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