Coughing Bells, Coughing Guns!!!!

Nathan said he wanted to look nice for his Christmas party! Oh he is such a good kid! We have so much fun!

Opening our presents from Nathan at his party.
He made us many nice ornaments!

Caitlin gives Lindsay her present. She found it at the dollar store it said "#1 Baby sitter" Oh she is the best without her where would I be. She really loves Owen now that's an awesome sitter!!!

Nate gets a Lego Ninjago from Lindsay..... how did she know!!!

As you can see from the title it was a week of cough, at one point as Carl and I lay in bed deciding which kid needed our assistance. Owen was croupee and Nathan was the usual I said it sounds like they are doing it in unison. Owen was pretending he was getting a breathing treatment. Too funny! He can't figure out what that loud machine does but since his brother needs it he must need it to!

Caitlin makes reindeer cookies at her Christmas party!

Nathan crashed Caitlin's school party!

Oh OWEN!!! Well as you can see he is consistently pointing. And we always know where he is because he screams constantly . He is now waving to say Hi and I even caught it in the next photo. I am working with him more trying to get him make vowel sounds. The speech teacher says repetition repetition . He was evaluated and diagnosed with developmental speech disorder, Severe Expressive language and vocabulary impairment, Severe Receptive Language impairment; Severe articulation impairment and possible motor impairment Severe Expressive and Receptive Language Impairments, and the list goes on. That is what they have to write to get insurance to pay for it I am guessing! They did evaluate him and on the Preschool Language Scale which measure expressive communication and auditory comprehension an average score ranges from 85-115, he got a 30. For children his age this puts him in the moderately-severely below average range. On the MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventory he was assessed at <5th percentile. Normative data suggest he should use approximately 120 words and use 1.62 words in a sentence on average. Owen indicates a severe vocabulary deficit.

Okay so am I am worried , nope not really I just want him to stop screaming and talk because it would make things easier and quieter around here. I realize he is the third child and a boy and in due time he may catch up on his own. Bottom line is at 2 Nate started preschool so I am looking at this like Owen's preschool. Once a week he gets to play with really really really cool toys. Oh man they have the best toys there, imagine every cool Fisher Price toy you played with as a child. Ms. Mary gives him her undivided attention and he seems to be responding. Not with words but he is starting to communicate. He says Hi and waves consistently now! We practice things like sitting in the waiting room in chairs on our bottom and holding hands in parking lots. It is a few hours of Owen time. Caitlin comes along but she is my helper! Oh did I mention there is an awesome new organic market right next to speech HAHAHAH! I am going to give this 6 months and see how it goes. If he consistently makes improvement we will stop , if not we will increase to twice a week.

Our goals in speech:

1) Owen to use 5 words to request wants or needs.

2) Owen to imitate at least 5 simple sounds (owl, ow, wee).

Okay so here we go lets hope we laugh about this in 6 months!!!!!

Owen waiving "Hi" on command!