day was he said. "It was great! We had gym and we didn't really do anything but I still liked it! And I got a sniffy sticker!!!"

He seems to have realized that he can get positive parental attention by being the one to say he loves school rather than complain about it a la Ben. And believe me, I will be milking this for all it's worth.  Hopefully it won't damage Ben's psyche at all. ;)

The boys said they saw each other in passing in the cafeteria yesterday. Simon leaves lunch at 12:16 and Ben arrives at 12:16. (and not a minute earlier or later, apparently) Ben says he said hi, but Simon didn't say anything. I'm guessing they had been warned not to talk on their way out. Maybe Simon will be a "most-of-the-time" rule follower after all?!

Third Grade...

So far, so good in Ben-ville.

His teachers are *wonderful!* They LOVE to communicate via e-mail and do so often. I have gotten an email a day from the reading/LA teacher giving all the parents updates on how she runs things, what to expect and how the assignments, tests, and grading work. LOVE. IT.

Ben says once he moves from homeroom to reading/LA in the morning, his class is all the same kids as last year, plus a few others he knows and likes who were in the other same-level second grade last year. This is wonderful news, as they are all really, REALLY nice kids. The only one missing from his class is the nasty one he knew from preschool who was mean to him all last year. Don't know where he ended up and I don't really care! Just glad he's not anywhere near Ben!

Anyway, he switches after lunch to math with the same teacher he has for homeroom and it's still all the same kids. I'm so relieved for the consistency. I was worried with all the moving around, he wouldn't have a real CLASS... but, as luck would have it, these kids are all stuck together. So nice! :)

He has come home happy every day so far. He did utter the phrase, "It was boring" for the first time today... but that's just Ben. WHen pressed, he'll tell you all kinds of things he really enjoyed about his day. You just can't let him stop at "It was boring." ;)

Third grade is awesome!

First Half Day....

Simon had a fantastic first mommy-free day yesterday! He came bounding out of the back entrance of the classroom, sticker-clad and smiling.

"What was your favorite thing today?" I asked him on the way to the parking lot.

His answer? "EVERYTHING!!!"

He loved every minute of it, it seems and, later, at dinner, gave us the play-by-play.

The highlights, according to Simon:

* We had a fire drill
* We sat on the rug and mine is the orange square right behind Quinn
* There is a girl named Piper
* I got to eat lunch in the cafeteria and I ate everything!
* I had library and that was so fun!
* We read a book about fire safety and it wasn't funny, just a learning book
* I made a new friend named Ashton!


All in all, a great day and now I am feeling good about the year. I got an update from Mrs. Terry (our librarian friend) a few hours into the school day. Simon had just left her class. She said they were all good and that it's a really cute little class.  Love having insiders to spy on my kids!! ;)

Can't wait for tomorrow... half day, whole class! Wahoo! He wants to be dropped off in the car loop too! :)

ETA: This just in. Mrs. Terry let it slip today that Simon was um... shall we say... a little chatty in library class. LOL!  Not really surprised. He'll figure out the rules eventually though! ;)

Different... NICE....

I saw Simon off to school today and he made it easy because he was happy and excited to go and mostly just annoyed I was tagging along to the front doors. I can only hope it lasts.

Jonathan and I went to the store and it was oh so easy....

Then we came home and once he figured out he had my undivided attention, he wouldn't leave my lap. He wanted to read book after book after book. Then he set about exploring the big boys' rooms. He seemed to know that this was the time to do it. I let him play while I puttered around sorting out Ben and Simon's clothes they've grown out of. (one of about a million projects I have on tap now that school has finally started)

I got distracted chatting with Krystyna on FB and comparing notes on kindergarten experiences thus far when I realized Jonathan had scoured Ben and Simon's rooms, gathering up every box of Tic Tacs he could find. He had dumped them all into a pile in front of him and was shoveling them into his mouth as quickly as he could.

On the positive side... his breath has never been better. So... there's that.

I was a little perplexed as to how to handle naptime with the half-day pickup at 1:05 that Simon has today and Thursday. But, it's 11:30 and J shows no sign of wearing out, so I think I'll just keep him up and score a nice nap from when we back until when it's time to leave to go get Ben.

This one kid at home stuff is AMAZING....  everything I thought it would be and more.  LOL! :)

Simon's First Day of Kindergarten...

Not that I'm really counting it as an official first day since it was 30 minutes and I was there... BUT, it had to be photo documented.

We got there a few minutes earlier than our designated time and took some pictures with his buddy Quinn outside the school. The school sets up the neatest little balloon bouquets that make for fun Kindergarten pictures! I've had these pictures in mind ever since I saw Quinn's mom take them the year before with her first kindergartener. :)

Simon, as usual, was the best and most enthusiastic photo subject EVER. (sorry Ben... you lose this award)

After that we went in and waited outside of the classroom. The sessions were only supposed to be a half hour long, but the group before ours apparently had a LOT of questions. It was almost 15 minutes after our session time when we finally got to go in! The boys were fast losing patience out in the hallway, so this was good.

In we went and the boys and the one little girl in their group miraculously quietly played with puzzles and books and explored the classroom while Beth and I and the other mom sat at the tiny table and got the rundown on the routines, got the kids' tote bags, bus/pickup tags, and folders full of papers to fill out at home.

We were there all of 20 minutes. Two out of three second-time-around moms made us a little more efficient than the other group, I guess... none of us really had any questions. (oh, except I did confirm there would helpers to take them to their classroom the rest of the week, just to make sure I could drive through the dropoff loop and Simon could just get out with Ben... I have to admit, I'm still a little nervous about the first day of doing this....) I couldn't help feeling a little gypped that we had to make up for the other moms being so chatty.  Grr...

Anyway, so the boys said their goodbyes to Mrs. B and off we went. We stopped for a photo with the lobby bear, I snuck a shot of my big boy walking out with his tote bag like he'd been doing it his whole life, and one more shot with balloons on the way out.

Today is a half day with half the class. My stomach is all in knots just typing it and it's because I'm just not 100% sure what to expect with Simon. With Ben, I KNEW what to expect, maybe not with Kindergarten itself, but with his behavior... With Simon, it's the reverse. I know what to expect from kindergarten... not necessarily from Simon.  LOL. He really could go either way depending on his mood. I'm 99% sure he'll be obedient and respectful because he was, for the most part, at preschool ... it's just that 1% of the time where he loses his mind that worries me. 

But... we shall see. There is one thing I know about this teacher, and it's why I wanted her for Simon so badly... she is wonderful and kind and nice and all that good stuff... but also, she has oodles of experience under her belt, has seen it all and she won't take any nonsense from him. Don't need any of these fresh out of college warm and fuzzy teachers for my kids to walk over.... no way... give me the seasoned veterans... 

So off we go! First "no-mommy" day today... will update later. ;) 

Off to the Races!

We took our traditional first day photos this morning even though Simon really only goes for a half hour today.

Everyone is pretty excited! We did have a little snafu this morning when Ben couldn't find his glasses, but I found them and will be delivering them when I take Simon for his half hour Kindergarten session later this morning.

More later after I hear Ben's report of how his first day went!

My third grader!

My kindergartener!

A good reflection of life with Nonstop Ninja Wonderbaby!

Jonathan is Two!

Dear Jonathan,

Today you are two! And so far, it's not "terrible." In fact, dare I say, at this age you are already a far more reasonable human being than you were three months ago?

You definitely live life on your own terms though, that's for certain.

You are extreme in everything you do. Even walking down the stairs is not something you do in any kind of ordinary way. You prefer to hold someone's hand and go down in a controlled head-first fall. Still not sure how you managed the stairs on your own the day you recently climbed out of your crib and went down to the first floor by yourself.

The biggest news of the month is your talking has exploded. Our goal was 50 words by the time you were two and you have easily surpassed that and I have stopped writing them down because I can't keep up anymore. Bigger news though, is that you are using your words on your own a lot, without having to be reminded. This, I think, is what is making "two" way less terrible than 1-1/2.

You love your speech days with Miss Cindy. She brings fun new toys with her every week and she knows just what you like. There is always some kind of instrument or music toy in the bunch that holds your interest. You cooperate well for her now and, clearly, since you are now using lots of words, her work is doing its job!

This is not to say you don't still throw tantrums, because you sure can throw some doozies. They are much quicker these days when they happen though and much less frequent. We have learned that we can't allow you do something even ONCE if it's something we can't let you do all the time because this is the biggest trigger. So a box of Tic Tacs in the checkout line at Safeway as a treat? Yeah... sorry, buddy, but it's time to get off the Tic Tac train.

You still adore your music in all forms. You love love LOVE to dance and sing and clap. Your favorite toys are your instruments and you love anything with a good beat. We're all frankly a little sick of your two favorite songs, Call Me Maybe and Somebody That I Used to Know.  I'm working on weaning you onto some better music now...  the Muppets.... and later, some Beatles maybe?

Among your other top loves? Animals.  I have to stop you from running up to strange dogs to pet them and rub your face on theirs. Our cat always gets a snuggle from you if he happens to walk by and you even give Simon's fish love through the aquarium.

Your favorite book right now is Corduroy, and you will climb into the lap of absolutely anyone willing to read it to you. We got you a little Corduroy bear for your birthday and you carry it around and reenact that book. It's truly one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

You start Mommy and Me preschool in a few weeks and I'm a mix of excited and a little worried. Sometimes you are unpredictable, but I'm putting faith in Miss Sally that you'll quickly pick up the routine and enjoy every minute of it.   I figure, worst case scenario with your late birthday you can repeat the class next fall and we'll have an extra year with Miss Sally... which wouldn't be a bad thing!

You are a challenge, for sure... and I think you always will keep me on my toes. But with your extremes also brings extreme snuggles, extreme kisses and extreme hugs. You are sweet beyond sweet and oh so loving.

Our days are not always easy, but as least they are full of kisses!

Happy HAPPY second birthday, J!

Love,
Mommy

School Open House...

The boys were pretty excited about their school open house yesterday... or rather, Ben was. Simon kinda forgot where we were going and I had to remind him three times on the way out the door.

They were all smiles on the ride though. I was laden with everyone's various school supplies and classroom donations, but thankfully, no Jonathan, thanks to my mom who stayed back at the house with him.

We had to wait outside the school for awhile until the principal opened the doors, then it was a mad rush for the classrooms.

We started with Ben's class, figuring it would be best to be able to hang out in Simon's room a little longer. I hadn't brought the paper with the room number and had no idea what the teacher looked like, so we just wandered down the hall peeking in all the third grade rooms until a teacher asked if we were looking for her and in we went.

Ben's desk is in the very back corner by the classroom door. I didn't say anything, but I can promise that won't last long. He always ends up front and center by the second week of school... every. single. year. He's chatty and also focusing is not his strong suit. He does his best work when he's sitting up front and the teachers always figure that out quickly. ;)

Speaking of teachers, his teacher this year, Mrs. C, is absolutely lovely. She's about my age, I think. Very friendly and casual.... I instantly liked her a lot. I also liked that she mentioned she has Ben almost all day. The only time he leaves her class is for reading (and specials, obviously) Third grade is when they start having different teachers for every class and there was the potential for four different switches throughout the day, meaning four different classrooms, four different desks, and four different teachers to remember to turn in homework to. Gah. I was relieved to hear he only had one switch. He'll do great with the stability. :)

We snapped a pic at his desk, checked out who else is in his class... turned out most of his favorite friends from last year are with him. YAY! And then off we went to Kindergarten....

Simon skipped down the kindergarten hallway. We chanted "kindergarten here we come! kindergarten here we come" all the way there. He was smiling and excited. THEN we walked into the classroom and his teacher greeted him and he SHUT DOWN.

I haven't seen surly Simon in months and months. He has been polite and friendly and sweet all summer long and had definitely turned a corner the last couple months of preschool. But, surly Simon came back in full force yesterday.... he scowled at the teacher and hid behind me.  (now, just for the record, his teacher is WONDERFUL... she is not in the least bit scary, mean, or unfriendly...)

I peeled him off of my leg, so I could move forward and grab the parent handout sitting on the table. The student teacher/aide greeted him. He scowled some more.

We moved on to check out the classroom. He saw a Lego table and that made him happy. He also saw some magnifying glasses and seashells that he thought were really cool. He was back to normal for a good long while...

I decided we should probably head out and say our goodbyes. The teacher cheerily handed him a copy of a worksheet that had been set out on the tables for the kids to do. "He can do this at home if he'd rather...and bring it back in Monday." 

He flipped his lid.

"That's HOMEWORK! I don't want to do homework!!! I'm NOT doing HOMEWORK." Growl growl.

I wanted to crawl into a hole.  Incidentally, I blame Ben for this and his three years of whining about homework....

I got down on eye level and talked to him. He eventually noticed that his friend Quinn was sitting at the table working on his worksheet and decided he wanted to do it there.  I thought we were making progress....

"Okay, first it says to write your name." I said, handing him a blue crayon.

"I don't know HOW to write my name."

Lies. He does.

He drew a picture of himself instead and then insisted he now had no room to write his name.

Eventually, I convinced him to write a reasonable version of "SIMON" around the picture he had drawn.

Then we had to fill out and draw his favorite things to do around the flower petals on the sheet.  It was like pulling teeth, but eventually, I got, "Wii, DS, Swimming, Riding my Bike, and Ninjago."

Whew.

I sent him up to turn it in to the teacher and then it hit me. This scowly thing is him being nervous. 
Look at the body language in this photo.... the reality of all of this JUST hit him and when it comes down to it... he's still just a "little kid". He looks SO small to me in this picture... I could just cry.

Poor kiddo. Sometimes I forget he's only five because he acts and talks like such a bigger kid most of the time since he hangs out mostly with Ben.  I have to remind myself that this is all new for him... the classroom, the teacher, the expectations. He needs as much coddling and preparation as his older brother got, even if it isn't obvious. 

So this weekend, we will drag out all the books about starting Kindergarten and have some chats about how things will go. We talked about it casually all summer (and well before that), but he's been so cool about it, I hadn't really felt like I needed to make a huge deal.

I have two days to make the huge deal.  

Anyway... so I have high hopes for a fantastic year all around. Ben's situation couldn't be better. Simon is in well-exerienced, kind, and patient hands, and, if all else fails, he has his good buddy Quinn by his side. 

Monday... here we come! 

Mirror Mirror....

I love when my kids do things that I can look at and say, "Yep. That's totally me." Or "Yep. That's 100% Tom."

Simon reminded me of this yesterday....

We have spent the last three afternoons watching the Toy Story trilogy as a way to unwind in the late afternoons. After the last one was over yesterday, Simon set about gathering all of the toys from the movie from around our house.

One by one, he rounded up Slinky Dog, Buzz Lightyear, assembled Mr. Potato Head to match the movie version, assembled a Mrs. Potato Head the same way, collected all the monkeys to the Barrel of Monkeys and lamented the fact that we have no Woody, reluctantly settling on a small Woody figurine we had in the toy box.

He then carefully arranged all of these in his bedroom, oh, and found himself a cowboy hat so he could look just like Andy.

This? This is a child after my own heart. He LOVES to build "kits", "collections" and "complete sets".


In fact, the reason we have such toys as Slinky Dog, Mr. Potato Head and Barrel of Monkeys is because I ALSO wanted to recreate the toy collection from the movie...

...when I was in my 20s.

LOL!

If anyone wants Christmas ideas for Simon? I'd just refer to Toy Story... ;)

Torn....

SO Jonathan... he's doing well  His speech teacher is please with his progress and is upping her visits to once a week plus adding a speech pathologist once a month in an attempt to really push him and close his language gap by January.

Despite all the initial screaming he did,  Jonathan has really bonded with her and he loves when she comes over now, running outside to greet her and and even giving hugs and kisses when she leaves. Dare I say, we've made a new friend?

She totally knows the way to my heart too because I can tell she genuinely likes him and has taken some special interest in him. She even told me she's holding a spot for him in her preschool group she runs because she'd really like to have him there...

Soooo there-in lies my problem. I actually would really LIKE for him to participate in her group. I've discovered with Jonathan that the more structured time, the better... so my plan for fall was to fill up his week with activities as much as possible -- Little Gym, music class or whatever I could find.

Buuuut, her group meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Jonathan has our regular preschool on Tuesdays and Fridays. I told her we could do the Wednesday, no problem but she says she builds on skills they learn on Tuesday in the Wednesday class.

I could pull him from the one day at CG and do Cindy's (the speech teacher) class, especially since a twos dropoff class is opening at CG in January that he's eligible for and the school approached me about enrolling him in that. SO don't want to give up *any* CG days though...

I'm thinking maybe in January, *MAYBE* I could drop the Tuesday class, pick up the Monday dropoff and do Cindy's class... but that's a HUGE maybe.

If only I could convince her to let us do her class just Wednesday... my problem would be solved....

Hrm...

Put a Fork in Me...

...because I'm DONE.


Summer, as it turns out, is exactly ONE week too long.  It needs to be over now.

I'm done with finding things to entertain the boys, who grow ever more restless by the day.

Done with putting all my house projects on the back burner because it's pointless to try to tackle them with three kids at home.

Done with breaking up fights.

Done.

Done.

Done.

Tired.

Tired of lack of routine. Tired of having to drag three kids to the grocery store.

I could go on and on.

Summer has been wonderful and I have appreciated it for the freedom it brought us, the extra time with my older boys, and the sun's warm, warm hugs that will soon be replaced by the frigid cold darkness of winter and all the germs it brings.

But, to everything a season and all and its time for this one to turn, turn turn...

Cheap Labor...

For lack of anything better to do with my crazy clan yesterday, I tossed them out in the driveway with a bucket of soapy water, the hose and some rags. They were in HEAVEN.

The two older boys took this SO seriously. Ben told me he wants this job added to his weekly chores. I told him seeing as how this is the first time my van has been washed in the three years we've owned it, that was highly unlikely.

Simon worked heard on the low parts, while Ben scaled the back and did all the windows.

Jonathan mostly played in the suds bucket and wandered around saying, "Car, car car car!" He also tried to wash the Powerwheels Lightning McQueen. I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of that htough.

At any rate, this kept them occupied for a solid 45 minutes or so. Then I brought them all in, everyone got dry clothes and then we headed out for a well-deserved ice cream team and a wander through the Goodwill store. (I'm am growing more and more desperate for entertainment options these days... thank GOODNESS it's only another week until school starts for #1 and #2!!) ;)

Differences...

Just another fun conversation that clearly illustrates the differences between my two oldest children....

This one took place in the car. We were chatting about school starting and what we were looking forward to.

Ben: "Ugh. Nothing. It's all boring. School is boring. I don't like school!" (He's like a surly teenager sometimes, I swear....)

Simon was quietly thoughtful for a moment. I could tell he was conflicted, deciding whether to go along with his older brother, whom he idolizes, or say how he really felt. I was proud of him when he piped up, "Well, *I* like school. School is FUN!"

Then, the good stuff happened... Ben was actually peer pressured by Simon.

"Well, I do like gym, and recess, and library, and music, and computers...and sometimes art... "

HA!

More New Words!

My littlest is a talking machine! Tonight, he learned "egg", "cook", "bowl", and "stir". (can you tell he was "helping" with dinner? LOL.

:o) So nice to hear words instead of screaming. Really. Can't even begin to tell you how much more pleasant it is at our house. Ahhhhh....

Speech... Continues....

Speech again for the second time in five days. The teacher is trying to set up our fall schedule and needed to bring some different toys for the "work box", hence the extra visit.  Jonathan seems to look forward to Miss Cindy's visits now and so do I, so we've turned a corner.

In the five days that passed since her last visit, Jonathan came out with several new words, including:
"firetruck"
"cake" (thanks to Aunt K for that one!)
"Hot"
"Light"

Next time she comes, we have to reevaluate his goals for when he turns three and see how he did meeting his age two goals, so that should be fun. She's going to start coming three times a month and we'll also have a speech pathologist who comes in to periodically assess and do her own work with him.  It sounds like a lot, but the consistency, regularity and structure is really, REALLY working for him. Another reason I am VERY MUCH looking forward to school starting.


I happened upon a list of ADHD symptoms in toddlers the other day... strangely enough, wasn't looking for it, just happened to be posted somewhere... it read exactly like J... to a TEE, including, "seemingly fearless" and "always on the go as if driven by a motor." LOL. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being an issue... but time will tell. In the meantime... we plug along...

Early Birthday Celebration!

Early birthday celebration yesterday for the August birthdays in our family! :) We have an unofficial five-year-old and an unofficial two-year-old! Thankfully, against all odds, the rain held off for the party and everyone was able to eat crabs out on the deck. Then it was cake time!! Aunt Krystyna did two adorable birthday cakes, one for each birthday kiddo. 

Jonathan is an old pro at candle blowing now and blew his candle out three times before we even finished singing to him.  LOL!

Happy Guy!

Jonathan seems to have turned some kind of corner over the last week. The tantrums have gone WAY down, he's all around jolly most of the day, he listens, he sits... just yesterday, we had "chill time" in the late afternoon before Tom got home and he and Simon and I snuggled under blankets on the couch and watched The Lorax together. He actually SAT. And watched. And commented on things he liked.

The speech teacher explained to me on Wednesday, after observing some of these changes for herself, and seeing some new things from him during their work together, that sometime between 9 and 24 months the frontal lobe begins to "light up" and this crazy amount of development happens all at once. I told her he has been waking up a couple times a night lately... much like babies do when they are getting ready to crawl or walk and wondered if that had anything to do with it. She thinks I'm probably on to something. The wakings were all in the last two weeks and the new developments have all been in the last week.  Interesting stuff!

She also noted during their play that he's now doing thing thing called "crossing the midline", which means he'll reach to the opposite side for something, (that link is an interesting one and explains why this skill is important) whereas,  he used to mostly just use whatever hand was closest to reach something. Apparently it's a sign this frontal lobe thing is happening and that a toddler is beginning to use both sides of their brain at the same time. Up until this happens, babies only use one side at a time... I'm sure that's the simplified explanation... but kinda cool, no?

Anyway, all this to say, he's like a different kid in many ways now. He's not as frustrated. He's talking a ton and initiating the talking, not just repeating. Amazing what a difference a few weeks can make. He's even more coordinated... less running at full speed and landing on his face, which he was doing a lot of in the months prior.

All good stuff and so fun for a science/psychology dabbler like me. ;)

Jonathan Says...

In preparation for the speech teacher's visit today, I made a list of J's consistent words. In addition to these, he also has a TON more than aren't consistent enough yet for me to really count. (my judgement, not the speech teacher's... just trying to be conservative so I'm not reporting more progress to her than there actually has been) Her goal for him is 50 words by his second birthday and I think we're going to make it. He is coming out with about 1-2 new words a day lately! He is also consistently combining "more" with words to use the two-word phrase "more ______". He also says "Hi ______" (usually kitty or the word I THINK he is working on being doggie, but I'm not counting yet)
Music to my ears, I tell you!

Here's our big list for today!

1) Hello

2) Kitty

3) Clock

4) Lock

5) Milk

6) Cup

7) Up

8) Juice (ju)

9) Pop

10) Boat

11) Open

12) Close

13) Ow

14) That One

15) Duck

16) Moo

17) Cow

18) Car

19) Blue

20) Book

21) Cold

22) Pool

23) Go

24) Rock

25) Guitar (guh)

26) Call

27) More

28) Piano

29) Button (Buh)

30) Push

31)One

32) On

33) Off

34)Hop

35) All Done

36) Thank You

37) Blow

38) Umbrella

39) Yellow

40) Ball

41) Light

42) Hi

Developmental Leap? Gosh, I Hope So...

J's napping has been BAD lately and his nighttime sleep last night was atrocious. He was up 20 times from 1a.m. - 4a.m. and finally ended up in our bed and was up for the day at 6.

I'm partly suspicious this has to do with the rapid fire pace of the new words that have been happening. You know how they don't sleep when they are learning something new? He's cramming about a year's worth of verbal development into a month, it seems, so I'm thinking maybe this is like when they learn to walk or crawl. It's either that or the two-year-molars, which I still can't feel or see yet, but he always has his hands in his mouth gnawing away lately...

Maybe it's a combo.... I just hope his brain works it all out soon. I can't handle 30 -minute naps from this child.

Back to the words... there are a ton lately and he is repeating absolutely everything, which is great. The problem is that no one but me could possibly understand the majority of them... "milk" is "ick", for instance. And he leaves off endings most of the time... "Thank you" is"  "Dahnk", "juice" is "juh", and "guitar" is "guh". But, nevertheless, they are words and they are coming fast and furious. He does have some super -clear ones... "up", "car", "boat", "blue", "kitty", "stop", and "more" are a few just off the top of my head.

 I'll be interested to see what his speech teacher says next week. She comes every other week and it seems that there has consistently  been marked progress in the off weeks of each of her visits...  like I said, it seems like he's cramming what he should have been learning gradually over the last 12 months all into the last 1-2 months.

And on that note, off to wrangle him and countdown to what will hopefully be a better naptime than yesterday... sigh...