Balmorhea State Park

I'm having blog issues - it's a fight to get pictures to show up at the moment. Here are some pictures from our days at Balmorhea right after Carlsbad. There are more pictures, so I'll try to publish a few of them. 

 

Sam's ready to swim! 

Carlsbad Caverns

We had lots of fun hiking into the cave. We also got to see the last of the season bat flight programs - it was spectacular seeing the bats come swirling out of the cave, disappearing into clouds headed out over the horizon. Sam walked most of the way into the cave, and we ate lunch underground. Grandma and Grandpa got two audio guides for us to share, and it sure kept Sam happy to have his own toy with push buttons that looked like a wonderful phone/radio. 

 

 

 

 

Sitting with Grandma 

 

Starting into the cave

 

And the Dance Goes On

Here's a video of the kids dancing.



Today I took Sam to the school for a speech screening. As expected, Terri thinks he has a language problem and will probably qualify for speech therapy. So that's not a huge surprise. What did surprise me was that she said we should ask the school for information on ADHD and what we can do at home to help prep him for school. He's supposed to start pre-k next fall, but we may be enrolling him sooner, depending on how the formal testing goes on the 26th and how the school, the classroom teacher, and Terri want to handle this. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Terri brought up ADHD, but I am. I honestly handn't considered the possibility. Once she brought it up, and discussed why she thought we should work with him, it made sense, and this is exactly why a mother can't and shouldn't attempt to diagnose her own child and why I asked that Terri do it.

In an odd, funny way, I thought the screening was going really well. So well that I honestly thought she was going to come over to me and tell me he's fine. Instead, she said we definitely would continue with formal testing. I was so pleased with Sam; he actually listened to them, did as they asked, and this is why moms don't get to diagnose! He acted just like he does at home; a little hard to keep on task. He'd look at what they told him to, but just as quickly focus back on a toy robot that was in the room (of course, in Sam's world, everything takes a back seat to robots). I wanted to say, "what do you mean? he did great for you!!! He's never done so well when I'm in the room before!" He never listens to anything when I'm with him, except at home when there's nobody else around. Sam also didn't hold his pencil in an age-appropriate grip. I know Sam's articulation is just fine, and I'm hoping this means he'll be able to catch up on his speech. Right now it breaks my heart to listen to two year olds speaking these nice sentences, clearly, concisely (for two year olds, anyway) and my son is about to fall behind his baby sister in speech. I almost wish it was just an articulation issue - that always struck me as a cake walk, but Sam's never had problems producing sounds, his problem is using words in meaningful ways, together. Also, I've had a lot of other people ask me about Sam, and when I was going to get him tested, and I really wanted these tests to prove to everyone, including myself, that he's normal, he's fine. So I maintain, he's normal. For Sam. Now we're just going to find out what that normal is.

Ahh togetherness

 

Glove Boy

Sam is trying on my uniform gloves. He loved wiggling his fingers in them. 

Walking in her mother's shoes

Awyn definitely likes to walk in my shoes, she walked all across the house in them. Don't you just love the pacifier? We're working on getting that out of her mouth, we really are. The current effort is not letting her see them, so she won't ask for them. She still gets one for bed and nap. 

Cuddlebugs

Sam and Awyn are becoming inseperable. They like to play together. They hold hands, it's awfully cute. Of course, then Awyn knocks down a tower, wrecks a train, and Sam's done with this 'togetherness' for a while. 

Sleeping Beauty

Awyn asleep for her nap today. Isn't she cute? Eric took the toy off the crib when she got up to replace the batteries and it's suddenly not working. Awyn loves the thing, so I'm thinking I might have to replace it. It's part of how she puts herself back to sleep when she wakes up. I remember it not being the cheapest toy in the world, and it eats batteries, but my baby loves watching those bird spinning on the ceiling and on the toy. 

Awyn and her Cricket

Cricket

Sam and Awyn are currently obsessed with crickets. When Sam found this cricket on the front porch, they both sat outside for over an hour watching it, blowing on it, but not touching it. In fact, if I got too close, I'd get admonished by my son. Awyn learned to say cricket, but it sounds a bit more like 'cwickey'. Still, it's awfully cute to listen to. Now all I have to do to get them outside is to send them on a cricket hunt. These guys are very colorful, green, red, and white - something Sam was sure to inform me of. Also, he's decided that it is indeed a bug, and it can jump, and climb. Oh, and it eats grass. Between the crickets and the caterpillars (snout butterflies) he's been in bug heaven. 

Sam's Pumpkin

Sam learned about jack-o-lanterns at story time this week, and even made a jack-o-lantern rattle that even Awyn can appreciate. He also very clearly says jack-o-lantern, and understands that without a face, it's just a pumpkin. Of course, he's suddenly substituting f for p in that initial position - so you can guess what he calls his pumpkin. When he saw the pumpkins at the grocery store he shouted, "look, pumpkin patch!" So we just had to get him one. I think we'll save it and let him 'carve' the pumpkin when his grandparents get here. 

Awyn wears Mama's shoes

Tonight Awyn decided she needed to walk around in my sandals. She was very cute. 

Dancing!

We went to two birthday parties this weekend. This one was Ciara's 3rd birthday. Sam loved the cake, the dancing, and all the toys to play with. Awyn loved the cake and ice cream too. I helped Angelina decorate Ciara's cake with monkeys. Angelina had a great book with how to draw monkeys, so I used that, and it worked pretty well. Sam and Ciara danced together holding hands, but the moment Eric went for the camera, they stopped. We also went to Taylor's 3rd birthday party, but we forgot the camera. We saw a very large owl while there, sitting on the power line behind the house. As we walked back to the van, Sam wanted 'More Owl!" Oh if only it were that easy to get wildlife to make command appearances! 

Awyn eats cake

 

Yum, frosting!