May photos - Catch up time :) Post #3

These ones are sort of more "random" than a set order.

First are some photos of the neighbours beautiful flowers by the driveway! I've never seen them like this before this year. EVERYONE around here seems to have different colours and such.











And this is a bit scary but hey! This is my first time out in my 'tri' outfit.





And by out I mean I just ran 3kms at 6:20am so forgive the fact that I look horrible!

These next ones are from when we sent the boys in to get dressed and they came out like this:









This is the pool we have borrowed from the neighbours. We LOVE it!















This is what we have been working on in the backyard. There is one patch that is HORRIBLE so we are hand tilling and removing weeds and then going to lay sod so the kids can play there as well This is what it looks like now:



And This is what K started at school He is reading! We are so proud of him. Here's the books that come home. The small one is for him to read to us, the larger one we read and then in the Red book we check off the days we have read and he draws a photo of his favourite part of the big book.

May photos - Catch up time :) Post #2

These photos are from the Mothers Day weekend. I don't think I ever got around to telling you all what we did but here's the photo version:

Friday it all started. I got to play bubbles with the kids and we managed to get a few stuck on the porch:

















Then I got the gift from Arnold and the boys. These are *beautiful*. I love them soo much:



























The next day we did the hardware thing (the boys made some cute baskets for their flowers) and then went to the M&M's BBQ:

















After a 'quick' nap at home we went to see a movie, with the help of our LL



All in all a great weekend!

May photos - Catch up time :) Post #1

I can't believe it's June already! According to my computer (and the photo sections) it's still May. I want to update a few photos from May and then I'll move onto some June photos.

This first post is going to be from our backyard. We have been working SO hard on the backyard. These photos are kinda old but enjoy anyway!




These are new steps Arnold built for me for the back garden





Everything measured out for the gardens












Boys helping!


Arnold giving me a pathway in the garden







It looks so different now and I'll try to get some new "June" photos up soon!

Q's ST - Week #7

Can you believe it? I'm almost done these updates! We are on our last week. Q and I went today and realized that Thursday will be our last ST! I'm surprised.

Today seemed to be more for me than for Q but it was a good session anyway. I was encouraged, and did so, to register Q for a program that is in Toronto. There is a year wait for it so signing up now and needing the program in a year is good, not signing up now and waiting and needing the program in a year would suck! It's a place that works on speech and stuttering only. Q qualifies right now we are hoping it will not be needed but we will see. For now he is signed up.

This week we had some problems with our homework (saying "I WanT a Candy") but when we got there we noticed some of it was working ok but other times not at all. When Q says "want" alone he does great! As soon as he adds it into a whole sentence we get to him saying "wan". Too bad. But she said keep it up.

Our session was great with the ST. Q and the ST started with a "container" filled with different 'toys'. The goal was to get Q to use his words. something I think we might start at our house. Q had to pull "out" a toy and say what he had eg "I got an elephant" or "I got a computer". It was perfect. Our homework for Thursday is to make a little 'container' like this for our house. She wants to see 3 items, maybe more. I'm excited to make one.

Once they had gone through all the things in the container they moved onto a balloon. Q was loving it this time. I think more so because it couldn't get stuck on anything, and the ST was careful to not blow it up too big. They worked on their words again "blow", "pump", "big", "snowflakes", "balloon" and "let go".

They read a book about Dora and Boots trying to find out whose footprints are in the sand. They ask a bunch of people if they are their footprints. Q had to say "It's not his/hers" and "Are they your footprints" and "Feet". We are getting there. But he has NO idea who Dora is (I'm actually proud of this) and so was a bit confused by the book. But he got the general idea of it, thank goodness.

Once the book was over the ST and I talked about finding someone for Kyler and the program we learned about at K's school (Kelly program). We also talked about health care and what peoples care plans cover. Hopefully, if Mr. Brown feels we need to we can find someone to help out K.

That was it! It was a short session (1/2 hour) but a good one. Q just didn't seem to handle too much.

Thursday is our last ST session and we get a 2 month break (so the main ST should call us in August and we will set up an assessment date for Q again). I'm excited for it. It's also K's zoo day at school so I think Q and I might sneak up and visit K and Arnold and their group at school!

FYI!

I finally found the power charger for the batteries for my camera!!! Soon coming new photos :) Hope you enjoyed the break

Q's ST Week #6

Today we had Q's ST. It was the second one this week but we are making up for her being sick and for Q and I being sick so that's ok. For now we will be going every Monday and Thursday to catch up. I think we should be done in 2 weeks. There is only 8 to 10 sessions so who knows!

We got there and Q had to go potty so we signed in and raced to the bathroom. After a 'opps, not really' moment we washed up and played with the toys in the waiting room. Eventually the ST came to get us and we went to a new room. Q was very excited about this and very talkative at the beginning.

He started to tell the ST about random things that make no sense to her and she doesn't really get. For example he told the ST that he saw animals and plants in the window (A game we play every day is what do we see in the window! It's to get him to move a bit faster as we are generally late. He was telling the ST that he saw different animals and plants in the windows on the way here). The ST told him to say "I see animals out the window" so he got confused... thus the rest of our time there.

They played with a "balloon". The ST and Q would "pump" up the "balloon" using the "balloon pump" and they would have to "push" the "pump". Once the "balloon" with the "flowers" on it got "big" enough they took it off the "pump". This allowed them to "let it go" and see what happen. The first time they did it the balloon flew on the top of a cabinet and it upset Q. He started crying thinking they couldn't get the balloon back. I felt so bad and this was another one of his full out tears. Eventually the ST got him to calm down, gave him a hug and they tried it again. This time not so big so it didn't float up so far.

After the balloon they read a book. They had to sit at the table and read a book about "feet". This book was a magnetic book and you had to "match" the "feet" to the person you were reading about. Q kept saying "shoes" because they were the shoes of the people in the book. Instead the ST continued to push for "feet". And eventually "this is her/his feet". He didn't always get it but sometimes he did.

Once the book was done Q danced around the room for a bit. I know he is weird but hey he needed to dance so he danced. He sang to the sun, since it wasn't out, and then went back to his seat. The ST took this time to pack up and explain a few things to me.

Next was the words. She had some "beanbags" and then Q had to pick a word and a photo and say the word. Today's words were "caterpillar, marshmallows, backpack*, computer, and home" Backpack is causing issues as for the longest time we have called it "packpack" at our house. I guess this has to stop! Once Q got a word ok he got to "throw" his "beanbag" into the "bucket". Sometimes he had to get closer but generally he got it.

The ST and I talked about his list I gave her and we talked about how Q should be responding to our questions, or talking on his own with 3 to 5 word sentences. We want him to get the general idea of the sentences but not pushing everything. An example is "I got it in!" If you hear him say it all we get "got in" so now we have to expand to "I got it in".

We see her again on Monday and hopefully things will be going a bit better for us by then.

Wordless Wednesdays - Family Photo