Reviving the blog

I knew it had been a long time since I had shared anything on this blog but I didn't realize that it had been over 10 months. If any of my readers are still out there I will try my best to start posting again on a regular basis. Since I don't have anything thought out I thought I would do some Throwback Tuesday Photos

Mama gets a tooth pulled -Stacia's reaction

Stacia wasn't sure what to think today. I had a tooth pulled that should have been done over 20 years ago when I had my wisdom teeth removed. Not because it has been infected for that long but because it doesn't have a friend to meet up with so it was basically useless. About a month ago it started bothering me so I went in and had it checked out. It needed to come out but since Stacia's Abba had to work that night and I was under orders to take it easy afterwards including no lifting and no chasing Stacia to keep her out of trouble we had to wait till today which was the first opening they had on a day that I could have help that they had available.

First there was the fact that mama did not drive home that confused Stacia. I do almost all the driving when we are together not because I don't trust my husband-I don't work the 10-12 hour shifts 5-6 days a week that he does so I am more alert to be driving. Plus my 2 years of driving school pick up routes in the van for the Y and additional years of driving for other childcare field trips I am much more comfortable with keeping an eye on children and the road while driving.

Than we got home and Stacia got told that she could not climb all over me and I ended up even sleeping for a while once I took an over the counter pain medication and could rest. My tooth or where it was didn't bother me but my jaw sure was hurting.

Than big sister Bridget was dropped off early this afternoon at one of her Girl Scout Leader's home for a barbecue and backyard campout.  Stacia is very used to having her sister to entertain her and was just lost this afternoon and evening. I am expecting that she is going to be excited tomorrow morning when we bring Bridget home. While Stacia may like to push Bridget down and sit on her at times I firmly believe that Stacia sees Bridget as her protector and best friend. Bridget is very much Stacia's protector and advocate easily navigating the child play areas with other kids in ways that I as an adult can not do. Bridget can more easily navigate the other children because she is one of them.

Tammy

Sleep is so overrated

It is almost 1:30 in the morning and Stacia has decided that we are not going to sleep. Right now she is laying on the floor by my desk as I type this entry watching Micky Mouse Club House on Youtube in Spanish I believe. I am hoping that I know my foreign languages enough. She seems content about it though.
Earlier tonight we met up with my friend V and did some shopping at Walmart. Stacia was not content with shopping and not because mom kept telling her no. First was having to wait around in the card department while we found cards for Father's Day, than we weren't allowed to look at the toys as long as we wanted and Mom wouldn't buy her the Minnie Toy she wanted-though I did tell her she learns to use the potty I would buy it for her. They had no shoes in her size and she especially liked the Minnie Mouse ones.
To top it off today we had repeated Severe Thunderstorms in the area with sustained 50-60 mph winds and hail raising from dime size to golf ball sized. We had to keep the weather alerts on in case we ended up with a tornado. We didn't get one in our county but a few of the neighboring counties did. From what I have been able to find out it either didn't touch down or the only damage it did was to some fields and fencing.
Tomorrow I have major dental work-at least one tooth being pulled and not sure what else. I do know I am under orders to be able to come home and rest for several hours afterwards. My appointment is at 10 so that means even with it being close we have to leave the house by 9:30 so we have to be up by 8:45 at the latest.
I don't think someone plans to go to bed anytime soon.

Tammy

Apraxia Walk Coming Soon and Stacia's happenings

Hi everyone sorry for not having a post in such a long time. We have been busy getting things ready for the Montana and Northern Wyoming Walk for Children with Apraxia of Speech coming up tomorrow in Billings, MT. It will be held at Faith Chapel with registration starting at 10:15 am and the walk starting at 11:00 am.

We have some great items for the silent auction including a fragrance gift basket from Dillards, Tempurepedic pillows from Mattress King, and a tool kit from Napa. We will be serving Chilli and Cornbread along with some other items after the walk.

While the walk registration for online is closed those who are in the area or who can get here can register at the walk. For those who want to support the walk but who are unable to come please consider making a donation to the walk or to someone who is walking tomorrow.  secure.apraxia-kids.org/billingswalk

Stacia and her family are on team Stacia's Stride n Strollers

So far we have had 240 dollars come in from the registrations and general donations for the walk. For the 2012 walk we raised over $700 dollars and we have a goal of raising $1000 dollars this year by November 30th which is when all the walks across the country have to have their final amounts into CASANA

Stacia had a great week at Language Camp this year with Bridget getting to attend as a sibling as well. They were in different groups so didn't see each other much. Stacia was able to calm herself the few times she was upset and only had one day she pulled the lay on the floor and be tired routine. That was because she got squirted in the eye with water from another kid though she did go get her dynavox and tell the kid you hurt me a few times first. She just needed to rest a bit till her eye felt better. Now if we could just get her to realize that just because we can open the doors that have the knob covers on doesn't mean that we should and than drag all the games and stuff out.

Tammy

What does Stacia need tonight

For some reason Stacia seems to be having a hard time getting to sleep tonight. Since it's looking like her Abba is going to be working overtime it could be another 3 hours before I get to get some sleep.

I thought I would compose a list of some of Stacia's favorite things to do

Take a bath though I will say she comes by it naturally. I have lost track of how many times her Abba has come home to find her Mama asleep in the tub.

Watch Signing Time she makes all the signs along with the show and loves to show off her signing skills. Some days though she doesn't exactly listen when I tell her to stop what she is doing (usually running around) and sit down.

Play with her Minnie Mouse toys. She has a number of them that have outfits that are plastic and just pop on and off. A nice alternative to paper dolls. I wish they had these when I was little.

Climb up into the cupboards or the top of the fridge in search of something better than what she has been served.

Finish the last of the milk that I was saving for breakfast

Make sure that a package of cheese that has been opened and some saved for later use does not stay that way.

Explore in Bridget's room because everyone knows older sibling(s) room(s) are always the most interesting and way more fun than our own

Rearrange the icons and the task bar on the computer. She figured this one out on her own without having been taught.

Take all sorts of interesting photos with her DynaVox, my cell phone, my camera. The last two usually without permission to use.

Decide that we need to kiss every single on of her friends good night before she can go to bed.

Coming up with more and interesting ways to annoy Bridget though usually this accomplished by going in and destroying her room.

Playing with her Little People

Pulling all the vhs tapes out of the entertainment center so that she can use the spot for a hide out

Rearranging the furniture to make a fort.

Practice her hand writing usually on the walls which gets her in trouble

Play peak a boo

Well it's time to see if Stacia will at least settle down to watch a show on either hulu or youtube with me so maybe we can at least rest until her Abba gets home.

Tammy

1054 Days

That's how long it has been since we got the official word that Yes Stacia has Childhood Apraxia of Speech. 1054 Days of officially being on the journey of raising a child with apraxia. 1054 days ago Stacia was just over 32.5 months old having the expressive language skills of a 5 month old. For those who want to know that means she had an 85% gap between her receptive (what she understood) language and her expressive language (what she could say). In the past 1054 days Stacia is now 66 months old and has the language skills of a 24 month old. She still has a 64% delay.

Today May 14, 2014 for the 1st ever Apraxia Awareness Day we celebrate Stacia and her 21% increase in her expressive language. I might note here that when Stacia uses her Dynavox or Signing that her receptive and expressive language are on the same level. I am referring to her being able to use her voice.

It's been 1054 days of fighting for Stacia. Fighting not only to get her the services she needs but fighting people who inform me that she does not have apraxia but that she has autism. Sad to say this fight does include some family members.

Yes there are children who have Apraxia and Autism, just like there are kids who have Down Syndrome and Apraxia.

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-the-Difference-Between-Apraxia-and-Autism?&id=1154729

To me this is the big difference " ...in the case of verbal apraxia, if you play with your child and don't demand speech from him or her, you may find that they begin playing actively and engaging others in their play." or this regarding social interaction  "... in the case of motor apraxia, this is normally because they are not always capable of performing the physical movements that allows them access to others. However, motor apraxia won't usually make a child want to avoid social interaction altogether, such as failing to make eye contact, or specifically moving away from other people."

Stacia moves towards other kids and will try and interact with them. Sometimes she is not always successful especially when she can't make herself understood. She does move away from others at times when they make her feel uncomfortable or are making fun of her.

Today is the first ever Apraxia Awareness Day

Stacia more interested in checking out a different view from her play house

Stacia wanting to see the words written on her sign

Successful and Happy Stacia reads the words on her sign

For those who are wondering what the sign says it reads

I AM A CHILD

WITH APRAXIA

BUT

APRAXIA DOES NOT DEFINE ME

Determined Courageous Brave Great Speller
Chocolate Lover-hand it over and no one gets hurt
Loves Pooh and Friends Loves to Swing Loves Peanut Butter
Loves Ice Cream Loves Minnie Mouse

Tammy

Apraxia Awareness Day tomorrow.

I am excited to be celebrating Apraxia Awareness Day tomorrow My mama has been busy printing out Apraxia Awareness business cards and handing them out along with ribbons for people to wear to show support not only to me but all my friends with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She has also been busy with preparations for the 2nd Montana and Northern Wyoming Walk for Children with Apaxia of Speech coming up June 8 in Billings.
Why don't you join us or make a donation to the walk secure.apraxia-kids.org/billingswalk For the 2012 walk we had 25 walkers and raised 516.38 and I would like to see us raise even more this year. The money goes to research to help kids like me because they don't know a lot about what even causes apraxia in some cases including mine.
 I can say a lot more words now and have become a regular chatter box making all sorts of sounds. Most of the time Mama lets me talk except when I get too loud. I like to get my big sister, Bridget's sound cards for spelling out and practice saying all the sounds that I can. I still don't like to say d, or t though I did slip the other day and said button in front of both Mama and Abba. I have not said it since which Mama says from what she has learned that is not uncommon for kids like me to be able to say a word when we are paying attention to something else and not be able to say the word when we are asked to later.
Well it's time to get ready for bed as my room is finally picked up. Oh and I had a great time today getting to go to my sister's German class picnic I really liked the curry wurst and spatzee which is an orange flavored cola. I kept asking for more but Mama said I couldn't have as much as I wanted.
Please leave me and my Mama some comments below even just to say hi.
Love,
Stacia with help from her Mama Tammy

Stacia is communicating

While we are not giving up on Stacia being able to talk our goal has always been communication. I have always said I don't care if Stacia uses ASL, uses PECS, Uses her AAC, or if she talks I just want her to communicate.

Tonight we had the normal get ready for bed routine though she did communicate that she wanted a bath by taking off just about all her clothes. Her shirt was a little tight in the neck so she needed some help there. If that hadn't been the case it would have been off. After she was almost naked she proceeded to sit in the tub and wait just looking at me. The look that said, "Come on Mama get a clue already I want a bath."

After her bath and she was all ready to be tucked into bed she voiced Puz which means Puzzles. I have a set of puzzles for kids on my phone that I allow her to play. Ones that are way too easy for her now so I need some other ones to down load the app too. Any of my readers have any suggestions please comment below. I decided to try and find a few for on the lap top. One of Stacia's IEP goals for Occupational Therapy is to be able to operate a computer mouse. What better way to motivate her than with a puzzle she loves. I found a few and we had fun doing them together.

Stacia used her AAC tonight to tell her sister and me good night, to ask for hugs, to ask for kisses. She even used it to tell me that she was scared of the dark and could the light be left on.

Now if I could only get her to ask for the milk instead of trying to be Miss Independent and trying to get it herself. All right I would settle for her just asking to have the milk as I want to encourage her to do things independently as much as possible. Just as long as I don't need the last of the jug for something and that she doesn't try to pour a full gallon and spill.

I am very pleased and extremely happy with Stacia's strong attempts to communicate with me and her sister earlier this evening.  Here's praying that I can be reporting more and more of her strides in communication in the very near future.

Stacia's attempts at words

Last night, well actually early this morning Stacia woke up in need of a seat cover change. In case anyone was wondering she is not potty trained though she is working on it. For Stacia getting up and going back to bed involves doing at least part of the bedtime routine all over again.
Early this morning she insisted on doing the good nights at the window. Since it had snowed just a little between her going to bed and her waking up in the night we added saying good night to the snow. Stacia attempted to say Snow though it came out all broken. I will try and get an updated list of words that she is able to say, but will let everyone know this much. Her list has grown.

Stacia's adventures lately

As I write this Stacia is just about crashed out on the living room floor. It's only 7:45 and she does not go to bed until between 8:30 and 9.  Of course she has been a very busy girl lately. Last night she spilled milk on the floor-2 individual bottles full of milk right in front of the fridge. Thankfully she didn't spill the full gallon. Today her activities included painting where she wasn't supposed to paint. On the wall and Bridget's derby car.
Bridget had left the paint out so that when one layer was dry she could do another layer on some of the detailing she is doing on her car. Bridget and I have been working on getting the wrong color paint sanded off her car with a hand sander. At least now it's back to smooth. After Stacia goes to bed. Actually in her bed not on the floor tonight Bridget and I are going to work on repainting her base color and the other colors as well.
The girls both have 10 days to get their cars completed and we have to repaint Bridget's and get her wheels and axels done. Stacia's car is still needing some detail carving done. She pointed to a picture of what she wanted and Larry helped her draw it out and than he cut out her car. As he did with Bridget's as well. For safety reasons the kids can not use the power tools. Once Larry gets the detail carving done on Stacia's car than we still have to sand and paint and get her wheels done. We also have to get weights in both cars after we get stuff done so that they don't weight more than 5 oz.
The girls will race at the local race on February 24 and than onto state if they place high enough which we are confident that at least 1 of them will place at the local race.
We will drive to Helena on March 1 and come home on March 2 staying overnight in a motel there. I have been pricing out motels using my AAA membership. We do have to option of staying at the church where the race will be held and sleeping on the floor for $5 each that night. I just don't see me being able to get up off the floor in the morning and Stacia is not going to handle staying in a room with a bunch of strangers. Staying in a motel is going to be hard enough for her as she does not do well staying any where but in her own bed in her own room.

Stacia update.

As I write this Stacia is laying on the couch not feeling well. My first clue that she was coming down with something was she wanted to go to bed at 8 pm last night.  First let me backtrack a little bit.
About 7:30 she was in need of a seat cover change as her grandma P likes to call it. I changed her and went into the bathroom to rinse things out. Stacia followed me and proceeded to indicate that she wanted a bath. She got done with her bath and while Bridget was helping her dry off while I was starting to drain the water and wipe up the water off the floor Stacia signed bed. By the time we got her vitamins that she takes at bedtime and did her good nights to everyone standing at her bedroom window it was close to 8:30.

She slept until almost 11 this morning. Stacia has spent most of the day cuddled on the couch with Larry. Though she did get up long enough to try and go potty once and to have a blueberry muffin. She has been drinking water and some rubyred tangerine juice (grapefruit and tangerine) so that at least is something.

In other Stacia news

Stacia can read Though she does it unconventionally. I write words like banana apple orange peach dog cat horse truck duck train hat and book on a dry erase board in no particular order.I have her point to different words as I say them.

She is attempting to sound out words at least those with sounds she can say. She does it quite literally
nose is n sound short o sound s sound short e sound. There is no convincing Stacia that vowels have any sound other than the short sound.

She loves doing her school work here at home provided it's her idea. We are working on her doing work when it is not her idea. Though right now she particularly loves to do the same thing as Bridget particularly spelling. We don't have her do the writing though she just listens in. Often times later when I ask Bridget to write out a random spelling word Stacia will write it out as well on a dry erase board. Stacia loves writing on the dry erase board as well as her little chalk board.

The other day I tried a new homemade noodle recipe. This one had butter in it and was more like a noodle you would use for tuna noodle casserole than a spaghetti type noodle. Every time I turned around Stacia was trying to sneak some noodles before they were even cooked. She ate lots of noodles for dinner that night but was absolutely not interested in the sauce other than what she could not get off the noodles she enjoyed.

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