Ty Update

Ty had his first field trip...the day after JJ had his first Kindergarten field trip. I will admit that after JJ's walking field trip the park for a picnic and playtime plus the visit to the firehouse I was pooped. I wasn't sure how I would go the next day but then I remembered I would be focused on only one child and it was fun!

Last year I left Ty with my mom so that I could focus on JJ with some one-on-one time. This year JJ was in school so I got that time with Ty and his preschool friends. (and even saw a few friends from our church, too!) Ty and I are having some good quality time this year. He is my little buddy and he will often come to me with a request to "cuddle me." Can't pass that opportunity up!

My little guy is having fun during his first preschool experience. The first two days away from me he cried for a few minutes. Then, the petting zoo came- that morning he did great. From then on I am greeted during pick-up with "I no cry today, Mommy!" He's so proud of himself. I'm proud of him! He is trying to take on the big boy role but it doesn't always come natural for my cuddly, youngest of the family. He is still connected with a diaper. While it annoys me, I'm just going with it. He's pretty easy other than that and is actually terrified of the potty going into the toilet. Weird. JJ did the same thing but he was potty trained at three. He'll get there.

Last week we were told he will be getting speech lessons. They will call me in the next month to get it started. I can't tell you how excited I am. Excited? Yes. I know some people think it means there's something wrong. Some people think they'll learn to correct it. However, Ty has A LOT to say and when you can't even understand as his parent- it's frustrating. I knew it was getting bad when we would ask JJ to translate and he would guess, too.

We had his hearing checked and all but one were normal. The other was very slightly below normal. Something we can go back and have reevaluated but they think it's fine. He did well during this test. He did everything they said with ear buds in his ears.

We did the speech test. They had him saying words. My heart sunk. I suddenly understood what he was saying. At the end of the test the lady looked at me. I think she could see my concern. Her words, "Don't worry, Mom. He definitely qualifies for speech." Out of 77 sounds he got 63...wrong. (or just dropped a part of a word in the front, middle or end.) In fact, he qualifies for one of the "highest" forms of speech. I am relieved. I will understand him. Others will understand him. There won't be frustration. (though he doesn't show much right now. She was actually shocked at this and said she was surprised he hadn't slowed down his speech.)

This picture is just cute to the mommy- he was pooped after all of his evaluations...not even a camera was waking the boy up!

He is talking from the back of his mouth, instead of the middle. Most kids who need speech talk from the front of their mouth. She said that his, while uncommon, is the easier to correct. It also causes them to add "g" in words. For example, out of Ty's mouth a "banana" is a "bananga." I can't even begin to tell you what "Thomas" or "Transformers" is. It is the same every time, but sounds nothing like the actual words.

Other than that he's doing great! He scored well on his Dial-3 evaluation. (pretty much a skills test for three year olds that they had to have him do to see how he was doing overall for the state/district. From there they were able to send him on to the speech/hearing evaluation.)

As I used to say on our old blog- this may not be great reading, but these are my baby journals. I often look back at those and remember these times so I'm trying to get better about getting some more on the blogs. :)