"Bye!"

Yesterday was Karys's second ECI speech therapy session. We've seen several improvements in her speech since her last session. One of those improvements is in the word "mommy." When Karys was about 20 months or so she would say "mommy" as "eh-mee." Then as she got older, it became "ommy." Between our last speech session and this one, we were able to get her to add the first "m." It was cute because Ryan would remind her, "Say mmmmm-ommy" and really over-enunciate the first "mmm" sound so Karys would say, "Mmmmmm-ommy!!" and eventually could remember how to say it without a reminder (and without the extra long "mmmm" :) Another word that saw improvement was "mess." It used to come out as "meh" (as in, without the "s" and now it's the whole word.

Since her last therapy session we've been watching the LeapFrog Letter Factory video daily (sometimes she chooses to watch it more than once a day!) and it is definitely helping her. She's learning letters and their sounds and can recognize them both in the video and out in real life. The other day she saw a magnet that I had and found the "F" and made the "f" sound and the same thing for an "M". It's really impressive how quickly she's picked up on this!

Her therapist was impressed at how much progress she's made in two weeks. At this session, she worked with Karys using the picture cards that she gave her last time. They practiced words, and also did an activity where Becca would hold up two pictures (ex. a ball and a cupcake) and ask, "Which one do you eat?" to try to get her to say something like, "Eat cake." Although she didn't answer in that way, she did know the right answer!! :)

Becca also gave us some new words to work with: "bee, bow, boo, bay, and bye" because all of these words combine the "b" sound with a long vowel sound and long vowel sounds encourage Karys to talk with her mouth open, which is something she definitely needs help with. She's pretty close-mouthed when she talks which is one of the problems with her speech. In practicing those 5 words yesterday, she could say the first three pretty well, but "bay" and "bye" she said with a "d" sound instead of a "b" sound. I had a feeling she would do this, because she's always said "bye" with a "d" and when she says "baby" she substitutes "b's" for "d's." It's definitely something I've been trying to work with her on!! Becca said that maybe it's the sound that comes after the "b" that trips her up sometimes.

For her next session, we're supposed to help her start using a two-word phrase consistently and improve at imitating words.

The funny/cool part about yesterday occurred as I was putting Karys down for a nap. She was sitting in her bed and I was about to leave the room and she looks at me and says, "Bye!" I looked at her and said, "What did you say?" and again she says, "Bye!" I happened to be on the phone with Ryan at the time and I asked him, "Did you hear that?" and he had heard the same thing I had. Karys said it for me again, and the last time she also waved, so I knew that she knew what she was saying. I'm not kidding when I say that she has NEVER said that word correctly...she didn't even do that during her therapy session yesterday!! I don't know how it clicked in her mind to say it the right way, but I was so proud of her!! And today she still wants to revert back to using the "d" sound out of habit, but she just needs a reminder and she remembers how to say it correctly. I can't wait to see what happens between now and her next appointment, December 7! :)

First ECI Visit

Today was Karys's first ECI visit to start working on improving her speech. It went so well!! I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I knew I was happy that the woman that will be working with her is someone I used to know. Having known her in the past and what a fun person she is made me know things today would be great.

The great thing about ECI is that they come to your house to work and I think that helps Karys be more comfortable. She had no problems doing anything she was asked to do and warmed up to Becca (her therapist) pretty immediately. At this first appointment, Becca brought Karys a little mirror that we are supposed to use to work on imitating words. When Becca would use it, she would act like she was watching herself say a word in the mirror and then ask Karys to copy it. Every time Karys would do whatever she was asked. And I could tell she was really trying hard to copy Becca. She also gave Karys some picture cards that we're supposed to work on. They're all common words and we're supposed to work on making the words sound like they're supposed to and then using those words to start putting words together. For example, I'm supposed to be asking her object function questions. Instead of saying, "What is this?" for a picture of a car, I should ask her something like, "What does Mommy drive?" in hopes that she'll eventually say something like "Drive car."

I bought a notebook today so that I could take notes of everything we're supposed to work on between now and her next appointment in two weeks. Here's what we're going to start with:

*Associating long vowel sounds with words to get her to start using vowels in her words

*Have her drink out of a straw more often

*Practice clicking her tongue

*Use the mirror to practice words she's highly successful with so she can see what her mouth is supposed to do

I can't wait to see how much she improves as time goes on. :)

God Is So Good :)

In case you weren't aware, Ryan and I have had concerns over Karys's speech for months now. Well before she turned 2, we realized that she was not progressing in ways typical for kids her age. It's not that she's not intelligent, it's that the words that she does have are very hard to understand. Back in the spring we were referred by our pediatrician to ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) and we had a lady come out and do a developmental assessment on her and she said that she was going to get in touch with the speech therapist and they'd come back together because she had a feeling she would qualify. The time that she called with a speech therapist available we weren't going to be available and then I never heard from her again.

At Karys's two year check up I told the doctor about this and she referred us to a private therapy center. The problem was going to be that our insurance wasn't going to kick in for it for awhile and it's quite pricey. So Ryan told me he wanted me to get back in touch with ECI again. I called their main office a couple of weeks ago and was told they'd get me a new referral and someone would call back in a few days. This past Monday I hadn't heard back yet so I called again and this time someone actually put the referral into the computer while I was on the phone with her. I was told I'd hear back from someone in 7-10 business days. The NEXT DAY I got a call from the lady we worked with previously who said that she was going to get in touch with the speech therapist and call me the next day with whatever times she might be available. This morning I got a call at 8 saying that the speech therapist had a cancellation for today...could they come over and do her evaluation at 11:30. I was so psyched!! Getting things going this quickly is pretty much unheard of!!

They came over and asked lots of questions about development and language (things like: Does she play make-believe?...Answer: yes. Will she ask me "What's that?"...Answer: no.). They determined that she's right where she should be developmentally, but she's definitely lagging behind in speech. One thing the therapist noticed was that she doesn't open her mouth very much when she talks (which I've already noticed) and said she was a little advanced in her language, as far as what she knows...she just can't articulate the words herself.

The next cool part in the story is that Karys will probably be working with the speech therapist's assistant, who just so happens to be someone I know!! Her son was in one of the classes I worked with at a daycare I worked at here in town several years ago. I don't know if she'll remember me, but she's a really nice woman and I'm so excited that we'll be getting to work with her!

I'm just seeing God's hand so clearly in this situation...the quick timing (which is almost unheard of), the availability of the speech therapist so quickly, and now getting to work with someone I'm familiar with. We've been praying about this situation and I can definitely testify that He answers prayer. God is good...all the time. :)

Baby Boy Has A Name!!

After lots of deliberation, we FINALLY have a name picked out for our little boy!! I'll tell you the story about how it came to be, but for those that aren't interested in that, I'll go ahead and give you his name first. :)

Zane Elliott Magan

Wow, it actually feels kind of weird to write it and realize that yes, this will be our son's name forever! :) I found the name "Zane" in a baby names book that was passed down to me by my sister-in-law, Misty. In the book it said that it was an English variation of the name "John" so it means the same thing, which is, "God is gracious." Elliott is also Biblical and means "The Lord is my God." Love both of those meanings!!

As most of you know, we've been going back and forth about names for months now. I'd make a list of names I liked; Ryan would look at the list and then tell me to keep searching for names; I'd search for more names and add a couple at a time to the list; they'd get shot down again by Ryan. ;) And so on and so on. Eventually we had it narrowed down to either Zane Elliott or Reid Elliott. (Although Ryan liked to spell it "Reed.") Then it dawned on me one day last week that if we went with Reid, I'd be saying this sentence a lot: "I've got to go feed Reid." And the thought of rhyming like that multiple times a day turned me off of that name!! But I still didn't feel quite sure about Zane. Then the name "Evan" came to me and I REALLY liked that one. But Ryan told me he knew someone growing up named Evan and the guy was weird so Ryan totally didn't want that at all.

All along, I've been waiting for a name to feel "right" to me and felt that God had led us to Karys's name and I knew He had the perfect name for this little guy as well. I was just waiting for that "this is it" feeling. Yesterday I was watching an episode of "The Little Couple" (a show on TLC). The couple in that show is in the process of building a house and this episode involved them trying to pick a color for the exterior of the house. They got it narrowed down to two choices. He liked a greenish color, and she liked a blueish color. So they're back at the house they live in now trying to hammer it out and decide which color to go with. And finally she says, "Let's paint the house green." Her reason? Because she loves her husband and he wants green so she wants to do something he'd love. All of a sudden I got my "this is it" feeling because I realized that we were in a similar situation. We both had a name that we felt drawn to...I actually liked both names, but was favoring Evan (Ryan, hated Evan, but still...similar scenarios. ;). I started thinking about how Karys's name was my idea and it just happened that Ryan liked it so that's what we went with. This time around, we're having a boy and I just felt like I wanted to let our little boy's name be the one his daddy wanted him to have. So now it's set...he has a name! :) (If you hate it, try to get used to it...maybe you'll like it. ;) If you love it, feel free to say so. :)

**Disclaimer: For those of you who know Jaime, I promise I found the name "Zane" in a book before I knew that's what they would be using as a middle name. I promise I didn't just rip it out of the name they chose!!

Life With A Two-Year-Old

(The first picture was taken at the park last Friday and the second was after AWANA one night. :)

Recently I've started noticing how much Karys is maturing and growing up, even just compared with how she was a few months ago. It's so neat to see her start to become more independent and actually want to do things that she sees us do (i.e. housework) that I know in a few years we'll be hard-pressed to get her to do!

Last week at MOPS our speaker topic was Time Management and the thing our speaker said that really stuck out to me wasn't even something she probably intended to be useful to anyone. She said something along the lines of: A two-year-old can be expected to put shoes away in a bin, and even to pick out a match to a shoe from the bin. They cannot, however, be expected to line up their shoes in a nice little row. Back in the summer when I redid Karys's room I took out the dresser and put in its place a tall bookshelf with different bins for onesies, bibs, etc. I don't think I took into consideration that she would soon start wanting to get her own shoes out of the closet, so I did line them up neatly. That system is definitely not working and I am now on the lookout for the perfect shoe bin!!

This morning I saw some of that helpfulness come out when I REALLY wasn't expecting it. I was refilling our dog's food bowl and about to take it outside to him when I heard Karys say his name. (His name is Leon, she says something like "Yee-yah".) I turned around to see what she was doing and saw her carefully carrying his water bowl!! Thankfully, it wasn't very full! I got it from her quickly and gave her the food bowl to take out to him. She looked so proud of herself carrying that food bowl outside and putting it down on the ground for the dog. It made me proud of her and showed me that she's eager to be given more responsibility. Guess I'll be asking for more help with chores!! :)

Baby #2 Is A Boy!! :)

Here's a true story for you. Before I found out I was pregnant again, I told Ryan that I didn't care if we ever had a boy. I didn't feel like I had any idea what to do with a boy because I never grew up with a brother and I don't like to do things that I feel are "boy" things to do. I'm not an outdoorsy person, I've never been good at sports, I hate being dirty/sweaty...all boy things!! I didn't feel like I could relate to a boy at all! When I told all of this to Ryan he told me that boys don't expect their moms to do that kind of stuff. :)

Fast forward to May 7, 2010. That was the day I found out I was pregnant. That night, I had a dream that I was at my ultrasound appointment and we found out the baby was a boy. I'm thinking maybe that was God's way of working on me because from that point on I just felt that this baby was a boy. And the more time I had to think about what that would mean and how I really could handle that...and not just "handle" it, but enjoy it, the more excited I became about having a boy.

Fast forward again to my July appointment. I was 14 weeks at the time and told my doctor that I felt like this baby was a boy and I knew that you could tell that really early so I thought we should wheel in her little portable ultrasound machine and just see if we could see anything. She laughed and told me that the quality of that machine wasn't very good and they could barely tell the head from the tail with it! Then she told me that she'd let me find out at my next appointment in 4 weeks. I was really surprised about that because with Karys she told me I had to be 20 weeks at least before I could find out.

We had the ultrasound done yesterday. When the sonographer started, she said that she couldn't determine gender at that point because the umbilical cord was in the way, but that we'd come back to it. She started taking all of the measurements that she's supposed to take and was great at telling us everything she was seeing as she was seeing it. Then at the end she said that she could tell what the sex of the baby was, but she couldn't seem to get a good picture of it. I told her that I thought the baby was a boy and she said I was right! She pointed out his "parts" to us and said that he was turned in such a way that she just couldn't get a good picture of it. I told her I didn't care about that, all I really cared about was finding out the sex of the baby! :) She told us she was certain she was right about it being a boy. She was also able to get us some really good 4D pictures, which surprised her as well because at this point the baby is really small.

I really do love the doctor that I have and I'm so thankful that she was willing to accomodate this impatient mommy! :)

Here are a couple of pictures of our little guy (who is nameless as of yet!):This is a full-body picture...head is at the top and the body is curved around. Unfortunately these did not scan in that well!!

This is a really sweet profile picture. I look at it and think, "That really looks like a boy!" But I don't know if I think that because I know or not! :)

And I like this one because I'm just wondering if we're going to have another thumb-sucker on our hands!! :)

I gotta say I'm excited to be joining all of you "boy moms!" :) And I'm so thrilled to not be having a summertime baby...it's way too hot to be "big pregnant" right now!!

Vacation 2010- Myrtle Beach, SC

We had such a blast on our vacation this summer! It really didn't even get planned until two weeks before we headed out. My parents own a timeshare and are able to get access to different resorts for a week during the year. We knew that we wanted to use one of those resorts, rather than renting a hotel room because we'd have tons more space, plus a full kitchen, and washer/dryer. We stayed in a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom condo and it was WONDERFUL!!

My parents weren't able to join up with me, Ryan, and Karys on our first couple of days because they had tickets to see Sarah Palin in Tyler on the first day of our vacation so they didn't join up with us for a couple of days. Ryan, Karys, and I started our drive to Myrtle Beach (a 17 hour drive...without stops) on Friday, June 25, at 4:15 in the morning! I took the idea from a friend, who told me that for long car trips, they kill it on the first day so that the second day's travel isn't as long. We headed to Atlanta, GA, where we had made a hotel reservation for that night and didn't make it there until around 7:00 p.m. (It was supposed to be a 10.5 hour drive!) The next morning we got up (not nearly as early) and headed the rest of the way to Myrtle Beach. We would've gotten there about 2 hours earlier than we did, except that there is one main way to get into Myrtle Beach once you leave I-20 and it goes through this small town that has like 2 stoplights that backed all the traffic up for a long time! The part of the drive we were on was supposed to be about 20.5 miles, according to our google maps directions, and it took us about 2 hours to travel that distance. It was so frustrating!!!!! Karys was an absolute trooper in the car. She really didn't fuss about being in the car for such long periods of time. That first day when we left so early in the morning, we figured we'd just put her in the car and she'd fall back asleep. Nope!! She stayed 100% awake until after lunch, just like a normal day!! Thankfully, she was happy so we didn't care! This first picture is on our drive that first day. She was playing with all of these toys, and then just fell asleep with everything still in her lap! :)

One of Ryan's sisters, Misty, and her family live in North Carolina, about 2 1/2 hours away from Myrtle Beach. She and her kids were able to come stay with us on our first night in Myrtle Beach which was great because we don't get to see her very often. The first night we got there, we went to eat at Cracker Barrel and then got the kids in bed. The following day we headed out to the beach! We didn't end up taking any pictures at the beach until our last day there because we really didn't want to leave an expensive camera just laying around. Although I will say I like the atmosphere at the beach. It seemed to be safe, in that everyone just picked a spot for their belongings and no one messed in anyone else's stuff. But I didn't want to leave anything too expensive out there just to test that theory! After we got back from the beach, Karys took a 4-hour nap! I knew that the lack of sleep the day before would eventually catch up with her!

On Tuesday, my parents were finally able to join up with us, but not until the afternoon. In the morning, we headed back to the beach. Let me just say that Karys was only sort of a fan of the beach. Going in the water was not fun for her but being in the sand walking around she did find enjoyable. :)

I think all but one day were in Myrtle Beach we went to the beach. We also went to the Ripley's Aquarium one evening. Here are a few pictures from that:

And one night we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. I don't have any pictures from that because photos weren't allowed during the show so we didn't bother taking our cameras inside. It was a really fun show...kind of like going to Medieval Times but with a Civil War theme. We were still served food that you could only eat with your hands and during the show were split into the North and the South and were supposed to cheer for our side during the different competitions they had. Karys LOVED watching the horses especially. She did really well during the entire show. :)

On our last night in Myrtle Beach we did take a camera to the beach because we had to get at least a few pictures! Here they are:

These last two pictures are from our trip headed back home. We ended up taking longer to get home and spent the night in two different hotels. One of those nights was July 4, so here's Karys in her cute 4th outfit. The lei was given to her by the lady at the front desk of the hotel. :)This picture is from our last day. Karys decided to catch herself a ride to the car!Can't wait for next year's vacation when we'll have an almost 3 year old and a 6 month old baby! :)