My sweet Lil Man is FIVE months old today! How did that happen? I don't know if it is because he is my last baby and I am trying to savor every moment of him being a baby or what but is seems like time is just FLYING. It seems like EVERYDAY he does something new, it is wild! With the girls I just don't remember them growing SO fast. Lil Man is Five months old and has mastered rolling. WHAT? Yes, rolling, which means I am in SO much trouble soon. After rolling comes crawling and after crawling comes WALKING! What am I going to do? I imagine he is going to be a lot like Little Sister and walk at an early age, he adores his Sisters and I just know he is itching to follow them around and join in on all their fun. I'm not going to lie though, I would be more than happy if he decides to wait as long as Big Sis did to walk. She was 13 months old before she took her first steps.

Oh the joys of being a MOM!

What are your little ones up to these days? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your stories!

Have a blessed day dear followers,

My little girls LOVE books! Whether it is a book from the library or an eBook on our tablet, they love when Mama reads to them. I am sure there is a ton of research out there on the benefits of reading to young children but I don't need it. I can see the benefits as I watch my girls play and interact each day.

My girls and I were given the awesome opportunity to review several eBooks from author Julia Dweck. I received a copy of these EBooks complimentary in exchange for a fair, honest, non-compensated review. I hope you all enjoy the reviews and perhaps decide to read them to your little ones!

Mary Had A Sleepy Sheep
If your children are familiar with the nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb," they are going to LOVE "Mary Had A Sleepy Sheep"! This new story of Mary's sheep is very creative, cute, and funny. It was written so that you can sing the words to the tune of "Mary Had A Little Lamb" as you read. My girls got a  huge kick out of Mary's sheep falling asleep EVERYWHERE! Poor Mary! There are also some fun activities at the end of the book which were very entertaining as well. My oldest loved flipping back through the story looking for the cat on each page! Julia Dweck did a great job writing this book and the illustrator came up with beautiful and creative ways to bring the story to life. Overall, I would highly recommend this book for children of all ages!

Blucy: The Blue Cat
Blucy is a great story for young children. Our family is actively involved helping shelter animals and this was a great story illustrating importance of adopting a homeless animal no matter how different it is. I like how even though Blucy had her naughty moments Mandy was able to over look them and love Blucy anyways resulting in a sweet perfect cat in the end. It has a wonderful message between the rhyming lines. Kudos to Julia Dweck for incorporating a lovely message into a sweet childen's book. The illustrations are beautiful as well and really help tell Blucy's story. We also loved the special games and facts at the end.

Humpfree: The Humpless Camel
Both of the girls were glued to the tablet screen as I read Humpfree: The Humpless Camel by Julia Dweck. The first time I read Humpfree to my girls, I had to stop for a moment to grab something from across the room. Big Sister yelled,"Wait I want to hear more about the Camel" and when HumpFree was sad both my girls kept kissing the screen on our tablet to make him feel better! I think this was their favorite Julia Dweck book so far! I love the lesson this book teaches, even though you may be different than others you are special just exactly how you are! The illustrations are adorable and entertaining, the illustrator did a wonderful job portray Humpfree's journey to find his humps! I highly highly recommend this story for children!

Julia Dweck has written several other children's books besides the ones above. You can check them out by visiting Amazon's Julia Dweck Page.

Have a wonderful day dear followers!

I was going through my past posts and realized it has been almost a WHOLE year since I gave an update on Big Sister's Speech Therapy progress! I feel so horrible, I had wanted to document it on the blog, but have failed miserably. I guess I will give you the "quick" version. If you want to know where we left off, you can read the last post, here. Or you can read the complete series by going here.

We continued home visits with the Speech Therapist until Big Sister turned 3 years old, which was in June 2012. The program she was in only went until 3 years old and then they transferred her to the school system. I was thoroughly impressed with Big Sister's progress and her therapist was just AMAZING. I couldn't have ask for more from them and Big Sister learned more than I could even have imagined.

Big Sister's first day of "School"

There was a break from the end of her home Therapy sessions until the beginning of her sessions at our local Elementary School in September. The new Therapy is 30 minutes once a week instead of one hour once a week. The School would provide transportation, but I decided to opt out because I just don't think she is old enough to be riding on a bus. So, every week, once a week, I drive her to school and then take Little Sister to a store in town, while we wait for Big Sister's session to end. Her therapy is one on one with the Speech Therapist and not in a classroom full of kids, which I like.

One morning when we were pulling into the parking lot at the school, Big Sister blurted out "My friends! I get to play with my friends." My heart sank, she was looking out her window at all the children playing on the playground. It made me so sad to have to tell her "No, we are going to go see your teacher." It was at that point when I realized she knew what friends are and that she wanted to have friends. So, that night I searched the internet trying to find local places to take her where there would be kids her age. I found that our local library had a Toddler Story Time and that it has just started the previous week. I went in and asked about the Toddler Story Time and they allowed us to join in the next week. Big Sister, Little Sister, and I both thoroughly enjoy our time at the library and it has even given me an excuse to make time to read for me again. I would encourage all Moms to look into the programs at your local library, you never know what amazing FREE programs are available in your area!

Playing with the block table at the library.

 Between School and Toddler Story Time, Big Sister has made GREAT progress. She is now saying 5-7 word sentences that I can actually understand. She still has issues at times where she will drop the end of a word when she rushes, but her teacher is working on that. I am always amazed at what comes out of her mouth as well as relieved that I can understand her and communicate with her better. Her speech improvements have even helped Little Sister's speech as well. I am always amazed at how many words she picks up from her Big Sister. Little Sister will actually say 3-4 word sentences already.

Kids are just amazing! Which skill did you love to watch your little one achieve the most?

Have a wonderful day dear followers!

The third change in our household involved Big Sister. She is about 2 1/2 and on March 7th, I decided No more diapers during the day at home! We are starting to Potty Train! I know that a lot of Moms won't agree with the method I've chosen, however based on my daughter's personality and behaviors I found the following to be the best for her and I would encourage all moms to research potty training methods and find the best for them and their child(ren).

I decided to let Big Sister run around bottomless (We have laminate floors that clean easily). I had tried this before when she was a bit younger and it failed miserably, she just didn't care. This time, however, she was more self aware and had been coming to me asking for diaper changes when she was wet or dirty.

I started the instant she woke up on March 7th. I sat her on the potty and asked her if she needed to go, which she didn't. I gave her some juice and by 10:45 she had her first accident. She let me know about it, but wasn't all that upset. By the third time she went potty on herself, she became embarrassed and was looking for an alternative. On the fourth time I caught her mid potty and rushed her over to her potty chair. Even though some of it ended up on the floor, I still praised her for the potty that made it into the potty chair. She loves stickers, so it was a BIG deal for her to earn stickers for her potty chair success.

I left her bottomless at home for a couple days and then decided to try to add some panties. My mom had bought her some cute Minnie Mouse panties so I decided to give them a try. She had a couple accidents in them and kept getting upset because she didn't understand why the pee was still coming out since she had something on her bottom. I tried to explain that she couldn't potty in the panties, but she just wasn't getting it.

I figured it was too far a jump so I put her in the Blueberry cloth trainers I had bought for her. I should have tried these in the first place, but jumped the gun. The trainers worked MUCH better. She could feel the wetness but there wasn't a huge puddle under her and she figured out that the wetness didn't feel good. After a couple days in the trainers she progressed so much better. She usually averages 1 or 2 accidents per day, some of which were my fault when I get busy and didn't pay attention to her asking for help to pull her panties down.

I normally put diapers on her for errands, but on the 18th I got brave and put her in panties during church. I was SO proud that she made it all through church and then went potty on the potty chair when we got home. She has been a quick learner and I am just so blessed that this method has really worked for her. I am hoping to have her completely potty trained by her 3rd birthday!

What method worked best to potty train your little one and at what age did you start him/her?

Have a wonderful day dear Followers!

Big Sister had another Speech Therapy session this week. I can not put into words how happy I am for Big Sister on her achievements thus far. I am so proud of her each time I hear a new word. This week she has just exploded with new words and phrases and even told Little Sister to "Take your bottle."

Each visit she seems to latch onto new words as well. My favorite word(s) during this weeks session was Beetle Bug! Now, I will admit she still does quiet a bit of gibber gabber, however in the midst of the gabber I can now make out her new words.

Big Sister tellin' me 'bout it! (And YES she LOVES cars!)

Have a wonderful day dear followers!

Last week we had to cancel Big Sister's Speech Therapy session because she wasn't feeling well. A flu bug went through the whole house. At first I thought that Little Sister and I wouldn't catch it, but the inevitable happened and I fell victim to the bug followed by Little Sister, who is now finally at the end of the "nose crustys." Although Big Sister was sick the previous week, she still threw some new words at me almost every day. It seems like finally she is making a connection with communicating and getting what she wants or getting attention. She has learned the word sandwich and the sign for sandwich, which she loves to use. I love watching her do it. I've tried to teach her Banana but she does a funny rolling hand gesture for Banana. The therapist says that its okay, if that is the sign she wants to use, then let her!

Big Sister had another visit from the speech therapist this week. She works really well with Big Sister and gets her to say new things so much easier than I do. Big Sister stayed on task the whole time and was just intrigued by everything the teacher was doing with her. She was repeating almost everything clearly and even said a new word I had never heard her say before, "turtle." I could easily understand it and she said it several times. She has even said it more times throughout the week when asked to say it on command. I am amazed!

Yesterday, Big Sister got angry with me because I made her sit at the table to finish her dinner, she wanted to take it to the coffee table to finish. She was crying as I put her back in her booster seat. I walked to the other side of the room to do something or other, with her still crying at the table. She looked dead at me and said "I want Daddy." WOW, a sentence! The she said it again, and again. I was so excited, but at the same time I didn't want to praise her for yelling at me because she was upset. 

Big Sister is quickly making progress and I am just SO happy for her. She is starting to communicate better and it has lifted some frustration she was having with me because I just can't understand her gibber gabber sometimes. I'm looking forwards to next weeks visit to see how she progresses further!

Have a wonderful day dear followers!

I had introduced Big Sister's New Chapter a month or so ago. I had had concerns about her speech. I was referred to an agency that worked with children under three and a schedule was set up for them to come once a week to work with Big Sister.

Well, Big Sister finally had her first speech therapy session today. She did very well and stayed on task the whole time. I talked to her teacher about my concerns as well as Big Sister's strengths and things she likes. I loved watching her work with Big Sister, it really helped me understand what kind of activities to do to help build her vocabulary. She didn't do anything but play with her and all the while she taught her so many things in just the first session, I was impressed. They looked at books and picture cards, she introduced her to some sign language, played with puzzles, and Mr. Potato Head. She put two words together "more cats" while they were doing a puzzle, which was very cool and her teacher was very excited.

There was one thing that has really stuck with me. The teacher asked me about when Big Sister started walking. It wasn't until 13 months old that she even tried to start walking, before then she was just content hanging out where she was set down or did her tripod scoot to get around. The teacher said that that may be a contributing factor to why her speech has been delayed. Evidently, around one is when the verbal skill start to want to kick in but because Big Sister was trying to walk, her motor skills put her verbal skills on the back burner. So, instead of focusing on talking, she was focused on walking. This made TOTAL sense and such a relief to me!

I'm very encouraged about the speech therapy and can't wait until next week's session! I'll keep you all posted as her therapy continues!

Have a wonderful day dear followers!
Kelsey

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I've had some concern about Big Sister's speech for a while now. She is about 2 1/2 years old and I couldn't help but notice that kids her age and even ones considerably younger, talk much better than she does. She only has a handful of words that sound like actual words, the rest are partial words that only we know what she means because we're around her all the time. I know that normally you shouldn't compare kids with other kids because each one develops differently, but Big Sister's speech just kept bothering me and bothering me.

I was referred to a program that evaluates kids for a variety of developmental skills and then recommends certain therapies to help them. Today Big Sister had her evaluation and although I was concerned about her speech, the lady did a full evaluation of all her skills. I was very impressed with the whole evaluation. The lady brought several toys and activities to gauge her development as well as asked me several questions and asked Big Sister to do a variety of activities. At the end of her evaluation, the lady said that Big Sister had excellent Problem Solving Skills and that she was slow in her Social and Speech Skills. In the next couple of weeks I will be talking to a Speech Therapist and setting up a program for Big Sister. The Speech Therapist will be seeing Big Sister once a week, but for how long I am not yet sure. I am relieved to know where she stands in her development and I am excited to start the process of getting her help. I can't wait to see her progress and to be able to communicate with her even better!

A mother's intuition is almost always right, and I would like to encourage other Moms to seek help from doctor's and professionals if you have any concerns about your child's development.

Thanks for reading Dear Followers and I hope you stick around for future updates on Big Sister's progress!
Kelsey

CLICK HERE to read more about Big Sister's Progress with her Speech!