Miss Mandy

In late October 2011, Gabriel started going to Naomi's elementary school twice a week to meet with a pre-K speech therapist. He can say most words correctly when they are isolated, but he drops off the last syllables when stringing words together into phrases or sentences. And he changes some of the beginning sounds for easier sounds.

Gabe LOVES going to speech! He has a friend, Micah, who attends one of his weekly sessions as they have similar goals. The other session was a private one up until a couple weeks ago, when MISS MANDY (the fabulous speech therapist) moved to New Zealand for a year! We love her and are excited to see her back when her husband's 1 year transfer is done. We are also excited to hear about lots of fun adventures and live vicariously through her!

Miss Mandy has really been a miracle worker. I didn't realize how much progress Gabe had made with her until the last week of Christmas break, when I couldn't understand a single thing he said. As a mom, that's hard and kind scary! NOT being able to understand him again clued me into how much better his speech HAD been during November and December. Happily, after a couple sessions back with Miss Mandy, his speech cleared up again drastically. Phew!

During Gabe's 30 minute sessions, Andrew and I would often hang out in the entryway to the elementary school. Occasionally we'd get a glimpse of Naomi's class as they marched by on their way to the computer lab or library. Andrew flirted with the many women who walked past. And he often looked like this, because walking around with food hanging out his mouth is just how he rolls!

In case you are curious, during Mandy's leave of absence, we're just hopping over to another elementary school to meet with Miss Meredith. Gabe seems to do almost as well with her as he did with Miss Mandy - hooray!

Naomi's teeth...

Naomi has lost several baby teeth, but this one was the peskiest. This was a few days after Christmas.

We didn't actually end up pulling it out with the thread, and it stayed crooked for a few more days before finally coming out. Talk about a mom with OCD having problems looking at a crooked tooth!

Naomi Gets Her Ears Pierced!

Naomi will soon be six years old (this Friday! and believe me, the countdown has been going for quite some time!). She started asking a couple months ago to get her ears pierced, so we did that last week as an early birthday present. 

This picture was taken about 20 minutes afterward, enough time for the splotchiness from the hollering and crying to fade away. And the fuss wasn't about the pain! I went to a store after verifying there would be TWO people there, so both ears could get pierced at the same time. After filling out the paperwork (surprisingly extensive!), I realized the second employee had left. ARGH!

Naomi wanted to go ahead with it, but she changed her mind between the first ear and second. It took the bribery of suckers (FOUR! the ear piercer was really feeling the heat from me since she had let the other employee leave!) with one securely in her mouth, her beloved elephant clutched in her arms, and the distraction of playing Angry Birds on my phone to get that second ear pierced. But we walked out with two ears pierced, and she was absolutely thrilled. She still is!