Today's Topic: Articulation and Oral Motor Skills

Today at our Next Steps class the topic was all about articulation and oral motor skills. I so look forward to going every week. I really hope we get approved for the next session. I may just show up any way if we don't.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting. I am taking this straight from the little packet I got today.

Sippy Cup vs. Straw Cup -excerpt from article at www.talktools.net

When children drink from a bottle or breast, they perform something speech therapists refer to as suckle-swallow. The tongue lays flat and moves mostly in a back-and-forth pattern.

Drinking from a regular cup, however, requires a more complicated swallow. The cheeks and lips suck the liquid onto the tongue, then the tongue squeezes, lifts and propels the water down the throat. That action helps build the muscles required for proper speech-at least according to school experts.

But with a sippy cup, according to the critics, the tongue doesn't get enough action. "It's wreaking havoc on that tongue position," says Charlotte A. Boshart, a speech pathologist in Temecula, Calif. "It's just like sucking your thumb all the way up until you're five or six years old" says Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson, a speech pathologist in Tuscon, Ariz.

Most Children who develop speech difficulties after drinking from sippy cups are easily cured, says Ms. Johnson. Their speech usually improves as soon as they begin drinking from other vessels.

I really couldn't understand why there was such a push to get Squirt to start drinking from a cup and today it actually clicked! I'm tossing all his sippy cups today (well, may keep one) and work a lot more on the open cup drinking. I think I am going to need some more of those bibs that cover everything.

There is really a lot of good information in these little packets. If anyone is interested, please let me know. I have packets on gross motor development balance & coordination, fine motor, sensory, language, and articulation & oral.
Here is the toy list they gave us today. I really like it because it says right on there price, age, and what areas it will help.

Little Mr. Smarty Pants

We had our evaluation with Patty today and Colin passed with flying colors. When I say he passed, I mean he is basically caught up to his adjusted age (13 months) on everything and on a few he was advanced (15+ months). There were only a two categories of the things she asked he was emerging on. I seriously couldn't be more proud. I am such a sappy girl because I seriously could have cried when I saw the test results. This also means we don't get to see Patty on a weekly basis. She is going to have us approved for a monitoring program for once a month a few months. I'm a little sad. She has taught me soooo much. Squirt may have not come with instructions but with the NICU nurses and the therapy team, he might as well have. I just feel blessed.
On a completely different note, if you wouldn't mind sending up a little prayer for my friend Chelsea. She is 33 weeks pregnant and was put on bed rest today. They think they will have to induce on Friday. She's had a hard time to say the least. She lost a little girl last year, her husband is a complete idiot (to put it mildly) and will not be there for the birth, she's had kidney stones during the pregnancy, contractions, and a few other things she should not have to deal with. So any prayers you can spare would be much appreciated! I'm going to be with her when she delivers, so if I call in a panic to ask if someone can watch Squirt (assuming B or Gramma can't) that is why.

Snug As a Fuzzy Duck

I broke out the Babyhood! It's getting chilly......hopefully it will snow soon (sorry Angie)


These are couple of my favorites from Thanksgiving and the other day.

Isn't that just so sweet :)


Stir him him good, Vin!

Looks yummy to me!

Pictures!!!!!!!!

Super excited! We got our Christmas pictures taken today with Cooley Photography (go through her galleries there are pics of Squirt, Loni, Carlie and Vin). Krista is just the best. She is patient, funny, sweet, and energetic! She has a studio in her home but goes anywhere and does an amazing job. As soon as we get the photos, I will definitely post them.
We had traditional Christmas outfits, PJ"S (absolutely adorable), and Squirt did a few diaper shots. She took a lot of pictures. She had our family, Nick's family, and Angie's family. She also did individual, the kids together, sooooo many pictures.

Our family photos may look a little off because I forgot Squirt's sweater. B wore gray and black, Squirt was wearing red and black but was SUPPOSED to have a gray sweater vest, and I wore black and red. B looked a little off...........
Same thing happened last year when he wore jeans and everyone else had black pants on.

Here are a few pictures she took last year about this time. Squirt was sooo little. I have to remind myself how far he has come when I get hung up on the height and weight thing.

That was Bubba's hand.

Height/ Weight Check

So here are Squirt's stats. 15 months actual (almost) 13 adjusted
Height: 26 inches long. An inaccurate measurement was taken at his surgery of 27 inches...can't we just use that :)
Weight: 16lbs 2.5 oz. Can't lie I was really hoping to hit the 17lbs mark.
I can't remember his head....I think 43???
They ordered some lab work that didn't go so hot. They are going to check Squirt's thyroid, growth hormones and a test for RTA (Renal Tubular Acidosis). I'm really not quite sure what this is yet, but to check for it they need a blood and urine sample taken on the same day.
They put a bag on him and sent us off to the lab to get the blood work done. They poked Squirt and barely got a vile out of one arm (we needed four). We decided to collect the urine out of the bag then try the other arm. The bag somehow slipped so there was nothing to collect. At this point, Squirt was so upset he was about to throw up. Without the urine, there was no point to poke him again. So I have to go back at some point to have these tests done, just not today. The lab we went to seemed to be for an older generation, so I'm going to see if I can take him to the new Children's facility at Lutheran right next door to our Peds office.

Best Turkey Ever!

Patty, our OT, had a messy finger paint project for Squirt today. He tolerated it very well and we even got a little "turkey" out of him. :)
I'm not one for items on the fridge but I can see how that is all about to change :)

You've come a long way, Baby!

November is Prematurity Awareness Month(sooooo aware). I made this montage last year for our nurses mostly. Even though there is really no video of them in there (I really wish I would have taken pictures of them with Squirt), I wanted them to see our 2 lbs 3 oz beans journey in their care before coming home 40 days later at 4lbs 2 oz(every gram and ounce count!). I know most of you have seen it but I just thought I would re-post it.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My prayers are with the families that are dealing with prematurity. Whether it be at the start of their journey or the lingering effects and emotions.

Ouch!

This is Squirt's first official accidental 'bad ouch'(he's fine)! It got bumped up from a category 'ouch' to a 'bad ouch' when I saw the indentation on his forehead. He biffed on the little step leading into the kitchen from the playroom. Before long he will have so many different type of 'ouch' categories, I will just have to color code them. :)
Oh and his silly face, he doesn't like the light on my camera. Now anytime I try to take a picture, this what I get...


Look at that little nose.....might need to cut back on the vitamin A

Yipee!

Angie is joining the blogging world and just got a bloggie makeover. Super cute now you just need to write! :)
On another note, I really miss my Kodak Easyshare. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE my new camera but the other one took video that was easy for me to figure out. The camcorder and me....well, it's kicking my a$$. Searching on Ebay for another Easyshare for cheap.

Walking!!!!!!

So excited! Squirt is officially walking. Hoping to get a clip of it on here soon.

Volunteering

This past weekend Joyce and I volunteered for the the first Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Gala. It was wonderful. They had a quite of bit of volunteers, so we stood around a lot and watched people look over silent auction items. It felt good to be there. They had some really great stuff like a $100 gift certificate to Canvas On Demand. I bid on it but unfortunately lost out. I hope they made a ton of money and I hopefully do it again next year.

Trick or Treat!

Hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween. Don't tell Squirt, but we only went to one house to trick or treat. It was cold and we had ice cream waiting for us :) Next year we will hit a few more.

In other news, today was interesting. Our meter box blew up. We thought a couple of tree branches hit the house earlier this morning, noticed the power was out, and we just went back to sleep. Whoops. Xcel came out and went to give us our juice back and KAAAPOWWEEE went the meter box. The box did it's job and contained the mess. We had the fire department here (yes, station 2) checked everything out, and said it was fine. Right now we still don't have a meter up and running so our electricity is *free* baby! Our lesson of the day: we are definitely going to take noises like that a little more seriously when they happen instead of a couple hours later.









I felt a little embarrassed taking pictures but I really wanted to so I took this one from the window.