friday on the go

JD and I had a busy day! First up, this little man had a big sleep in till 8.30am, which was nice for me! I was able to catch up with a few things around the house, watched the morning news while having poached eggs on toast. Having a cooked breakfast is a rare thing, but felt wonderfully well when I was able to do so.

Then we were off to Gymbaroo and this is the 1st day of the term. Thinking back, I can't believe JD has been going to Gymbaroo since he was 3 months old! He could hardly lie on his tummy, lift his head when he started at 3 months old. Then, he started to sit up, and then started to crawl around the equipment when he was 7 months old. Then we progressed into the walking class...and now that he is 2, the teacher is keen to move him into the 2.5-3 yo class. I marvelled at his growth, at how independent he has become. He used to sit on my lap, let me bounced him around, clap his hands, rolled him onto his tummy and etc etc. Today, he told me "No, I sit down". And he moved aside, and sat on the mat by my side. For that whole time, he watched his teacher attentively, followed every single action she does, clapping his hands, rolling his arms, tickling his own feet, jumping, bouncing, wiggling, hopping...and I sit back and enjoyed the moment.

After Gymbaroo, we came home for a quick lunch and then we were off again...this time to my chiro treatment. JD has become very used to seeing me on the chiro bench, seeing how I get my spine adjusted and etc. I am glad the Dr.R's office is such a child friendly place, coz at times JD can make a fair bit of noise while waiting for me.

Then it was home for a nap, and I did the same myself. I really needed it.

After nap, we were off to another appointment with JD's speech pathologist. Well, you see, I was a bit concerned with JD not stringing 2 words together when he was about 20 months old. To rule out any concerns, I decided to get a second opinion from a speech pathologist. The first time she met him, JD was in a crabby mood. He didn't want to be there at all, and was crying and fussing the whole time. For a 45 mins session, it was over in 5 mins! That was fair, coz she didn't want him to have a bad memory of the place. Second time there, JD was a bit better coz he spotted a cat! So, she knew he likes the cat, Smokey, and brought him into the practice. JD said nothing during that session, except giving smokey a nice long stroke. Third time we were there, JD started to string words together, though not spontaneously. Her conclusion was JD is a perfectly normal kid, with little or no speech delay...but just have more interest in other stuff like playing with cars, playing with blocks, running, jumping etc etc. Today our fourth visit, JD started off shy, but he remember the cat. So, he went looking for the cat and she brought him in from the garden. JD loves cat, and he just wanted to stroke the cat, gave him cuddles and going up to Smokey and said "Hello". As she talked to him, he started to warm up and in a split second, he went from a shy kid in the doctor's room to the sociable happy little boy I see all the time. He started to do role play, cutting up pieces of strawberries, pear, pizza, making cup of tea and giving it to her. He was talking as if he is at home, and we even hear him stringing 3 words together. At the end of the session, she said JD dind't need to go back and see her again as he will just grow and grow in his lamguage from here onwards.

But what is so different that has taken place in the last few months? The speech pathologist gave me a few ideas in improving his vocabs and language. As mums, we are very prone to asking "What is that?" "Who is that?" "Can you say?" "Where is that"...and quite often very questions driven and expecting the child to give an answer. But if we rephrase the question to "Oh, what is big red and juicy?" "Ah, is it an apple?" "Oh yes it is." So, in that conversation alone, the child has learned about "big, red, juicy, apple". I had to constantly remind myself to rephrase my questions and making sure I am helping to develop his language, vocabs, verbs, nouns, expressions in our daily conversations.

When we read our stories at night, we try to go into lots of elaborations! Like "Oh, that's a farmer" "And look at him" "He is wearing a hat" "And he is farming".... So, did that work? I think it did. Recently, JD started to repeat a lot of the words, sentences he has been hearing. And last week while playing at the park, JD was saying "Look at me" "I swing". So, 4 months on, he has progressed a fair bit. And while he may not have a real difficulty to start with, I am glad to have learned a few things about speech and language development.

After that, we were off to the weekly groceries expedition. But honestly, we were both starving coz we had been on the go all day. And while this may not be entirely healthy, JD and I ended up going to Mccca's for a quick bite. Nevermind, we will work it off later on, hee hee!

Going groceries shopping with a 2yo is a bit of a trial and error sometimes. Some days he will be angel, some days he will be wanting to jump off from the shopping trolley. Today, he is an angel, hallelujah! And at this age, he can tell me what he wants, strawberries, melons, apple, orange, yohurts, cheese and we stayed away from the bikies and snacks aisle.

After that, it was home bound again and time to get the dinner ready. Hub went shopping after work coz I told him there was a gas leak on the freeway and it was bumper to bumper traffic. That gave me a bit more time to make a quick beef curry and finally, 3 of us sat down for dinner together for the first time in 2 weeks. That was really nice!

And while you thought your day wasn't going to get any busier, we had a sudden burst of energy to finish most of the skirting boards in the house.

I was knackered by 11pm.....off to bed mate!

BTW, my Fridays are not usually that jam packed with activities. It is normally quite relax and easy going.