Breakthough....

EJ has a pretty spectacular speech disorder. He sometimes doesn't understand a word you say to him. In the past he just stared at you blankly.... or if you were asking him a question, he would repeat the question....

This week he has recognised that he doesn't understand what you are saying, and that he needs to clarify and communicate that he hasn't understood.

"I can't hear you."

:)

Ok so it's not EXACTLY right.... but we knew exactly what he was talking about, and we were SOOOOO excited that he said that!! We were clapping and cheering and praising him for his very clever realisation!!

Mummy,.....

.... I love your cuddles.

(Direct quote from my little Fairy Princess)

I'm still alive, I promise!

Seriously, Uni work is NUTS at the moment. I have been working on 2 of the biggest assignments that are due on Friday. Lovely research papers... :) Once this week is over I think I can breathe a little more easy, even though I will have 3 other major assignments due in the next 3 weeks - but they aren't half as stressful as these research papers!!



I went to an intensive at uni in the first week of the school holidays. It was exhausting, but I had a wonderful time. I met some really amazing people, one of them being my study partner, Penny. I really enjoyed the practical aspect of counselling, and I'm confident that I'm in the right field. :) My lecturer singled both my study partner and myself out and said we were very good. :) AWESOME!! There is another intensive coming up in February sometime, and I hope to get to that. It will depend if they run it when EJ is in school or not. I can't do it if he's in school - especially during his first term.

They don't call it an intensive for nothing - 14 weeks worth of lectures done in 5 days. The lecturer did 3 hour lectures in two.... she just spoke faster and covered the material faster. My head was spinning at the end of the day because of information overload. Still... I loved it. I loved being surrounded by adults, studying the same subject and meeting such wonderful people in different fields. :)

Back to the grindstone I guess..

All I want for Christmas is.....

... my two front teeth!



Isn't she so adorable? She's so proud of the gap!

We are on our way!

On Monday we had a really good session with the speechie & psychologist. It's really good news - EJ is considered in such a good place that his sessions with the psychologist can now start to wrap up. They will continue to see us for a few more months, then at the end of the year, they will hand us over to a private speech therapist to deal with his language disorder.

Also they spoke to the school that EJ is enrolled in for next year, and they have an amazing special needs program in place. EJ will be taken care of by people who will understand his needs and will work with him in group sessions and one on one to make sure he doesn't not understand the basics. This is a great relief for me, because I've been scared witless about him going to school, having a bad experience and then hating it from there on. If he has a bad experience, he refuses to go. I couldn't handle leaving him there, screaming and screaming because he doesn't want to be there, day after day.

Everything seems to be going swimmingly. :) His progress is nothing short of a miracle, and the programs and services available to us haven't costed us a thing so far. We will need to pay a speech therapist next year, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Another thing - in the last week and a half, EJ has learned to put on his own seatbelt and open the boot of the car. I know this sounds really silly - a 4 1/2 year old boy doing such simple things but to us this is a big step - because normally he refuses to try new things, and cries, screams and carries on because he "can't do it". He put aside his panic, his apprehension, and tried his hardest to do his seatbelt. He did it! Then he decided that if he can do that, then he can open the big heavy boot door. He worked out a way to do it, and he's so proud of himself! Now he is saying "I'll do it Mummy!" more and more. He's a different boy! Each thing he attempts and succeeds in, is one step closer to being independent, more confident and hopefully more able to cope with new things.

EJ- dude, we are so incredibly proud of you. You are trying so hard in everything you do, and we couldn't ask for a more determined and precious little boy. We love you!! xxx Mummy & Daddy

Where do my days go?

Honestly, they are flying by!!

I've been buried under a pile of text books and have been sitting in front of my computer for what seems MONTHS!! My study load is huge and I don't think I'll be doing this amount of work again until the kids go to school.

I had to give up housework from Monday to Friday because I just don't have time to do everything and be everything. Thankfully the kids are relatively clean and tidy and Daz helps out when he can. Then on Saturday we all pitch in and get it done in no time at all.

My Intensive starts in 3 & a half weeks and I've started preparing for all that. The text books I needed arrived and I'm so happy to say it's a joy to read! I love reading psychological theory and I love the evenings when I fold up my hand quilting, hop into bed with the electric blanket and read about topics I enjoy.

If you don't hear from me for a little while, you will know that I simply don't have enough time to breathe, let alone blog. When this is all over (Mid november) I will be back to torture you more with my ramblings.

xxx Skipper

Pictures of Spring

The first blossom on our Cherry Blossom Tree:



More pics Daz took that I just love!








Welcome Spring my old friend! :)

Milly and road rage.

While we were heading away from EJ's kindy, we got stuck in some banked up traffic. It was still a fair way away from the intersection and the traffic was crawling along. I sat back, relaxed, knowing that I was going to be here for another 10 minutes or so....

... then an impatient little voice from the back seat pipes up.....


"COMMON PEOPLE!!!!"





Uhh.... I guess I better watch myself with my occasional road rage outbursts. :)

Recent pics of the kids.

Study... that stuff will blow your head off!!

:)

Uni work has literally taken over my life at the moment. I have an average of 3 assignment due each week. Then 2 3 hour lectures each week. Not to mention all the reading I have to do. I have just ordered my Counselling Skills text books and they need to be read by October. I think I have bitten off more than I can chew - it's stressful and it's hard to stay on top of housework and parenting when I'm working my butt off on uni assignments. Mum says I need to give myself time to adjust to the extra work load. I hope I do adjust, otherwise I'm dropping a subject next year!

On the up-side, I'm really really enjoying the subjects that I'm doing and I love my lecturers. They are interesting and knowledgeable people and they make lectures really fun. I'm doing well so far in my assessments - which is always good. I'm just struggling with that extra time it takes to do the extra subjects.

I'll be ok. I hope.

You know you have terrible veins when...

... it takes the nurse 1 hour and 20 minutes to get enough blood out of you to do the test.

That wasn't fun.

And what a waste of a perfectly good 1 hour and 20 minutes!

:)

Can anyone beat that?

Confidence and other matters.

It's been a while. I've honestly had nothing to write about. I've been busy but I have nothing to tell you. We've all been well and happy - but nothing to tell really.

So I'll fill you in on my nothingness... :)

EJ - I'm so incredibly proud of him! He's doing so well!! His major accomplishment of the last month is getting some confidence. He's no longer hanging off my legs at kindy and Sunday School - but confidently walking in, and going to whatever it is he wants to do. In the past I would have to prod him in and help him decide on what he wanted to do. His kindy teachers have noticed this new found confidence and are so happy with his progress. He's happy now to walk into a group of kids and join in. He is becoming more social with this confidence, I guess he is now talking better so can understood.

I had another Bad Mummy Moment last weekend - I noticed EJ was more clumsy than usual, constantly tripping over his own feet. Then I noticed that his slippers needed replacing since they were falling a part. So I replaced his slippers with the next size up - and was a bit surprised to see that his toes were jammed up at the end. Surely these slippers were a small 11. Oh no.... not at all. His feet had exploded sometime, and in his old slippers his toes were smack bang up the end - and he had grown 2 sizes. He's now a 12. Bigger foot than Mop! I felt terrible! Poor kid, how long was he uncomfortable in those shoes?

Mop - turned 7 and is now mustering up all the attitude she can to keep us on our toes. She had a great birthday party sleepover thingo... The girls all had a wonderful time. On her birthday morning we did a treasure hunt for her to find her presents - and all her little girl-friends helped her. She loved hunting all over the house for her gifts - each one getting bigger and bigger. :) In the afternoon family came round and wished her happy birthday. We had a small cake and then later on Grandma bought round cupcakes... so we got more cake. She got a few really lovely things, but I think the highlights were her scooter, all the bling that we and Marie gave her, and a little sewing machine that was given to her by Nanny.



Milly - is just too cute. She is talking so much more and the things she comes out with is hillarious. She finds it a bit tough of Thursdays and Fridays when both EJ and Mop are at school, and she is all alone. She gets lonely easily and wanders around miserable for a little while. I usually start her doing something, and then she gets into the swing of things. She's happy when it's school pick time.

That's all folks...

Really... told you it's a bit boring around here.

And we start it all over again....

School holidays are over. I'm quite disappointed. We didn't get as much done as we wanted to. In fact we did nothing. No trips to the playground, only one play date.... it was pretty sad. Why did we do nothing? Because every single one of us were subjected to a winter lurgy of some description for the entire 2 weeks. And I was subject to three of them! I got better, then got hit with another one, got better again and was smacked with an even worse one. I am now sitting here, my mouth just recovering from ulcerated lips and cold-sores. I have been utterly miserable. :(
I got my lovely naturopath friend to give me some help to boost my immunity up so I can survive the rest of this winter! So I'm on a concoction of amazing things that hopefully don't make me smell as bad as they do. LOL

Mop enjoyed being at home for the entire time. I think she's a bit of a homebody - she likes to be surrounded with her toys, her family and her Wii. She said to me "I can't believe I'm half way through year 2!!" Well me neither kiddo! Where did my little girl go???

Mop turns 7 on Saturday and she is going to celebrate it with a sleepover with a few of her friends on the Friday night. Also on Friday Daz is booked in to get "the snip" - so exactly 7 years after we became parents, we make the permanent step to stop at three. In my heart I am a bit sad. Being pregnant and having babies was so much fun - but we have to stop sometime! After the debarcle with EJ and Mop's birth, I just don't think we can do this anymore and not have some serious consequences. We were told to stop after EJ - but Milly came along. If we want to have more children later on, we will probably go down the fostering path. But no more babies will be born from my womb. Too bad eh? I make beautiful babies! :)

Uni begins again next week and I am looking forward to the challenge of three subjects and the thrill of learning again. I got my final results for my last subject I did last semester and I am so proud of myself. 82.8% - which is a distinction! :) It's so encouraging to get good results and know that I CAN do this.

EJ's speech therapy has been coming along well. This fortnight we were focussing on male/female words. Him, her, he, she, boy, girl. I thought he was doing so well, that I would try and trick him a bit and make it a bit more difficult. I pulled out a Bible Story book - the ones were the boys and men are not wearing jeans/pants. The men and boys have longer hair as well which means he would really have to think about it and look closely. We went through the entire book and he did not trip up once!! Clever boy!!! I'm so proud of him!

And I think I've prattled on long enough....

xxx Skipper

It's been quiet on the Skipper Front.

.. and thank the Lord for that. I needed a bit of a break!!

So what's been happening....


NOT MUCH! :)

I've still got under a month left of uni break before I launch into study again. I'm using the time well by doing lots of crafty bits. I've finished quite a few projects - which you can check out HERE

Winter lurgies are hanging around and I am sick to death of it already. Viruses, colds, croup, coughs, etc... not fun. The worse thing is that the kids bring them home from school - and then I get them all. Not fair at all!.

E is doing relatively well. Yesterday I took him to the shops - which is usually WAAAAAY out of his comfort zone. He did incredibly well and I'm proud of him. I took him around Kmart to check out all the toys they have in stock for the toy sale, and he had a wonderful time looking at everything and testing it out. LOL

Daz and I finalised what we are getting the kids for Christmas, in time for him to do the annual midnight shop at the toy sales. It was weird not buying baby stuff this time round - since Milly will be 3 and into little girl things by then. I'm excited that I got to flip past the Fisher and Price stuff! :) Since the kids are sorted, it's just a matter of everyone else, and all the handmade items I will be making this year.

Milly is growing up. Check her out:




She is talking lots and becoming a real little girl. My baby is growing up so fast and I wish she would slow down!! She is such a good girl!

Mop is exhausted - 11 weeks of school term is a very long time, and I think she well deserves the 2 weeks of school hols that are coming up, starting tomorrow. She's pale, big black rings under her eyes and grumpy. I plan to buy her some wool and knitting needles in the next couple of days and she can learn to knit on her break. She will love that!

Mop's birthday party invitations were passed out on Tuesday - she is having her very first sleep over. She can't wait!! She was allowed to invite 6 girls from her class. We will probably have a few celebrations over the week so she can celebrate with her family and other friends who aren't invited to the sleep-over. Lots of cake....hmmm my hips won't be happy! LOL

Not much else has been happening, and I'm grateful for the peace and quiet. I wish everyday was like this.

Right... it's lunch time, I'm hungry and I'm sure it will take me half an hour to actually decide what I want for lunch, so by then I'll be ravenous. Typical.

xxx Skip

Some good news.

The Speechie and psychologist both consider E calm enough to start doing an intensive speech therapy program. Which means I will only have 1 appointment every 2 weeks!! :) This is good news! EJ is in a really good place psychologically and in a really good place sensory-wise. They think he's at a place where he can learn well and they are going to devise a program to really attack his speech issues.

I'm so pleased! It's been a long road, but he's doing so well and progressing brilliantly!

So up to 3 appointments a week, we are now looking at 1 appointment a fortnight! :) VERY happy!! And EJ is very happy too, and that is the main thing!

Zoo Trip 2010

On the long weekend (Thanks Queen Liz) we went to the zoo. We were given tickets for christmas by Bec and Nick, so this weekend was the weekend to use them! We had a lovely time and were very impressed by all the refurbishments that have been happening over the last few years!

Here are some happy snaps of the day:

The newest zoo attractions: Pandas!













This little guys was such a poser and if it wasn't against the law, I would have taken him home because he is sooooooo cute!

I hate to brag....

...but I'm gonna!!!


Remember those assignments I had been working on?

The hard work paid off! For my research paper, I got a distinction, and for my major paper I got a high distinction!!!

I'm so proud of myself!! The lecturer left great remarks and comments on both papers and I'm just so thrilled.


Thank you NICK for teaching me how to write essays!!

Milly is too cute!!

Her launguage and the way she expresses herself is so incredibly cute!

On the weekend we visited some friends who are Chinese. They cooked traditional chinese food for us. YUM YUM... it was fabulous. Milly and EJ ate HUGE amounts of it, I think they ate around the same amount as I did! Anyway... Milly polished of her huge serving of dinner, after her huge entree..... and she said.

"Yum! That was DELICIOUS!"

So cute coming from a 2 year old!


Then I overheard a conversation with her and her Daddy after he came home from work.

"Did you have a good day Daddy?"

"Yes, thankyou Milly."

"Who did you play with?"

*SNORT*

I still maintain Daz goes to work for a break and a holiday. LOL

Proof that I have the world's most beautiful children.

Milly: I love you EJ!

EJ: I love you too Milly.



Nawwwwwww..... don't that just melt your heart?!

It's been a busy week!

What a busy week it's been! I'm just a tad tired!

So what's been happening?

I finished uni for the semester. I'm really happy with my assignments and how I went about it. Now it's just a matter of if my lecturer/tutor is happy with them. :) I have also decided to up the ante a bit and start doing more subjects so I can get a move on and hopefully start working a bit sooner. I am taking on 2 subjects and an intensive this semester which is significantly more than my usual 1 subject per semester. EJ is a lot more content at home and isn't melting down as much and can handle my attention being elsewhere for a bit.

I've been creating and crafting a lot in the afternoons since I finished uni. I've finished 2 major projects - and have already made my Christmas list for the things I want to make. Check out my creations here

Socially we've been rather busy, which is fun! It's great to get out and hang with friends, old and new.

I've been doing some photography for our church and that has kept me busy and out of mischief. I've had fun doing it and have been happy with the results.

Next week is looking to be just as busy, which is fine by us. We like the thought of hanging out with more friends, a trip to the zoo (thank you B & N for the tickets!) and I'm not sure what else... I think I'm due for a hair appointment this week - I've got the skunk thing happening!

Oh yeah, I'm doing another photo shoot at my Mum's house for this guy to publish Her house is more victorian than country style, but still... he asked her for photos. :)

Right.... Daz has made me bacon and eggs for tea, so I better go eat them like a good wifey! :)