Long awaited update.

My apologies to my readers for not updating this blog on a regular basis. I had promised myself I would update more once we got a computer at home again. We did and 6 weeks later I am finally getting to an update.

The walk went great we had a total of over 25 walkers and raised over $700 dollars. While I would have loved to have broken the 1K mark I don't think it was too bad for a first time. We are going to be moving the walk to sometime in the spring or early summer.  We had a great article in the Laurel Outlook letting people know about the walk.
 http://www.laureloutlook.com/online_features/article_c5c13dea-0d73-11e2-8a12-0019bb2963f4.html

Stacia dressed up as Minnie Mouse for Harvest. Her Abba (Daddy) set up a button on her Dynavox that said Trick or Treat. She was so excited to finally be able to talk and insisted even at the businesses that told the kids to take one. It was fun watching the expressions on the older kids who were just grabbing without following the proper traditional saying. Stacia and Bridget made a haul. Stacia ate all of hers within the first week while Bridget still has some left.

The day of the walk we went as a family to see Bridget in The Secret Garden. Local Home School Students put on the production with the help of Missoula Children's Theater.

Stacia turned 5 the day after the walk and the play. Due to the busy weekend other than our traditional meal (this year it was lunch due to an awards ceremony for Bridget's Girl Scout troop) we waited till the next weekend to do any celebrating

Stacia went to with some of the other Mighty Mights, Girl Guards, and Royal Rangers to the Reef for the Reef and Sleepover. Since she is a Mighty Might she was not allowed to stay overnight though Bridget did. Stacia was so excited she didn't even let her daddy get changed before she was trying to unlock the door to the family dressing room.

Stacia was so proud of her pumpkin turkey. No photo yet as I forgot to take a photo. I will do my best to get one up soon. No promises though.

Stacia is starting to say lots of words both in her therapy sessions (private) and at home. She is even starting to at least functionally read the words and is continuing to work on her spelling. She can spell just about any 3 letter word you throw at her.

Please leave me some comments even if it's just a Hello that you are reading.

Tammy

2 Days Till Walk

Hey everyone just 2 days until I will be walking with my family along with a bunch of others in the first walk for Children with Apraxia of Speech in our area.

We have raised 335 dollars so far that has officially been turned in. Though we know we have more pledged that we will receive later.

If you get a chance can you go and make a general donation to our walk

apraxia-kids.org/billingswalk

Can't wait to see everyone who can make. Registration is at 10:30 and the walk is at 11 at New Life Assembly in Billings on Temple Place off Shiloh Rd.

Stacia and Her Family

Stacia and Good Night

Stacia like most children has a good night routine. The cutest thing in her routine is having to go to her window to say goodnight to everyone. We say good night to her aunts, uncle, and cousins who live right by us. We say good night to Oma and Papa. She says Oma and Papa. We say good night to Sally the bunny that we are fostering. She tries to say Sally. We say good night grass, we say good night moon. She says moon. We stay Good night Stars. We say Good Night people in the Cars. She tries to say Cars.

I promise as soon as I can I will get some more photos up of her as well as maybe some of the rest of us.

Tammy

Walk For Apraxia and Stacias reaction to the fair

Hey Everyone we are so excited we are ready to take registrations for the 1st walk ever for kids who have Apraxia of Speech in Montana and Northern Wyoming. Though if your from the western Dakotas, southern Wyoming, or anywhere else you are welcome to participate as well.

To see all the details please go to

apraxia-kids.org/billingswalk

Saturday morning Mama took me and Bridget down to the fair to catch the rabbit show.

I was not impressed with watching the show though seeing my friend Dixie from the Easter Egg Hunt was fun.

We walked over later to see the horse show that was fun especially getting to pet a horse.

I loved the strawberry ice cream Mama got me.

Mama tried to get me to eat some chicken and rice but I was having nothing to do with it. I did eat a Viking on a stick.

I liked going on the rides especially the bounce house and the slide.

Stacias Latest Skill

When we put door knob covers on the doors we didn't want Stacia opening and making a mess with like the bathroom, Bridget's room, closets, ect we jokingly said that Stacia would figure out how to use them before Bridget did.
Saturday night Larry put Stacia to bed as he often does on the rare nights he is home. The next thing we know she is out in the living room again so back to bed. This was repeated 3 times with both Larry and Bridget taking her to her room as I was busy sorting through some clothes of Bridgets and matching them into outfits.
Finally Mama had to put her to bed at which point she stayed. Sunday night as Larry was working I was the one to put her to bed and she didn't come out once.

I am thinking that a certain little girl is wanting mama and only mama to put her to bed.

So far she has not tried opening any rooms we don't want her going into.

Stacia went to the lake

Stacia along with big sister Bridget, Abba, and Grandma and Grandpa P went to Wild Bill Lake by Red Lodge last Saturday. She had a blast according to the reports. While she didn't fish she enjoyed playing near the lake while Abba, Grandpa, and Bridget fished. Bridget caught her first fish and was very excited about that.
When they got home Grandma P fried up the fish and the girls got to try some fresh trout. Stacia seemed to like it as long as her fingers didn't have to touch it. She was not at all interested in using a fork to eat and with the little bones in the fish that you have to watch for I was not going to force the issue.

Fishing

Stacia went fishing today along with Bridget, her daddy, and Grandpa and Grandma P. Will know more later.

Reunion, 4th and what else has been happening

Stacia seemed to have a good time at a family reunion for my side as long as she was near Mama, Abba, Oma, or Bridget and as long as there were not too many people around her. If she got too many people around her she decided to hightail it out of there. She did enjoy checking out the port-a-potty, but was not too impressed with sitting on the seat. She actually acted scared. Not that I blame her those seats are awlfully big for such little bottoms.
Stacia went and watched the parade in Laurel with Mama, Abba, and one of Larry's brothers. It was fun watching for Bridget and her cousin  in the parade along with other friends that we know. She enjoyed watching her Uncle and the people who's house we were in front of throw water ballons and spray a hose of water at people. After the parade we went over to Larry's brother and his wife's house for a while until time to head home so that Larry could go to work. Bridget went over to  my brother's houseto play with her cousin in the pool  for a while while Stacia enjoyed having Mama all to herself and getting to watch some of her favorite DVDs.
Stacia enjoyed a brat and some miracle gelatin salad for dinner and then later came out with to start watching the fireworks. She ended up not being able to watch all of them because she choose to be trying to flip over the deck railing and Mama was not too keen on that idea especially in the dark. She got taken inside and put to bed.
Last night Stacia had a nightmare about 4 am it took Larry and I until almost 5:30 to get her settled down enough to go back to sleep. We were going to just put her back to bed in just a pull up. Not flying with her she insisted on jammies. We were going to let her keep the 4 weebles and the weeble trike that was out. No Stacia insisted that things be put away. It's almost comical how she insists that at least her room be kept clean and nothing is out of place when she goes to bed.

Great Day at Therapy

While Stacia was in both speech and occupational therarpy today I decided to run a couple of errands. Ok it was just running over to the inlaws to pick up Bridget's sunglasses, watch, and doodle roll that she had left there last night and then stopping at Panda Express to get myself an egg roll and a water.

I got a great report on Stacia that she had sat nicely and worked on her work, she said, bus, push a couple of times, hi to people, and she said bye bye.

It's amazing how far she has come.

The really interesting thing is I had warned her therapists that she might not be too cooperative since she woke up crying at 5:30 this morning. Larry was still awake so he went in and checked her. She was soaking wet and not going to put up with it for one minute longer. Now if we can just get her to the point where she wants to stay dry all the time and get her convienced to start using the potty.

Tammy

Stacia's Latest Word Count

I was just going through the list of words that Stacia can say that we can understand her at least 75% of the time.
Milk
More
Fish (fish crackers)
Cookie
Push
Bye
Papa (Grandpa)
Aba (daddy)
Mama
Oma (grandma)
Popcorn
Ba  with short a sound(bath)
Ba with long a sound (sheep)
Pooh ( that lovable character Winnie the Pooh)
Me
Bebe (Baby)
Banana
Up
Ni (Night)

Hopefully we will see the list grow as she adds new words to her speaking vocabulary. She has just taken off in the last 6 months since getting her DynaVox.

She is starting to put some words together like Bye and names and she is working on saying Hi and we are working on her saying Nana without the Ba in front of it, but there is no conviencing her of it. Of course she drops a lot of the sounds in the words but at least those around her all the time can understand her words. Example Popcorn comes out like Pop k n and Cookie is Coo ke though it's hard to write what she sounds like.

We are in the process of planning a walk for Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech for our area. The date is Saturday October 6. More information will be coming soon. Stay tuned.

Tammy

6am and wide awake

Mama got woken with a start this morning. Stacia out of the blue started crying. It was 6 am. We don't know if she was crying because of a nightmare or the fact that she was wet. I attempted to let her cuddle in the chair with me in hopes that she would go back to sleep. HA HA you have got to be kidding. We played puzzles, memory, and uno on my phone, ate some of last night's homemade mac and cheese, watched some cartoons on tv, read a couple of books, and about 7:45 she wandered into Bridget's room and woke her up. That got another cry out in our house this morning. Bridget wanted Stacia out of her room and the door closed.

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Rough Times

Yesterday I had a chance to find out how Stacia did at camp during the week. She did not do well at all though she did go from hiding in cupboards and under tables to at least participating some as long as she had one on one attention.
She came home each day and was clingy to me (mama) especially though she would accept being right on top of daddy and older sister if I was not right there. She did not want to go to bed at night and would keep giving me kisses and hugs trying to get me to stay. She cried herself to sleep at night.
Last night was the complete opposite as she didn't have camp yesterday. She was able to play some by herself for her normal amount of time without having to have one of us with her and she indicated that she wanted to go to bed when I had lost track of the time. She even picked up some of her toys without having to be shown to pick up each one and put it away. She was pushing me (mama) out of the door and turned out the light. This is the behavior that is normal or at least closer to normal for her. What I saw Monday-Thursday nights was not.
The hardest thing looking back was her not being able to tell me how she was feeling about things and not being able to talk things out with her. The guilt over my thinking it was because she didn't get enough sleep as she is used to sleeping till about 10 am especially in the warmer months when she doesn't get to bed till later. She has never been one to go to bed with the sun still up even as a baby.
While the craft things she did were cute and she had a smile on her face when I dropped her off and when I picked her up each day I am not sure that we made the right choice to send her to camp this week.
We are looking at sending both her and her older sister to Princess Ballerina Dance Camp later this summer. Hopefully that will go much better though with that one I will be able to stay with her and she will have her sister there with her as well.

How Camp is going

Stacia has done 2 days of daycamp ok it's only 2.5 hours a day. She has 9 kids in her group and there are 40 kids total. She is finding the number of people so overwhelming. Her SLP has reported that she is getting nothing out of it. She has taken to hiding in the cupboards to get away from everyone. At least her SLP is realizing that it's because she is very much an introvert like her Daddy.
We are having to make the tough decision as to if we keep sending her for the rest of the week or if we keep her at home. After talking it over we have decided to keep sending her. I am going to let them know if she seems overwhelmed to please call me and I can come and get her since I do stay in town and can be there in 10 minutes from where I usually go and hang out.

Stacia is a Camper

Stacia has reached the milestone of being able to attend Day Camp. She is going to a language and socail interactions camp this week. The interesting thing is her speech and occupational therapy place has moved to a new building. This is the first week in the building so the kids are getting to see it before the parents.
The report today was she was well behaved but did not want to engage with the other campers. When we got home she laid on Larry's chest on the couch and we thought she was going to take a nap.
She fooled us. Hopefully I can get her to go to bed and asleep a bit earlier tonight. In order to make it to camp at 9 am we have to leave by 8:35 at the latest so it means she is having to be gotten up at 8 am. Considering with the light (ok sun not setting) till later I am lucky if I get her in bed by 9:30.

Pooh is a favorite.

We have started a new game. I show Stacia the bathtub water temp float toy and ask who's this and she goes P oo. She asks for her blanket Pooh at night. So the question is do I go out and buy her a big stuffed Pooh.

Next week will be a busy one for Miss Stacia. She has language camp for 2.5 hours every morning. It should be interesting as they are moving to a new building. Today was supposed to be her last day at the current building but she woke up not feeling well.

I am thinking this evening is going to involve some cuddling and listening to Signing Time Videos, Disney Videos, and of course Silverline on youtube. Those all bring a smile to her face.

Please leave me some comments.

Tammy

Attempting to say Fish

First of all to my readers sorry that the updates are not that frequent. My computer after being 12 years old has finally died so I am stuck using the library to make updates. I promise to try and post when I can.

Last week I had the chance to observe Stacia both JoAnna and Polly her private speech and occupational therapists. She was attempting so hard to say Fish.

Last Wednesday was a very busy day for her with attempting to learn to say Fish and getting a hold of my phone. She called 911. Unfortunantly I did not get the call back so a deputy came out and visited us.

Stacia's latest happenings

Stacia is starting to make more and more sounds and even starting to put some sounds together. She is putting Ah and B together so we are trying to get her to say ABBA which is the Hebrew word for Daddy. She can say PA PA but we need some way to keep Daddy and Grandpa straight.
Not being able to do a sound combination in reverse order is common with children like Stacia who have Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She can say PA but not AP as in Apple.
Stacia's latest things that she can do includes being able to open the fridge. She has finally figured out how to operate the child latch on the fridge. When she is not getting in the fridge she is busy getting in the washer including attempting to take a bath in the washer-with the lid open luckily. If it is not the fridge or the washer she is busy with any type of computer product. She enjoys trying to change things on the computer including moving the toolbar on mommy, playing with mommy's phone, and customizing her Dynavox Maestro. She has chosen a combination of pinks and purples for background colors.
Stacia has discovered a new way to let us know that she wants to eat. She goes and gets the foam letters from Bridget's room. The ones that are supposed to go in foam frames on the floor with a boarder so there is a soft place to play on the floor. She spells out E A T showing us each letter at a time and then placing them down. She is positioning them so they are read by her and in reversal for anyone not facing the same direction.
The school has problems with Stacia's fascination with letters and spelling even to the point of reporting that she refuses to do work unless it involves things like puzzles, blocks, or the alphabet. I see that she is gifted in different areas then Bridget. Stacia loves to spell and is very gifted in it, but seems to have absolutely no interest in getting anywhere near a container of finger paint. In fact she is repulsed by the idea of even touching that stuff. Stacia is my neat freak and my cleaner. She spills a small amount milk on the floor and she goes running to get a paper towel and clean up her mess. Stacia's toys must be put in their proper places each night and if something is not in place she will put it where it belongs.
We are still working on paying off the co pay amount of her Dynavox and recently were blessed by the ladies ministry at our church holding a bake sale for her to help raise some funds towards the costs of her device.

Shovel Faster Mommy

Coming home from delivering Girl Scout Cookies today with Bridget she needed to use the bathroom well before we were home. I pulled in at Wendy's and let her go in. Since I hate going into a place and just using the bathroom I bought myself a frosty float and the girls each a small frosty.
Stacia ate her entire frosty as soon as I got the plastic wrap off her spoon. I had to put the remainder of mine in the freezer when I got home so I could go down and work on getting more cookies ready to go for deliveries tomorrow.
When I got mine out again Stacia went straight to the silverware drawer and got out a spoon. She thought it was for her. I ended up sharing it with her and could not shovel fast enough for her. At times she was right in the middle of things blocking me from taking a bit of my treat myself.
Like I wrote yesterday she loves her ice cream.

I like water and ice cream

Around our house if you want to see Stacia get all excited just say the word Bath or start running water in the tub. Stacia gets all excited and comes running, she can not peel her clothes off fast enough to get in that tub. Her reaction to pools, and lakes has not been the same though she does love playing in her Papa's boat.

Last Friday we took the girls swimming at The Reef as part of an outing for Royal Rangers, Girl Guards, and Mighty Mites which also included having pizza and a sleepover for the older ones. Bridget did stay the night, but Stacia is still too young. When we got there the smaller slides for little kids was broken down, so I didn't know how Stacia was going to react. She happily played in the wave pool for almost 3 hours, smiling the entire time even when a wave knocked her down. She would occasionally get out and run around even finding life vests laying around which she kept trying to use as a hat. If there ever was a time I wished I had a waterproof camera this was it.
Big sister Bridget was finally tall enough to go in the tube slides that go outside the building and back in-she reported that it gets really dark when they do outside because there are no lights. Mom is taking her word on it because I am not going in one of those.
Due to it being so late we chose not to take Stacia back to the church for pizza since Bridget was able to get a ride with a friend who happens to have an extra child safety seat that fits Bridget. We did take her to Dairy Queen for some food-some chicken strips, applesauce, and a drink. We got her a mini blizzard for her treat but waited till we got home to eat it.
Ice cream that is one of her other loves, she could not get in her seat fast enough to enjoy her treat.
I am sure if you really wanted to make Stacia happy letting her soak in a nice bath with plenty of toys and giving her ice cream would do. I am thankful that she finds such pleasure in the simple things and that the little things bring such a smile to her face. Stacia is so undemanding for the most part. She loves to cuddle and will even indicate that she wants to crawl in my arms by tugging at me and saying be be be be which is her attempt at saying baby. She also says ma ma mum (mama or mom), baa baa (sheep), ba ba (bath), and occasionally banana or more correctly ba na na.

Updates from Stacia

I am really enjoying my Dynavox Maestro. I have even learned how to modify it myself. No my parents were not crazy enough to teach me that. I figured it out on my own. I like messing with settings on computers. I can move the tool bar around on the computer at home and have even learned how to make some of my mommy's favorite sites go really really small. Mommy is going batty with all my messing with the computers.

I am working on learning to use the potty, I can tell when I am wet I just need to figure out when I need to go. Mommy got me some new Happy Heiny's pocket trainers. They are so nice and soft on my bottom and come in really neat colors. It's nice being back in my fluff and the best part is no more having allergic reactions to the disposable training pants. Mommy says we will hang onto them for emergencies though since she was only able to get me 10 pairs-enough for 2-3 days between washes. Mommy was excited to get fluffy mail this afternoon. Once she showed them to me I proceeded to take off my pants and disposable training pants right in front of everyone.

We have a few temporary animals on our place. A family friend's cats are camping out in a camper trailer that was brought out. We are also fostering a couple of bunnies for the family while they go through a really tough time. My big sister Bridget is trying to show that she can be responsible for a temporary pet. She wants to convince Daddy that she needs to have a pet. Mom was already convinced before all this that we need a pet, but Daddy is not. 

Photo post from a few years ago Disney World

Stacia can spell and Saying Happy Birthday

Stacia's fastination with letters is paying off. She can spell. I did teacher how to spell Cat and then that Bat, Hat, ect rhymed. She figured out how to spell Blue and Clue  her Blue's Clues book, and then figured out how to spell Glue from that after all Blue, Clue, and Glue all rhyme so they must be spelled the same. She can spell Dog, and Toys. Her preschool teacher, she attends a small private school, told me this morning when I dropped her off that yesterday she spelled toys to ask if she could play with toys. On Saturday she had spelled toys as well at her aunt and uncle's house and then went to the toys.

Saturday while we were at her aunt and uncle's house for her uncle and cousin's birthday when everyone went to sing she looked so much like she wanted to be able to say Happy Birthday like everyone else.
I helped her type Happy Birthday into her dynavox and she carried it so proudly into the kitchen and pushed talk. Her very first time telling someone Happy Birthday.

Saying Mama and Daddy

Stacia can finally say Mama and Daddy. Well sort of, she can touch the button on her dynavox maestro that has our pictures. She can also say Bridget.

We finally got some training on how to program and customize her dynavox maestro. Next step is to get Miss Stacia to cooperate so we can put her picture in. She can now say my name is Stay sha instead of my name is Sta sha.

Stacia has started telling Bridget that it's my turn and that's my side. I never though I would smile to hear her argue.

Tammy

About Me by Stacia as told by mommy

I thought I would share a bit about me.

My favorite color is purple

 My favorite food is anything that doesn't eat me first though I am particularly fond of popcorn, ice cream, cookies especially oreos and thin mints, and cheese
 
My favorite thing to do is take a bath. I always come running if someone says bath time or turns on the water. I also like to blow bubbles, swing,  go down the slide and jump on the couch cushions placed on the floor. Mommy really needs a mini trampoline with a handle for me. Anybody have one they can send to her-she would be very grateful.

My favorite TV show is Signing Time

Leave me some comments please

Stacia