Cream of Potato Soup

I've been sick all week--just a cold but enough to make me cranky and generally unpleasant. So far neither Mike nor Evan has caught it (knock wood) and I'm hoping to be back in fine form by the weekend. My boys have been good to me though, helping around the house and trying to make my life easier. I guess I'm pretty lucky that way.

Halloween approaches, and the fun started last night when Ev got to go trick or treating at the college. It's pretty sweet that they have Halloween activities for kids of faculty and staff on campus. He and Daddy both had lots of fun and brought home a ton of candy. Tonight is trick or treating here in town (but I think we'll opt out), Saturday is the big Halloween parade, and Sunday we'll be up in Erie doing the candy thing again. It should be a fun few days.

I'll post pics of Evan in his cute football player costume as they become available.

Posted by jenny at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday we had yet another speech evaluation for Evan, this time here at Meadville Medical Center. Because his third birthday is rapidly approaching, it's crunch time in terms of therapy. We have just a few more weeks to figure out what our course of action will be once Ev's in-home therapy stops. As is tradition, I did my usual routine of getting nervous and keyed up and sick to my stomach, and we went in with brave faces and high hopes for some answers.

Mike and I were both impressed with the speech therapist that saw Evan. She seemed to understand our concerns and shared our views for how to best help him. She observed him and spoke with us at length about his health and communication history. And then she told us what we've been so afraid to say out loud. Evan has a speech disorder.

Evan has a speech disorder. It is a relief to say it--as much as you never want to say anything is wrong with your child, we've known things aren't right for a long time. It's scary, but it feels good to have a name for it finally.

It's not a delay, and it's not him being stubborn, and it's not a problem that will be fixed overnight. He has a speech disorder. The therapist wasn't sure if he has apraxia or a phonological disorder, but for right now we're calling it apraxia. Apraxia of speech is a deficit in the ability to plan the motor movements for speech--meaning Evan can't make his brain tell his mouth the right way to move to form a word. He knows and understands the word, and he wants to use the word to tell you something, but somehow he is unable to get the word out of his mouth. I cannot begin to imagine how frustrating this is for him.

So what do we do now? Once the paperwork goes through with our insurance, we'll be taking Evan to two weekly sessions at the hospital, in addition to his current therapy. Once his in-home therapy stops in January, he will continue on at the hospital and also join a special speech preschool here in town once a week. The therapy will be intense, and progress will likely be slow, but we're hopeful that we're finally on the right track to Evan's first words.

In the meantime, Ev has been picking up sign language like crazy. He already knows the signs for more, mine, all done, eat, drink, please, and train. He and I are learning together, and trying to get a large working sign vocabulary for him. It's fun, and he's doing really well. I'm very proud of his progress so far.

Posted by jenny at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been meaning to blog all week, but something keeps getting in the way. It's not that I have nothing to say, it's just that I have to say so many different things that don't relate enough to make a cohesive post.

Perhaps a numbered list will do the job? I love numbered lists.

1. I went to a psychic this past week with Mikaele. It scared the hell out of me, but also gave me some things to think about. You can believe in that stuff or think it's crap, and that's fine, but she did tell me that Evan will be talking by the time he's four. And I didn't have to tell her he had a speech problem. I hope she's right on that count at least.

2. We are fairly certain that Evan is allergic to pineapples/pineapple juice. Not throat closing, rush to the hospital allergic, but stinky rotten diarrhea allergic. He had a diaper rash this week that would make most fellows cringe. We've stopped the juice we were giving him and the nasty poop stopped too, so we're not giving him pineapple anything anymore.

3. My kid is hilarious. One of his new things to do is to sit in his "reading nook" in his room. He has a little comfy chair there, and he'll sit down with a book from his collection and begin reading it out loud. He runs his finger under the words and makes gibberish noises, and turns the pages until he gets to the end. It's way too cute.

4. It's so damn cold. Evan and I went out this morning and the wind absolutely took our breath away. We've got the storm windows down now, and the flannel sheets and down comforter on the bed. I even got out Ev's winter coat from last year and what luck! It still fits. Now I just have to find a good hat.

5. We bought Evan one of those little trains with the wooden track yesterday (they were all Brio when I was small, but they seem to be everywhere these days). He's been so interested in them for several weeks now, but we were going to wait until Christmas because they are so expensive (and if it says Thomas the Tank Engine on it, add $30). But we happened to be out yesterday and saw a little starter set for $12, so we bit the bullet and brought it home. Evan is loving it so far, and I figure we can always add to it as he gets older. I love those kinds of toys. Imagination and near indestructibility.

6. I'm sure I have more to say, but I can't think of it right now. Mike's calling me from downstairs, so I'm off. I promise to try to write something better next time.

Posted by jenny at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week when the weather suddenly became cool, I was forced to make a wardrobe change for Evan. I put away all the shorts and summer stuff, and noticed that after I did that Ev had about two pairs of pants and three shirts. I am kind of lucky in that the clothes that my mom got Evan for his last birthday still fit, but other than that we needed some extra stuff. I made a quick trip to the big W and got him a few more pairs of pants and some long sleeved shirts.

The shirts I bought in 3T--I've been getting him those for a while now, because 2T shirts are a little too tight for him to feel comfy in. And the pants I bought 2T, because he's been in 18 month pants up until now, and those fit in the waist but have become too short. (Yes, I realize how ridiculous it sounds that my almost 3 year old son is still wearing 18 month pants.)

So we moved up a size, but there is a problem. Even with an elastic waist, some of the 2T pants I bought are just huge in the waist. When I say huge, I mean huge--they fall down when he walks, even over a diaper. But we're stuck, because anything smaller is just too short. I could look for a pair of baby suspenders, but I doubt Ev would be too fond of those!

If he would gain a few pounds, the pants would fit fine. I tried to feed him more at breakfast, but somehow I don't think that's the answer to our problem. I can't imagine how solid average two year olds are that these pants are so large on my son. I really didn't think Evan was that small! For now, I guess we're just stuck in the middle until Ev bulks up or I go shopping again.

Posted by jenny at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This afternoon Evan and I were driving along Route 322, and we were getting unusually clear radio reception. The day was partly cloudy and crisp, and for some reason we were getting stations from Pittsburgh and Youngstown and Ashtabula without any static. As I scanned through the stations, I picked up 105.9 out of Pittsburgh--a station I'll admit I used to listen to when I lived down there, though I don't know if it's any good these days.

They were playing a block of songs "9 from the 90's". I was hooked, one good song after another. Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, REM...it was like being right back in 1994. I turned to Evan in the back seat and said, "You young kids don't appreciate good music when you hear it. Now this, this was music." Mike and I often joke about how we'll bring out an old Beastie Boys cd when Ev is 16 and he'll tell us how bad it sucks.

Pretty soon, all the music we loved and rocked out to is going to be on those "adult easy listening" stations.

Posted by jenny at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think I can say fall has finally arrived and winter is on the way, unfortunately. We had a great and very busy summer, and here are some pictures from summer's last few weeks.

Posted by Mike at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So now it's autumn, suddenly October, and another year is almost past. Before long we'll be Christmas shopping and planning Evan's third birthday party. Did I just type third? Oh my God, what is happening here? It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the time goes. I'd always heard that time would speed up as I got older, and I guess it really is true.

Evan had a pretty good week. We tried to spend a lot of time outside because I know we'll be stuck in the house pretty soon. He and I have gotten very used to our long daily walks around Meadville, so much so that Ev can point out our usual stops and expects treats when we visit certain stores. Funny how a carefully placed point and sign can get Evan just about anything he wants! Maybe that's why he's not talking yet.

The only dark spot on the week (forgive the pun) happened yesterday on a trip up to Erie. We headed up there in the late afternoon so I could get an eye exam. While I was having that done, Mike and Ev planned to go to the McDonald's next door for some chicken nuggets and to play in the Playland. (Sidenote: until you have a toddler, you have no idea how important the Playland is--I purposely seek them out now.) So they go over, and just after they get their food and go to play, Evan decides to crap his pants. Not just any crap either, one of those up the back, out the legs, in the socks jobbers. The kind Evan hasn't had since he was about 6 months old.

Now Mike is trapped. I have the diapers in my purse, so he has to bring Ev back to the eye place, come into my exam room to fetch them, and then change Ev in the back of the car. Of course, we don't have a change of clothes for him because he never craps like that, so the poor kid is stuck wearing a diaper and a hoodie for the rest of the night. We cancelled our plans to go out to dinner and shopping in favor of drive-thru and hanging out at my dad's. We weren't sure if more poop was coming and we didn't want to be caught with our pants down (sorry, can't help it). So that was the biggest trauma this week.

I think we're going to take it easy this weekend. We were sort of planning a trip to Pittsburgh, but everyone we want to see has other stuff going on, so maybe we'll hold off on that. Perhaps we'll just do some little things around the house and stick close to home. Just in case more poop shows up.

Posted by jenny at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)