Aaron sang another great version of the ABCs, but of course he refused to sing it on camera....he did make up a goofy little dino song for me!

Wow!

Luke started singing the ABCs in the car, and Aaron joined in. It sounded pretty good, so I asked him to sing it again -- and he was great!! It was so clear, except for the "ema ema p" but then he hopped back in at q. I never would have believed he could do this a year ago!

Aaron's got a future in Hollywood

He re-named "Jurassic Park." It's called "Drastic Park" in our house. For a guy who's only been talking for a year it seems pretty perceptive.

Ears are...

Aaron was naughty at daycare today. After correcting him several times, Meghan stopped him and asked, "Aaron, what are your ears for?" He said, "Wiggling!"

New ?

"Doin' Dad?" or whoever else.... Rich answered & asked Aaron what he was doing, and Aaron said, "Aaron eating!" He refers to himself by name all the time.

Chit-Chat

This morning when we came up the stairs, Aaron said, "Cat. Mika. Meow! Two cat, one....two." I asked him if he knew Ollie's name, and he said, "Don't know." When I told him he said, "Ollie, meow!"

He 's also started to refer to himself as "me" this week instead of "Aaron."

Feeding Aaron

Aaron still loves cat food - I came into the office this morning and his mouth was overflowing with cat food. He eats handfuls of it. He also makes Ollie very happy by filling the bowl several times a day.

His language is really improving. He just said, "Mommy me ump! (jump)" before jumping off a chair. This morning he ran around talking about his "geen uck (green truck)" and he's making lots of conversational sounding babbles.

The only issue is TV

Nice feedback from Raha's foster placement worker - he told her that he thinks this placement is working because this is the family is the one he was always meant to be with. The only thing wrong with us? We don't let him watch enough T.V.

Aaron said "belbow (elbow)" "atain (airplane)" "earring" "buhbuhbuy (broccoli)" and "my turn" today. Very chatty.

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!

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.

Words!!!!

When I came home, Meaghan told me that Aaron is clearly saying "UP!" He said it right away for me and 3 or 4 more times. With Austin at speech he said "Please" four times clearly, asking me for a drink of Sprite. He's saying "MO" for more and "MY" for mine.......huge progress!! He's funny because he knows how excited we are, makes sweet funny smiles after saying a word, and is totally not willing to do it on command. He just came out with "DUH" when Austin said, "Say All Done Aaron." Apparently today is the day for new words!

Had to come back to this post - just said, "GO" to start running!

OWW!

This is Aaron's new word....very appropriate!

Aaron speech update

Good speech session tonight with Austin -- she thinks she has him attempting to say "more" as he signs it, and she was really pleased with all of the animal sounds. He also made as snake sound, but with his tongue sticking out, so she wants us to encourage him to tuck his tongue behind his teeth. She also noticed a nice variety of babbling sounds that are new. So progress, just slow progress. He was wired and really active, just running everywhere and jumping on me over and over.

I signed permission for the developmental assessment, which will be done by Emily in Austin's office. Our plan, depending on the assessment, is for Emily to work on sign language with Aaron.

New words, maybe??

Tonight in the car Aaron pointed at my eye and said, "Ah!" then pointed at my ear and said, "Eh!" These seem like meaningful approximations to me. Rich and I have both noticed more deliberate uses of "Mama" and "Dada." Last week with Austin he waved goodbye for the first time, and he's doing that regularly with prompting, and tonight when I took his pacifier out of his mouth he bunched up his fingers and tapped his lips. I'm counting that as an invented sign for binkie.

As of today, his signs are: bye bye, binkie, more, eat, drink, please, up, throw, all done, book/read (with help) and help (with help)
His words are: Mama, Dada, Uh-oh, eye (maybe), ear (maybe), whee (maybe)

In his speech service plan our goal is 50 words/signs by December. I think we're doing better at prompting and rewarding Aaron for making sounds and Austin is definitely helping, I think primarily by modelling ways to interact that are most likely to elicit speech. We're supposed to be doing Beckman exercises to stimulate the muscles in and around his mouth, but Aaron has been resistant then I forgot to do them today. We're also giving him a vibrating teether to chew on and press on his lips, which is also stimulating the muscles in his mouth. Fortunately he likes the teether!