Ra!ha turns 13 - Yikes!

We celebrated a week late since Rich and Luke were in NY the weekend of September 6th. Raha elected to invite his friend Anthony to go to Kart Kountry in Shepardsville, KY. The big boys spent most of the time flying around on the go karts, while we entertained the little ones with bumper boats, bubbles, and miniature golf.

Power, compost, and shoes

We have power!!!!!

Luke on making compost:

“To make pop tarts into soil you have to use a proper bin outside. It has to be outside because it would stink inside the house. You have to leave it and check on it every week. It turns into soil. Raisins, leaves, and other food turn into soil, but not mayonnaise ‘cause it would stink and attract animals. Rats and raccoons would get it. It takes about one week and then it’s plant food.”

Luke told Raha, “When I get agitated I call my mommy Mom and my daddy Dad.” Score one for an early language-rich environment.

Aaron is now rapidly picking up new words, and he's much more willing now to imitate words when asked to say them. Aaron's recent new words:

Toe
Shoes (choos!)
milk - he says this while simultaneously doing the sign for it

Progress!

There's still no power at our house, BUT the good news is that Meghan's husband Jerry came by and fixed our cable and Internet service - Yipee!!!! Our next door neighbor has power but we don't. There's a power line down in our front yard. A utility company truck just turned around in our driveway so I'm trying to be optimistic. Really this hasn't been too bad since Rich had the foresight to buy a generator several years ago. The nice part is that we've gotten to know our neighbors Mark and Tracey and their kids Fifi and Sammy. Sammy is Luke's age and they've had a wonderful, giddy, silly time every time they've come over. Hard to believe we've been neighbors for 1 1/2 years and not found each other before now.

Aaron and Raha have either a bad cold or the flu. Fever, bad coughs, and general ickiness. Aaron has thrown up a couple of times but I think it's been from coughing not upset stomach.

Luke had another great swimming lesson today - he'll put his face in the water and do four arm strokes, then lift his head for a breath and start over. He's floating on his back for several seconds but hasn't formally started learning the backstrokes. It's fun watching how enthusiastic he is about practicing along the wall while MacKenna takes turns with B.J.

Today's Update

Still no power! School is out the rest of the week for Rich and Heather. At least one more day of no school for Raha. Aaron becoming much more vocal when frustrated or wants something -- as long as he knows the word. Anthony took his truck today and Aaron very emphatically said, "mine!"

NEWS!

This is Meghan posting on behalf of Rich and Heather.

Power Outage: Huge windstorm came through the Kentuckiana area on Sunday. The family has been without power since then. Luckily, they have a generator keeping electricity flowing to essential areas. No power means no internet and that's why I'm posting. Due to the MAJOR power outage school has been out in both the Louisville metro area, Oldham County and Indiana. Schools in Indiana are calling school off for the rest of the week.

New Words: Aaron said a simple sentence today!! Luke, Aaron, Zachariah, Raha, Anthony and I walked to a local playground and while Luke was basically playing keep away from Aaron he said "my ball". He repeated a couple of times then got wise, grinned and wouldn't say it again. He will also say "yes", "please", and "thank you" quite eagerly.

Will post more later!

Swimming Boys

Luke is amazing - a total fish! He can dive to the bottom of the pool to pick up toys, and swim across it the short way independently in the little boy version of the crawl.

Aaron made it through the lesson today without a single tear. He smiled and splashed, and kicked by himself. He said the word "kick" without prompting - a new word. I think he may become a decent baby swimmer.

Popsicles

They are one of the four food groups, right? He's had 5 fruit juice popsicles today. He was yelling and yanking on the freezer for #6 right before bed.

A couple of quick notes

Raha had issues at school today - I'm really upset. He's well aware that I'm really upset.

Aaron is saying "tay too" for thank you, and a very clear "yes!" He said truck as "uck" and tractor is "ta-tor." He still hasn't discovered the pleasure of saying "no!" He's qualified for developmental intervention services, barely, so we're having an IFSP meeting on Monday to add an additional goal to his service plan so Emily can work with him on sign language and adaptive skills. He's delighted with himself when he talks!

Breakfast?

As soon as Aaron woke up he signed that he was hungry. When we came upstairs he ran to the freezer. I gave him yogurt, raisins, graham crackers, and OJ....all of which he likes. After several minutes of yelling and kicking, I finally took him out of the highchair and he ran back to the freezer. We had popsicles for breakfast.

I just asked Aaron if he wanted to play with his toys and he made the sign for play and said, "day!"

And still more words! Plus misc.

Aaron says, "Bye-bye", in the sweetest high sing song voice. At dinner he wanted my Sprite and I had some success getting him to imitate the word "soda" but it sounds like "thhhh-da."

We met Robin's new baby girl on Thursday - Luke indifferent, Raha curious about why newborns have funny looking skin and kept petting her feet, and Aaron wanted to kiss her and hold her (he didn't get to hold her). She was lovely and squishy and entirely willing to sleep while I held her.

Luke is flying to NY tomorrow afternoon with Rich to pick up a car from Barbara. We just found out that the cigarette lighter doesn't work so the DVD player can't be plugged in. I guess Rich and Luke will have lots of time to practice math facts and have silly conversations.

Raha had a big blow up at school this week but has done a nice job making amends and processing the incident. He's not thrilled with some of the consequences......which is definitely the goal. He's finishing up his first portfolio piece - a feature article for Science on Tapirs - an it looks pretty good.

"Tractor"

Aaron was playing today with one of Luke's John Deere tractors. As he was playing I kept asking him to say "tractor." It's not fully recognizable yet, but with gestures and toys to use as props you can tell he says tractor. Without props, it sounds like he's saying "dada/daddy." I also heard him say "moo" today in response to seeing a cow puppet on Baby Einstein -- which I've never heard before (though he may have said it lots of times before). :) Luke, Aaron, Zachariah and I were reading a Truck book on our new parachute (thanks Robin!) and Aaron attempted to say "truck" when asked.

More Words (from Aaron)

Aaron will now say "woof" in response to "What does a dog say?". He imitated me when I asked him to eat his cheese -- "ches". He's becoming more willing to imitate words and try new ones -- and as he becomes from proficient with them he is more willing to share them with everyone around him not just those he sees daily.

Aaron's Speech

Aaron had his latest speech lesson with Austin today. Here you can see Austin trying to get him to say the "f" in fish. He added a couple of new words to his repetoire this week, Papa and water. He's also perfecting some of the old words as well. "Uh-oh" is a favorite. He uses it in several situations, like every time he throws one of Luke's toys down the stairs or when he throws his supper across the table. (I almost got hit with a pickle tonight.) His spoken vocabulary now consists of more, done, up, dada, mama, please, go, water, papa, eye and numerous other sounds that we are unable to translate. (I may be missing a few. It's getting hard to remember them all.)

BIG boy

Raha has gained 9 pounds in the last couple of months - geez. We're talking about good food choices and appropriate portion sizes.