Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Family

Stephen has been feeling a little bit under the weather for the past few days, so we don't have much to report, although he continues to try to talk to us all day long (YAY!!!).

At school, the kids have been talking about Family. We were asked to send in some labeled family photos to show off, so Stephen and I made this collage on the computer. Stephen helped me to pick out which pictures to use, and then he pointed everyone out for me to label them.
I think it turned out well, and he was really happy with it!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Say that again?

"Ih, IH!"

"Say what, Stephen?"

"IH IH IH IH!"

"Ooooohhhh, no, bud, we can't go IN right now, we're waiting for the bus."

"Ah."

"You'll go inside when you get to school."

"*giggle, giggle* Ah."

Well done, son, well done. This is not the first time that Stephen and I have had this conversation while waiting for the bus, by the way.

These attempts at meaningful speech have been coming more frequently these past few days, and we are very proud of Stephen for trying so hard. He has also been telling his daddy when he wants to go "uh" (up) so they can "boo" me before bed. Best. Game. Ever. I hate to jump the gun, because I've though we were getting somewhere in the speech department before, only to be disappointed... but this FEELS different. I hope I'm not wrong this time.

(This picture was taken this morning. Stephen was admiring the beginning stages of a new Christmas wreath I was making this morning. He thought it made a lovely necklace.)


Monday, November 7, 2011

Saying good bye...

This weekend, we had to say good-bye to a beloved family member, our dear, sweet, kitty, Chanson. She was Erik's cat before we even started dating, so she's been family longer than I have!

Strangely enough, as much as she loved us, she REALLY LOVED Stephen. Particularly in the last year, she loved to sit with him and let him pet her. He was surprisingly gentle, almost all of the time. Of course, they did, on occasion, have disagreements, usually over who was going to sit where on the couch, but it never diminished their love for one another.

This picture was taken last Thursday, and we took her for her last vet visit on Friday afternoon.
This picture was taken a couple of months ago...


Even the day after we came home from the hospital, Chanson wanted to be near her "brother." Yes, that is Stephen in that bundle of blankets there. It was winter, and he was tiny!





Thank you for thirteen years of friendship and love, sweet Chanson. You will be missed.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Trick or Treat!

We had such a FUN Halloween Weekend! Daddy had to go out of town, but the Grandparents were still here, so we went with our friends, the Linleys, to Haunt the Zoo. Stephen was Jake from the Never Land Pirates (it's a show on the Disney Channel, if you aren't familiar with it), and Jarrett was Venom (or Black Spiderman as he called it). Stephen liked his costume so much that he didn't want to wear his jacket and cover up his costume, even though it was a little chilly that evening. The two boys waited very patiently in line before we were able to go in. I don't have a lot of pictures because it was very dark and crowded once we got inside the zoo.


Stephen discovered that night that our zoo has a carousel, and I was not able to convince him that we didn't need to ride it then. So, we did, and he naturally enjoyed every minute of it! Stephen was a superstar, and walked probably 2/3 of a mile on the route before he wanted to be picked up. Of course, he only wanted Mommy to carry him, and most of the rest of the route was uphill. I had a VERY sore back that next morning - 41 lbs is NOT a light load!

On Monday, we went to a few houses on the street, of course. The skeleton hand with a bag was from the grandparents. It said "Trick or Treat!" and then, "Thank You," and then "Happy Halloween!" It was a great alternative to taking the iPad with us so he could use his talker. Stephen VERY quickly got the hang of pressing the button all 3 times at each stop.


Like our pumpkin? Stephen helped with it. He picked out the picture, and re-scooped pumpkin guts for me - I'd scraped out the pumpkin, and put some of the innards back in for him to work on. I was surprised at how much he enjoyed scooping! I wish I'd put more back in for him to work on.