I took Ellie to a friend’s house because I knew they’d get nothing accomplished with her there. ;) We headed to the Early Childhood Center where we met Maureen, a very sweet speech pathologist. She explained they would do the whole early childhood evaluation, as many times they get parents worried about “speech” but there are many other issues that are revealed in the screening.
Owen didn’t want to go in alone, so I sat outside the open door which was nice because I wanted to see what she did anyways. She asked Owen to do a series of things like stack 9 blocks, draw lines and shapes, and describe objects she laid out on the table. He had fun doing most of them, as witnessed by his hands in the air here:
She said (later) that she won’t ever forget Owen because of what he did during one portion of the “test.” He was asked to look at 2 pictures and then she turned them over. Then she held up a matching picture and he was to tell her where to lay it down so it would be on top of it’s matching card. Does that make sense? Well, he did the 2 cards just fine. But then she did it with 3 cards, a house, a duck, and cup. He placed the first one fine, but looked confused about the second. He pointed at where to lay it down and then looked at the cards (which were turned over). He said “that one is wrong.” She asked him how he knew that since they hadn’t turned them over yet and he said “the numbers don’t match on the back.” We both laughed! She said she’d never had a kid pick up on the fact that they were labeled with numbers (for her benefit) on the back before. But of course, she still had to dock him that point even though he showed a higher level thinking skill. (boo to standardized tests)Overall, he passed with flying colors and she said he an absolute joy to work with. She did hear the 3 sounds I was worried about, so I wasn’t a complete nutcase for requesting a screening. He replaces his /th/ sound with a /y/ sound. For example, instead of this, it sounds like yis. He also has trouble with a /r/ sound when it’s in a blend. For example, in crayons, it sounds more like cwayons. And lastly he struggles a bit with the /l/ sound. It sounds more like a /w/ or /y/. For example glasses sounds likes gwasses and leaf sounds like yeaf.
She said she never does speech therapy for the /th/sound because it almost always corrects itself. And for the /r/ and /l/, she said it is totally normal at his age. I’m supposed to just model over and over and she even suggested using a mirror so he can see what it looks like to make those sounds. So we’ll just work a little on those sounds extra hard as we start preschool here in a few weeks! It was an interesting experience to be on the other side of the teacher table for the first time. :) Glad to know that on paper, he’s right where he needs to be!
How it worked was a week before the party, Amy sent us an email with different shopping lists divided up. We each picked a list to buy. It also had a few items that needed to be prepped ahead of the cooking day. Here’s what my list looked like:
These 2 guys were adorable together and were so great throughout the morning. 
Again, each group of ladies tackled one meal at a time. We simply found the indreitent on the massive table of food and dumped it into a gallon freezer bag. Once all the bags for that meal were done, we sealed them and put one meal in each lady's laundry basket.
All in all, it took us only about an hour and half for everything. And even better, the total was $89.52 for all of it! Definitely worth doing a little of our own prep work to get our cost down.
Amy has a 
They came over and Weston played with the kids and we all chatted about every issue under the sun. Then on Thursday, Weston came over for a “trial run” while his mom worked in her classroom. It couldn’t have gone better. He played so well with Owen and Ellison and is such a sweetie. 
He loves a good art project like my kids.
And who doesn’t love some outside play time?
And the kid sleeps. Hallelujah.
All in all, it was a great first day. We’ll be getting to hang out with this sweet little guy on Tuesdays and Fridays. I’m so thankful I’ll be able to help add to our budget while still just hanging at home with my kiddos.
The kids had a blast playing in the basement, running naked in the hose outside and feeding the cows. Oh and just being crazy.
The parental units made an amazing dinner for 
Then we finally got to the part Owen was waiting for, Cake and presents. 
We made the mistake of thinking Owen and Ellie could possibly sleep in the same room together. Parent FAIL. I guess we should have known that putting 2 terrible sleepers together is just going to result in more terrible sleep. So somewhere in the middle of the night, we divided and conquered. Ellie came and slept with me (and Miles) and William slept with Owen.
Sunday morning we finally got a picture of my parents and the kids. That’s been a long time coming. I took about 40 and this was the best. :)
We had a great time at their church, 
When we got home, we finally got around to something we’ve been talking about doing. . .making Ellie’s crib into a toddler bed. As you can tell, she was thrilled!
It really hasn’t done much to make sleep better or worse this week which I guess I should be thankful for. Of course we’ve had a few more things to clean up as she now loves to pull books off her bookshelf and take shoes out of drawers. And one night, she did walk downstairs in the middle of the night looking for me. But other than that, we’re on our way to true toddler-hood. Next up: paci only at night and maybe potty training? Lord help us.
At the first table, they poured what looked like salt into a cup. Owen got to dump in water and it turned into “snow.” They go to play with it in pans and bury animals and such. Then, we build snowman (Olafs) with glitter playdoh.
We cut out some snowflakes and hung them up on the little stage area. Of course, we had to belt out some Frozen tunes while on the stage!
They were so awesome that when Owen asked for a treat while we were leaving, I had to oblige. :)
It was a fun way to ruin our dinner. :)
