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