Updates, First Speech Therapy Appt.

Ok updates first:
My neice's surgery was a success. I guess it made hospital history because of the complexity (sp) and new techniques used. It lasted 12 hrs, took several hours for my husband to see her in ICU but she was coherent, talking, and in a ton of pain. This poor kid was operated on through her stomach, and her entire back was sliced open again from her neck to her bottom. I had scoliosis surgery when I was about 9 years old, so I remember the experience... I can't imagine having been operated on through my tummy also. Poor kid - please continue sending up prayers for her and the family. She's expected to be in the hospital for about 6 weeks, including inpatient physical therapy.

My committments to laundry and dishes are doing pretty well. This week I've had two LATE nights (getting to bed at 2:30/3AM) due to lots of orders to fill for my business. So to get by without getting totally exhausted, I just tried to do dishes during the day and washed (by hand) one full load of dishes before bed. Laundry has been going excellently - I am using the retractable line in my apartment to dry (to save money on electricity), and soon I'll be hanging clothes outside! But it's very easy to fold clothes and match socks as I'm taking them off the line. I prefer doing it this way than folding right out of the dryer! Unfortuntaly my line doesn't always hold one full load of laundry to dry so occasionally I still have to use the dryer or just be sure to check the laundry on the line and remove whatever is dry and replace it with something wet.

Andrew had his first speech therapy appt. today. To save time with typing, I'll post what I posted on our familys family website (at www.myfamily.com):

"We had our first appointment today and she had this toilet plunger looking contraption with half=circles of different sizes. She went through her binder and showed Andrew a picture, imitated a sound, then had Andrew imitate it. If he couldn't, she made the sound again holding the half circle thing, then handed it to Alexis to say, then ALexis handed the half circle thing to Andrew and then he'd say the sound. Once the word was said, the half circle thing could be put on the plunger. Once it was full, the stick was pushed down and Andrew got to push a button, which made all of the half circles explode into the air! Then she brought out a bag of little toys and she and Andrew played with them, making sounds, saying phrases (she did, he doesn't do much more than small words and sounds), and having a lot of fun. She incorperated body language and sign language into everything also!She made copies of the sound cards, made copies of a list of toys and the sounds they can make so I can start putting together my own bag to play of toys to use to play with him. I noticed the spine of the binder she used said 'apraxia' so I went and googled it online, and found some free resources. I'll try to put together a binder like hers, so all of the stuff we'll use is in one place. We'll work on the sounds and playing several times a day, and of course use sounds, phrases and signs throughout the day. And another highlight is that Andrew remained dry the entire time :-) He's been out and about in underwear, having a few accidents here and there but mostly wanting to be dry and getting really upset if he has an accident. Andrew has begun exploding with imitating sounds lately, so I think now is the perfect time to have him get some help with his speech because right now he wants to learn and it's fun for him!"

Let's see... Nearly all of the 8 teeth Kaitlyn was cutting at once are in. She's making all sorts of noises and rolls around everywhere. She will pick up anything and examine it so closely - I love watching her. She squeezes gently, touches it with both hands, with one hand moves the object around slowly so she can see every surface, checks to see if it tastes good or feels good in her mouth, waves it around, then starts banging it to see the sound effect it has. Then back in her mouth it goes, she has to examine every surface again... So curious.

I have green beans growing on every plant. Peas will be next! Basil is ready to begin using and parsley is almost ready also. Everything else is still growing. I found celery seeds the other day and am SOOO excited to grow celery this year. This year, my garden will produce everything I usually buy. I need to get garlic still. I'd like to get more strawberries, and I'd love ot get some grapes. The problem with grapes is that I wont' get any fruit this year - possibly for another few seasons, and I'm not sure if we'll still be at this apartment when they begin producing fruit. Because of their price, I'm hesistant to buy them. But if we would have bought them the first year we were here, we'd have grapes by now!