Happy Birthday Grandpa...

Happy Birthday Grandpa... You would be 85 today!

You were 42 when I was born... 45 when I turned to you as my "dad" and lifelong father figure.

You were 52 when I would patiently await your return at the end of the day so we could ride our bikes down to the beach.

You were 62 when I was making your life a complete challenge with being the quintessential spoiled college student. :-)

You were 65 when the humor of your jokes were the hats that Devin would wear on a weekly basis.

You were 72 when you met my love and husband to be, Jacques.

You were 73 when you and Grandma flew down for our wedding in AZ. (the photo enclosed).

You were 77 when you joined Grandma in heaven.

You would have been 80 when Noah was born, and even though you didn't get to meet here on earth, I have the feeling that you two have met many times before ;-)

I miss you so much, and I cherish our special times together. I know that you are here, around, watching over Devin and Noah and keeping all of us on the right path.
I only hope that I can be as great a parent to my children as you and Grandma were to me!

Thank you for your love, your belief and acceptance in me as the individual I am.

Happy Birthday to you!!! With all my love...

Speech, Speech and more Speech...The Apraxia Journey

I have one goal for Noah, one IEP goal, one have to, must have achievement... SPEECH - VERBAL LANGUAGE - COMMUNICATION!!!

In November, 2010 after attending a wonderful seminar about Apraxia, I was able to get Noah in to see the Apraxia specialist, Lynn Carahaly, owner and director of Foundations Development House in Chandler, AZ. I was very excited as I felt that this was going to be the right move for us, even if it is 60 miles round trip 3x a week. My boy will talk!

So, we have seen Lynn now for 14 sessions. One hour session 3x a week. He is making progress!! :-) My boy is actually talking to me! Last week I was leaving the house for an appointment and I said bye Noah, and he replied with "bayee mumm"! (he said bye mom!) ahhh, love it! Then yesterday, I was in the kitchen cooking dinner and he came in wanting me to rewind his favorite song on the video he was watching for the, oh, sixth time, and he continued to say "mooe" while signing more. I told him no, that he had watched that song enough. He then signed and said together, "oowa mooe imme" one more time... I screamed with joy and told him he can watch it as many times as he wants if he asks me with his words like that!!!

This was a silent little man not long ago, and now he can voice his wants and needs. Something else that is new, I can now ask him yes and no questions and he can answer. Ex: we are scrolling through the many recorded Jack's Big Music Show videos and I can ask him "do you want to watch Monster, Marching Band, Coo Coo Bird" and he will answer "yeah, or Nooo" I love it!!!

Below is a video that is combining his 2nd session with Lynn to his 14th session of last week. (2nd is gray shirt, 14th is green shirt)
He is now combining consonant and vowel blends as well as vowel/vowel blends which is a diphthong. So the word "my" is actually a consonant - diphthong. He has to make the consonant sound "mmmm" and combine with the vowel blend of "ahhh-eeee" to create the sound of "eye". Also in the beginning of the word "bounce"... it is a consonant "bbb" combined with a vowel blend of "aaa-oooh" to make that "bou" sound. It's amazing how complicated the human language truly is when you break it down is segments. It just shows you how tenacious one has to be to learn the English language when it doesn't come innately like the rest of the population.
This is just showing the amazing progress that he is making and it is reinforcing the fact that my little man WILL TALK!!!