Is My Scooter Broken?

So I ask the question: is my Scooter broken? My hubby thinks so.

No, we don't technically own a scooter, motorized or other but we do have a Scooter. Or at least that is the nickname he has acquired. But why do I ask if he is broken? Well, since he turned two a few months back I began to realize that he is not talking. Some would say that isn't too much to be concerned about but then I tell them that he did have 5 words that he spoke rather clearly for a 18 mo old at one time. Then one month after his 18 month milestone he became a big brother. And from some point after that until his 2 yr well check did I realize that he went from 5 words to no words. Still, most would say that might be an appropriate reaction to the birth of a younger sibling. And that is where I agreed. Our Scooter was still the most fun loving, energetic, busy 2 year old boy. Always doing something to make us smile. And having no real problem communicating what he wanted, just non-verbally. Well, I can't say it was NON-verbal, he definitely likes to use his voice, just doesn't put the right sounds together to make recognizable words.

So after a couple sick appointments for common colds with my two little ones, I finally brought it up again to our pediatrician. (I had been told about a program at his 2 yr check up but choose the 'wait & see' approach) Her suggestion was to go ahead and contact Babies Can't Wait, "It can't hurt, it can only help" were her words. This was back before Christmas, and my thought was I would go ahead and start the process, by the time the whole things actually gets to the therapy starting I'm sure he will be talking a mile a minute. Because this whole time my thought was, "He will talk, just on his own time table." Well, here we are just over 2 months later and day one of speech therapy and still no real progress. (I will have to say that I was impressed with the timely manner the entire process has taken from contacting the agency to getting the therapy started.)

But to go back to my original questions, "Is my Scooter broken?" Well, from the evaluation, we are told he has a speech disorder. Not just a speech delay, but a disorder. I am pretty sure that is due to the fact that he has a very high cognitive understanding of the spoken language but just can not formulate the words himself. Well, after hearing that our son has a disorder, my husband has mentioned that he thinks Scooter is broken. Now this is not to be taken wrong. My husband is a very loving father and might even say Scooter is his favorite if he could. I just think that it breaks his heart to watch his son play, wrestle and having a fun loving time and know he has a 'disorder' too. We have always felt so blessed that we were given three healthy childern. So now knowing that there is something wrong, even just for the time being, breaks our hearts. I truely believe that the speech therapy is going to help and will expedite his verbal skills to bring him back to his peers, but the question will always be in the back of my mind, "Is My Scooter Broken?"

A morning at Centennial Olympic Park

I haven't posted in a long while (obviously!) but thought today I would let you see what fun we had this morning at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. It was a perfect morning to be down there. Not too sunny, actually very overcast, and a pleasant 80ish degrees outside. We headed down in the morning because the forecast was for rain all afternoon. We had never taken the boys down to Centennial Olympic Park before but after our visit to Chattanooga last weekend and seeing how much fun our boys had in the running stream in front of the Aquarium and wanting to play in the foundation at Coolidge Park we figured they would have a blast in the fountain at Centennial Park as well. So here is a quick video from our morning. Hope you all enjoy.

YouTube Video

Great Mother's Day Giveaway

You have to check out the awesome Mother's Day Giveaway 

sponsored by The Cloth Diaper Whisperers blog.  If you are a cloth diaper user, ever wanted to try out cloth diapers, or maybe have a friend that is or would like to use cloth diapers you should throw your name in the hat.  Or better yet, throw in your name for me :)  I am officially two weeks from delivery of #3 and would love to try out all the different diapers in this great giveaway, there is not one item in the giveaway that I currently own.  So since I only have one official follower of my blog, Mina please pass this along to all your blogger friends and followers.

One of those days

So I do think about my blog quite a bit but that doesn't help me actually post anything on it.  From my last post I was going to make multiple post for the month of February.  Well, now that it is past the midway point in March we can all see that my great Cloth Campaign didn't quit pan out like I had hoped.  I still want to post about Cloth and my experiences with it but that will have to wait for another day.

As for today, it is a typical Friday.  Friday's are not my best "Mommy" days by far.  I have everyone at home with me and that is just one too many for me right now.  So I am having funny thoughts on how 8 weeks from now I will handle everyone being home for the entire summer and adding a new addition to the family.  I guess I can say, Thank Heavens for Summer Camps!

So right now, a post a month seems to be my record.  Hopefully it will get better but I can honestly say that over the next few months, I will be lucky to try to post more than I do now.

Change to Cloth Campaign

Cloth, what does it mean to you?

To me, it means soft, fun, lovable, affordable, eco-friendly and so much more.

For the month of February, I am going to post about cloth.  What specifically about cloth you might be asking, well cloth diapering mainly.  I am in love with cloth diapering and have lots to say about it (I think).  I definitely love to answer questions about my diapering choice but haven't really openly talked about it without being prompted.  Most of my friends know that I have been cloth diapering since B was born but I have never really told my story to anyone.

As you can tell, by the number of posts that I have, I am very new to this blog world but have gotten very addicted to reading blogs, especially The Cloth Diaper Whisperer blog.  They have weekly give aways (see the link to the left) and very interesting posts daily about the world of cloth diapering.  I think the blog has turned me into a cloth diapering addict.  I have definitely bought more diapers in the past three months than I did in the first three years of cloth diapering.  More on that later.

So please stay tuned for more on my experiences and love of cloth.  You never know, you might just think about making a change for yourself or know someone that might want to make the change.

Welcome to Motherhood

So you think when a new baby enters your life you get welcomed into Motherhood, you do but here is another way I felt welcomed into Motherhood recently.  

It was midnight, after hubby and I had been out for the night, that I wake up to B crying.  I figure he woke up and maybe had an accident.  Those things upset him for reasons I still don't know.  I head to his room where he is standing close to the the door and as I step in to check to see if he is wet, I step right into a mushy puddle in front of him.  Oh boy, after 4 years of life, sweet B had never thrown up and had no idea what was happening to him.  I quickly clean up the mess, get him to the bathroom and hold his head while he proceeds to get sick again, in the toilet this time.  Then I do as my mom did, I put him to bed, get the bucket and a damp cloth out for him and tell him it will be okay and try to rest.  I crawl back in bed and 20 minutes later I hear him again.  Run to his room, help him with the bucket and settle him back down, then go back to bed.  This routine goes on for a few hours before I realize I am better off staying in his room at the end of his bed and helping him when needed until morning.  And trying to get some rest myself squeezed into a twin bed with my 4 1/2 year old.

Motherhood that night took on a whole new meaning to me.  I did count my blessing that B had never gotten that sick in his first 4 yrs and that he is at an age now that he can somewhat understand what being sick is.  I can't imagine what it would be like for a 2 or 3 yrs to be that sick but I am sure I will have a story about J long before he reaches 4 1/2.  I don't think I could be that lucky again.

What's Zumba all about?

Have you heard of it?  It's all the new fad in exercise right now.  Zumba!

Our family joined the YMCA this summer and as I looked over the list of different group classes, I came across Zumba.  What's that?  Not heard of that one.  Let me preference this with the fact that I have not been a member of a gym in a very long time, actually have I ever, I'll have to think about that one.  I, along with my husband, are very outdoorsy people, and would prefer to exercise outside than be couped up in a facility somewhere.  Well, that's for another post.  Back to Zumba.

I've heard of aerobics, step, yoga, pilates but Zumba throw me for a loop.  Well, after attending some spin classes (which I thought I would never like either) I started asking around about Zumba.  Everyone had the same comment, "It's so much fun and you will get addicted once you start going"  I never really got an answer to what it was but it was suppose to be fun.  Well, here is the description from our YMCA

 

"ZUMBA: New and exciting class.  Heart pounding cardio Latin dancing combining the basics of Salsa, Cha-Cha, Meringue & Samba, to get your heart rate up burn calories and tone your muscles"

So here it is five months after joining the Y and I finally get the nerve up to give it a try.  I had always meant to take a class, but excuses just got in the way.  I hadn't been using our membership as often as I needed to be so I decided last week to give it a shot.  Zumba here I come!  Now let me say, I am not a great dancer by any stretch of the imagination.  I could always handle a step class but when it came to an aerobics class, I was ALWAYS on the wrong foot.  Now remember from the description, this is a Latin Dancing form of exercise.  Last Friday, I show up and luckily I wasn't the only new person in the class, but the instructor says there are a lot of repetitious steps so she won't be going over them now.  Basically, you are on your own, but in a nice way.  I take a glance around the room, there are all types in here, some are very intimidating but other I think I could probably hang with.  The music starts and we start shaking everything.  As long as I concentrated on the instructor and not the crazy ones in front of the class and definitely not the mirrors all around me, I was able to keep up with most moves.  I made it through my first class and can say I worked up a sweat, got my heart rate to a reasonable rate and had fun.  I even went back for a second class today.

So, if you have a Zumba class at your gym and haven't tried it, I highly suggest it.  But remember, don't look at yourself in the mirror, you will think you look foolish jiggling your body all around.  Just have fun and it really doesn't feel like exercise at all.