Squinkles!

"Squinkles" (sp?) has been a popular word around here the last few days. "Squinkles" is the name of a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly in one of Kate's Little People DVDs. I don't know if she just hadn't seen it in a while or it just clicked this week, but Kate is LOVING this particular episode and asks for "Squinkles" repeatedly.

In other Little People news, Kate will just start spouting off the character names, listing them one after another ... and quite excitedly! She also will do this while playing with her Little People toys. Hilarious. It is so cute to hear some of her interpretations of their names--for example, "Sonya Lee" is "Saucee"--though some (like "Maggie") are very clear.

The above photo is of Kate watching "Squinkles" with Tanna when he got home from work the other evening.

Random Photos of Our Week So Far

Sunday morning ... church
"I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the LORD.'" --Psalm 122:1


Burgers for lunch ... and a flat tire afterward. (Fortunately, Tanna quickly put the spare on and got the tire patched that afternoon.)


We love Richard Scarry books! My whole family does! I found this HUGE one at a church rummage sale last year. Kate is just starting to really enjoy it. She likes looking at this "cars" spread.


On Monday, we met Tanna for lunch.


After nap that day, we played dress-up.


On Tuesday, we went to the park.


Jamie was there--look at her on the big-girl swing!


Trey LOVED watching the trains go by.


Shelby enjoyed watching the world go by. :o) She is such a sweet baby.


The kiddos really enjoyed the cars at the park. It got hot fast, though--look how red Kate's face is!


After nap on Tuesday, we opened up the Aqua Doodle Kate got for her birthday. She LOVES it!

Speech Delay: Baby Babble DVDs

I have been meaning to post about these DVDs by Talking Child for some time now. Soon after Kate was first diagnosed with a speech delay, I was all over the Internet, searching for as much info as possible. I also was searching for tools, toys, videos, exercises, etc.--anything that could encourage her speech development and possibly help her to progress. I read about several different DVDs out there, and I decided I would give Baby Babble a try.

These videos were created by speech pathologists, which was a big plus in my book. I first ordered Baby Babble, the original DVD that the speech pathologists produced. Now, I will be honest. When DH and I first watched it with Kate, we kind of laughed. As you will see, it is not the most high-tech production ever made. It is a little comical, even. BUT ... Kate really liked it. If I remember correctly, we had to watch it a time or two before she really caught on. But she soon really, really enjoyed the DVD. So I ordered the second one.

I was especially interested in the second DVD because its emphasis is on the sounds of P, B and M. And "mmmmm"--which is apparently one of the first sounds that children make--was not a sound that Kate produced. I remember even when she was really young (around 1 year or even younger), she would not make the "mmmmmm" sound. When I would go, "mmmmmm" to her (like at mealtimes, etc.), she would make the "nnnnn" sound back. I will have to write more on this topic later. But the emphasis on the "M" sound was one reason I went ahead and bought the second DVD. And I wasn't sorry. It is great, and Kate loved it as well.

I highly recommend these DVDs. But I also recommend using them in conjunction with professional speech therapy. Additionally, I recommend watching them with your child and imitating the activities, sounds, etc., that the speech pathologists and children are doing in the videos. It was very helpful for us--yes, a little boring, maybe, for an adult ... but very helpful. In fact, sometimes Kate will still ask to watch these DVDs. It's amazing to me--and I am so thankful for this--because she can now ask for them by name ("Babble").

P.S. Be sure to check out the Baby Babble DVDs on Amazon and read the reviews there, too.

Eating Out with a Toddler

Seems like, for various reasons, we've eaten out a little more than usual lately. And we've been taking Kate with us ... which makes mealtimes more ... interesting. This picture is from the week before last when we met Tanna for lunch. Now, as soon as we sit down at a restaurant, Kate asks for crayons. She has gotten so used to eateries providing coloring supplies, she just immediately thinks she's going to get some crayons at the table. I keep some in my purse now--it's a good idea to have them on hand. :o) Tanna's iPhone comes in very handy, as he can pull up a video or two on YouTube to help keep Kate entertained. Of course, I try to have books and/or catalogs for her to look at as well as some snacks to help pass the time. What do you do to help keep your toddler still at a restaurant? Any tips are appreciated! TIA!

P.S. Speaking of crayons, now is the time to shop those back-to-school sales and stock up. I have bought several boxes to have on hand as well as for Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. Might as well pick up some for your kids' stockings and even for birthday party treat bags! At only 30 cents a box (or even less!) for a 24-pack, that is a great deal!

Family Night: Sushi Night

Remember family night? We hadn't had one in months until last week--we had a sushi night family night! Yay!

I had been planning this one in my mind for months, actually. We had a lot of the materials already. It was just a matter of putting everything together and planning it for a specific night when we'd all be home. Tanna had been thinking about making his own sushi for a little while, so when he was talking about it recently ... well, it just seemed like the perfect time to have our sushi family night.


Tanna ordered sushi ingredients from a Web site, and they were delivered via FedEx. Here he is opening the box.


And here he is preparing his sushi!


Meanwhile, as Kate continued her nap, I got the rest of our family night materials together.


While Tanna was making his real sushi in the kitchen, I was busy making candy sushi with rice-cereal treats, fishy candies and fruit rolls.


Here is the finished product. (I should have used a plate instead of this big platter, but I wasn't sure how many I was going to make.) These were super easy to put together. I cheated and bought the pre-made crispy treats. I first saw these on SIL Darlene's Facebook page--super cute and a lot of fun to put together.


Which is the real sushi? Can you tell?
(Tanna had already eaten some of his sushi, so his platter looks a little messy.)


Here's Kate! We finally had to wake her up it got so late! She is wearing a super cute sushi dress I bought her last year. It's one of those little dresses that will also work as a top when it's too little to be a dress. I love it! I thought it'd be fun for her to wear when we go out to eat with Tanna's parents.


For an activity, I printed out some sushi-themed coloring pages for her to color.


Time to eat!


We opened a set of chopsticks I bought Kate when we were in San Francisco's China Town earlier this year.


Stabbing her candy sushi with the chopsticks. We still need to work on her skills. Kate actually did try some of the candy sushi (I was surprised!), but she didn't like it.


Another activity: Playing with her wooden sushi set! Finally! Aunt Anne and Uncle Johnny bought this for Kate's first birthday last year! I had been saving it for her to open when she was older. A sushi family night seemed to be the perfect time for this fun food set to make its debut. Kate *loved* it!


My friend Jennifer also bought this set for Kate's birthday (this year), but she exchanged it for a cookie set when she realized Kate already had it. :o) (Kate loves the cookie set, too, BTW!) Anyway, for her actual dinner (which wasn't sushi, by the way ;o)), Kate wore one of her fun sushi bibs. I ordered two bibs in this pattern back before she was born. She has worn them quite a bit.


Kate and Tanna love shrimp chips! I pulled out a bag of the wasabi-flavored chips to go with family night, but Kate was wasn't interested. (It's rare for her to refuse shrimp chips, so she must have been pretty full.)


After dinner, we tried to read Kate her sushi board book, but we didn't quite make it to the end. (See top photo.) By this point, it was getting pretty late, and Kate was ready to run around for a bit before it was time for bed.

It was a fun family night! We hope to have more fun family nights very soon!

P.S. Just for fun, here is a pic of Kate in one of her sushi bibs and with her sushi book. This pic was taken when she was just three days old!



P.P.S. For more family night ideas, check out Whittaker Woman's blog.

Adoption Update

It's been a month since I first posted about our adoption plans, so I thought I would give a quick update. In the last few weeks, we have completed a ton of paperwork, and we still have just a couple of forms that we need to finish up. Tanna and I both have answered a bunch of very personal questions. (My personal favorite: What role does your physical relationship play in your marriage? (Or something like that.) LOL!) We both have had individual interviews with our case worker and have been fingerprinted. We've had medical forms to complete; I had a doctor's appointment the other day and got a tetanus shot and a TB skin test. We are waiting on a few references to be returned to the adoption office (thank you to our references!) and just a few other details to come together so we can have our home visit.

Once our home visit is complete, our case worker has 30 days to write up her report for our home study. If all is approved, then the waiting begins. After the home study approval, the typical wait for a referral (or "match") for our program is a year to 18 months. When the referral is accepted and approved, etc., then there is another three- to six-month wait for the child to be physically placed in our arms. :o) Of course, all of that is IF everything goes along as planned. And that is a very big IF. From everything I have read and have been told, patience and flexibility are very important throughout this process. Anyway, that is the update! Thanks for your prayers--we appreciate them very much!

Roswell's Riverside Park Sprayground

This morning, we ventured north to check out the new Riverside Park Sprayground up in Roswell. It just opened earlier this month, and I'd heard (read) great things about it. After our experience at the Centennial Olympic Park fountains last month, I wasn't too sure how Kate would take to another fountain play area, but we decided to give it another go. Tanna was ready to get in the water with her for some extra encouragement.


When we first arrived, Kate was very timid. She preferred to watch from a distance (like she did downtown).


She is getting closer, but still keeping close to Ah-Pah!


With a little coaxing, she is starting to warm up to the idea. I think she just needed to see for herself how much fun it could be.


Still getting used to the water ...


Hey, this might be OK after all!


I think she is actually enjoying herself at this point.


OK, this IS fun!


We just happened to have a CFA cup in the car (that only had water in it), and Kate had a blast playing with it. She loves playing with cups in the bathtub, so she was having a ball filling up the cup with water and then pouring it all out.


She is completely on board now, and is a big fan of the sprayground.


Before we left, we ran into some Internet friends--this is Christie and Hailey. I first recognized pretty little Hailey and then saw Christie and her DH. It was great to meet you guys! Hailey is adorable!


Here's a pic of the rules and regulations in case you are thinking about going. It pays to be informed. BTW, the sprayground is free and open to the public.


Overall view of the sprayground from one end. There is a decent amount of fountains for bigger and smaller kids. Also, there is a playground adjacent to the fountain area. (We didn't go to the playground today because it was getting close to lunch time, and it was starting to get too hot. Maybe next time--it looked like a very nice play area, though. Kate kept trying to run over there. LOL!)

The sprayground was a lot of fun--just wish it was a little closer. All the way home, Kate kept saying, "Bye-bye, water park!"

Welcoming Baby Amelia

Cute as a cupcake!

This post is almost a month late, and I apologize! I realized I never properly introduced Baby Amelia, Cammie's little sister. She was born June 13th, and these photos were taken when she was not quite 2 weeks old. Georgia brought her beautiful girls over to Di and Jamie's house for a playdate.


Can you believe Georgia looks this good--less than two weeks after delivery? I wish I could say I looked that good after I had Kate, but I think you know better. LOL!


Di and I kept joking that we were going to have to fight over who got to hold Amelia. Fortunately, we were able to work it out, and no fighting ensued.


My turn--Amelia is such a sweet baby. Now Kate has two friends named Amelia. :o)


Cammie is a great big sister!


The big girls had a blast playing and making a mess of Di's place. ;o) This is another one of my attempts of getting a shot of the three of them all looking at the camera and smiling. We had to bring out the big guns--the pacis--just to get them to all stay seated at the same time ... and it didn't last for long! LOL! I'll just laugh and keep trying ...


Jamie had fun trying out Amelia's car seat. ha!


Kate and Cam taking turns with Jamie's cool pink car


Amelia says, "Girls, can you keep it down, please? Can't you see I am trying to sleep?" LOL!

We look forward to watching Baby Amelia grow to having lots more fun playdates and such! Congratulations!

_______

And ... a flashback ... back to April 25 (only three months ago today!) ... for Georgia's baby shower ...


Beautiful Mommy (of two) to be ...


Awesome diaper cake that Diana made


Sweet cupcakes


These have Amelia's monogram--too cute!


Di, me and Katy Jo


Presents! (And more cupcakes--yay!)


Diana, Georgia, Karen (a rare photo of us without Jamie, Cammie and Kate) :o)

It was a beautiful shower, and we were so excited about Amelia's arrival. Time has flown--it's hard to believe that was three months ago already and Amelia is almost a month and a half old. :o) God is good!