Olympics!

We were very excited to be able to share the Olympics with Stephen this year, and so far he has been interested in watching swimming and the bike road race (of course, it's only Sunday, so not much has been on yet!).  Stephen was very intent on the swimming...

He has also been very intent on adding new words to his vocabulary.  I can't remember all of them (I really SHOULD start writing them down when he says them), but we've heard "eye weem" (ice cream), "a-eee!"  (happy, while singing "If you're happy and you know it"), and "gwee" (green).  On their own, it would be pretty had to figure out what he was saying, but in the context, it was pretty simple.  He's trying SO hard!!  On the agenda for this week, though?  Sign language!  Stephen has been very interested when he catches parts of the show "Signing Time," so I checked out a bunch of DVDs from the library - we'll see how it goes!

Not much to say

I don't really have too much to share right now.  We're just enjoying our summer, going to swim lessons, and playing outside when it's not TOO hot.  Stephen is ready to go back to school, and heads back August 17th... to KINDERGARTEN!  I still can't believe it. 

Stephen has been trying to swim the "butterfly" stroke at swim lessons.  It's not what we're going for, but we continue to work on other strokes, and let him do this too.  He's really FAST!  We are all very excited to watch some olympic swimming events over the next couple of weeks.  Maybe it will encourage him to try something else new?

And check that out!  Stephen figured out that rock wall a lot more quickly than I thought he would.  He still slips sometimes, but that usually has to do with the fact that we only go out there in the mornings, and the lawn makes his shoes wet.  He actually likes climbing up the rock wall better than the ladder!

Our pressure-free summer seems to be working out pretty well for our boy.  He's using the iPad to communicate a lot better than he was 3 months ago, and is attempting much more speech than we've ever heard.  He has also been "singing" along with different songs that he hears.  It's pretty fun!



We went on vacation

We went to Tucson.  We flew in on Saturday, and were scheduled to fly back home a week later, however, due to rampant illness at the airline (illness or contract negotiations?), and several cancelled flights, we were able to stay a couple of extra days.  It worked out well, though, because poor Erik had a stomach bug for about 4 days while we were there, and this way he had a few more days of vacation to enjoy.

As per usual, Stephen and Granddaddy had matching shirts.

 And we swam.  A lot.  Maybe 3-4 times a DAY!

We also got to enjoy a little luau with our cousins!  We had never gotten to spend time with Tia's younger granddaughters before, so this was extra special.  Stephen got a kick out of all those crazy girls, and graced his older cousin with a "Hiiiiiiiiiiiii!" while swimming, which was pretty special

It was a pretty relaxing trip, in spite of our travel problems at the end.  We really enjoyed our relaxing time in Tucson!!

Our little fish

He's finally getting the hang of taking a breath while he is swimming.  This was at the end of his lesson on Wednesday, and he was pretty tired.  We are SO PROUD of our little fish!!

"Love Mom"

Yes, that's what our boy said to me while we were cuddling on the couch.  It wasn't QUITE that clear, but it was obvious what he was saying, especially since I had JUST given him a big hug and told him that I loved him.  Apparently our stress-free summer is helping. 

I don't really have much else to update - swimming is going very well, and Stephen continues to be a super-walker.  We went back to the amusement park (just me and Stephen) on Friday, and he walked the WHOLE time.  We were there for almost FOUR hours!!  And then he did a lot of walking again on Saturday, too.

I didn't want to leave a post without any pictures.  This is Stephen's new "thing."  Well, it's not that new - he's been doing it for a little over a month, but I wanted to share a funny picture of it.  He's so silly!

Notice the dark spot on his collar, though... Stephen spent the last several months of the school year chewing on his collars.  We thought at first that it had to do with his big boy teeth coming in, but then it just continued... evidently, it was stress-related from school, because after being home for a couple of weeks, he's completely stopped doing that.

The Last Week...

 Last Tuesday, we were creamed by another hail storm.  It started around 8:30pm, but Stephen managed to sleep through most of it.  He woke up once, when Erik and I were running around the house, following the sound of broken windows.  There is a fair amount of damage this time, and we'll be getting some new windows and screens on the porch, in addition to the roof.  :-(

 This was the hail.  Some of it was larger than golf balls.  The way it was piled up against our sliding glass door, you would have thought it would have been damaged, but no such luck.  I thought about going out there with some golf clubs, but that's just too dishonest.  We would have liked a new door, though!

 

We will, however, be getting a new window in the dining room...

As well as the master bedroom and 2 other rooms.

To get over the stress, we headed over to our local amusement park a few days later.  We had a GREAT time, and Stephen was a SUPER walker while we were there.  We got season passes, so I think Stephen and I (and sometimes Erik too!) will be spending a lot of time there - maybe even once a week!

 

 

 

Stephen and Erik have been working on a baseball sticker book.  They are working on matching and number identification, and Stephen seems to enjoy it pretty well so far!

 

Our other excitement from the past week has to do with Stephen's speech.  He does not perform well under pressure, so speech therapy really hasn't been going well since he started school.  We hear him saying things occasionally here at home, but NEVER at school.  We are spending the summer focusing on other skills, as well as on using his speech program on the iPad (which is going VERY well, by the way!), and not put any pressure on him to talk with his voice.  Well... Stephen has been chattering up a storm lately!  We really don't understand about 95% of what he is saying, but we are pretty good at guessing, and he gets SO excited when we guess correctly!  It's pretty exciting, and we are looking forward to a BIG summer from our BIG BOY!

On Wednesday, Stephen was promoted from pre-k to kindergarten.  Instead of a ceremony, the class had fun playing outside with water and bubbles, and sand tables.  I spent time with Stephen's class while they were having their little party, and I was able to stand back and just watch Stephen for a little while (before he decided that he wanted to hang out with me instead of his friends).  Stephen isn't always able to interact with the other kids the way that he seems to want, because he isn't always able to communicate with them well, but he is ALWAYS in the middle of the action!

 This is Mrs. D - she was an aide in the class this year, and she is just wonderful.  Stephen loves her so much, and I know she loves him too.

 Mrs. K was a student teacher last year, and then stayed on as an aide this year.  Right after this picture was taken, Stephen knocked her over trying to give her a big hug.

 Mrs. M has been Stephen's teacher since he started school when he turned 3.  He was originally placed in a different class for this school year, but ended up back with Mrs. M because the other class was all-day pre-k, which was not what we wanted.  She is moving on to a new job next year, which is very unfortunate for all of the preschoolers and pre-k students who will come in for years to come.  She is very special.

 Stephen also got promoted at swim class!!!  Next month, he will officially be a "Ray."  And as you can see, there is still much fun to be had in doing "head bobs" and holding one's breath under water.

This has been a pretty exciting week for our little bear.  I'm excited to see what else the summer holds for him!