Today

Today was fun. These pictures, however, are from the other day because I didn't post any pictures of Ethne yesterday. (But actually more because no post should be without pictures.) So, here's Ethne in all her not-smiling, not-looking-at-the-camera-but-still-actually-very-cute glory.

This morning the kids got me up much earlier than usual, but that was good because I had to get ready and take the kids up to Purdue at 10:00 for a language study that Hazel was going to be in. It was pretty cool for me to go because it was in the same building, same department, same rooms as I went to school for the one semester I worked on a master's degree in Speech Path. It was weird walking through the hall again, but this time toting three kids with me---being on the other side, so to speak (though I did have Jethro when I went). I did not have any twinges of wishing I was still doing it, but it was fun to watch Hazel take some of the tests, etc. I got to watch her on a t.v. in a different room.

First they gave her a little hearing screen, and then they went through several language tests. They asked her to do things like pick the toy that you cook with out of a group, move the small pink pig behind the man, put two sheep into the field, put the biggest button under the cup, etc. She did well at that. Then they did other things like asking what the fireman was doing in the picture, what the dancer was doing. They didn't understand her when she said 'twirling.' They also did some repeating of strings of numbers, which she did not do so well at--at least not perfectly when their were lots of numbers. She also did not do well on irregular past tense, like 'caught' and 'ran.' They did a lot of other things but I didn't catch it all, having to corral Ethne much of the time. But anyway, they'll send me her test scores soon.

I was also a bit concerned (well, that's probably too strong of a word, I was just wondering) about her articulation. She can't say l's or r's, th's, k's or g's. So, the person running the study very kindly had one of the PhD speech path's come in and listen to her for a little while. Then she came in and talked about it with me, and she said actually for her age she's fine for almost all those sounds. The only one that should be resolved by age 4 (which Hazel will be next month) is the k/g. (For example, she'll say tat for cat). But she can say it isolation and in final position, so she said she wouldn't be too worried. You'd think I'd know all this, but I didn't remember just what the appropriate ages were for these sounds. Plus, I was comparing her with Jethro who has really great speech. Mainly though, it was just fun for me because I like this stuff. :) She gave me a little handout that she'd made with a bunch of different speech and language info for developing children. Just in case anyone is interested, here's the little breakdown for artic.



Speech Sound Acquistion
0-3 years: p, b, m, n, h, w, t, d
3-4: k, g, f, y
4-6: l, s*, z*, v, ch, sh, j
5-7: th and r
*--distorted productions of s and z may occur until 7 years of age.

So, Hazel had lots of fun--she got to play with a dress-up doll in between tests, and got stickers and a little prize at the end. Jethro had fun playing with dinosaur legos (although he was sad he didn't get a prize at the end), and I had fun remembering my days of studying speech path, and I got $8 for it. Woo.

Then we came home and got Jethro off to school, and went to the grocery store for a few things. We didn't get too much, just some diapers, shampoo, cereal, yogurt, etc. I don't usually pay attention to the total at the end, I just sign my name and grab the receipt and go, but today I looked at it, and was shocked to see that it came to $72. So I looked at the receipt and saw that there was $43 on there for 'cosmetics' and I didn't even buy ANY cosmetics. So anyway, I got my money back but it was so weird--we couldn't figure out how it came to be on my order. Strange. So, check your receipts everyone.

Then we came home and I made some puffed wheat squares and salad for dinner, and picked up Jethro, and then our friends Andrea and Elise came over and we drove to show them where the Botanical gardens were, and then went to Wildcat Creek to let the kids play. I think they had a splendid time, since they all got very wet and muddy/sandy. It rained yesterday and so the beach was now just a big muddy patch with big puddles--I'd never seen it that way. But like I said, they still had a great time tramping through the puddles and collecting shells. Ethne, unfortunately, had a small near-death experience when she kindof tripped as she was walking into a puddle, and her face went in. I quickly went over to her, but I was really expecting her to get her feet back under her and stand up, but she couldn't. I grabbed her out, and she was distressed for a minute or two, and held my hand after that. All in all, it was a good time.

We got home and Brett got after us for getting in the car so wet and sandy, but really--it's just sand. Anyway, sorry honey. I really was intending to take their clothes off but they were ahead of me and got in before I did. So they had baths as soon as they got home, and I started making potato pancakes for dinner. I was also cooking some bacon in the microwave to add to the salad (broccoli and purple grape and bacon salad IT IS SO DELICIOUS!!!), and I sliced my thumb, so I had Brett come in and band-aid it for me, and meanwhile the bacon burned to a crisp, which was really very sad.

Then after dinner Brett said he was going to a carwash, so we all went along and I started reading "The Littles to the Rescue" to the kids while we went. We finished "Little House on the Prairie" last night, and when I finished it, Jethro said, "I wish we could 'Little House on the Prairie' again." I told Brett that he said that, and he said, "Yeah, some books you're just sad when they end." And I said, "That's how my book is going to be," and he said, "You're book will be the kind where you're sad you read it." !!!!!! Needless to say, Brett is NOT going to be in the dedication. ;)

Now that you know every miniscule detail of my life today, you can get on with your own. :)