A First Name Basis

She finally said it! Kylee finally said her own name for the first time the other day. She calls herself "kyhee". This is a huge feat for us! She has never said anybody's name yet. Not Nolan's, her own, her friends, relatives... nothing. I've been playing a game with her for about a year trying to get her to say her own name and it finally paid off. I shake her hand while saying "hello, it's nice to meet you. My name is mama, what's your name?" And for the past year I'd just get giggles from her with no attempt at all at trying to say it. But the other night I heard "kyhee". I about fell over. It was so cute. I got her to say it a few more times that night and then she was done. But the next morning we were watching Tigger and Pooh and there's a little redheaded girl in the cartoon and Kylee kept pointing at her and saying "kyhee!" Ha! Nolan calls Kylee "kyuh" and himself "nono". He's so darn adorable.

As for an update on Kylee's speech production... I think my last one was about 6 months ago or so? There's not too much progress to report. She has a very, very small vocabulary. I keep a list and she's currently at about 75 words. That's not much, especially considering Nolan's already 100+. She's reaching the age (3) of transition into the school system. Early Intervention, who has been providing her with speech therapy for the past year, only goes to age 3. And then if a child still needs services they're turned over to the school district where they live and are put into a preschool program provided by the state. The state does NOT want a child entering kindergarten with a speech delay. So from age 3 to 5 they will provide whatever necessary to get them to where they should be. I just had my first interview last week with the school in the subdivision we're going to be moving to soon. She'll be evaluated a couple more times and then it'll be determined in May if she's qualified. I'm quite certain she'll qualify. So is her current pathologist who when transfering her file to the school put Kylee on a "very highly recommended for the program" status. In fact, her patholgoist is thinking Kylee may possibly be suffering from Apraxia. If you don't know what that is you can just google "childhood apraxia" and there's tons of information about it. But basically, it's a neurological disorder that physically prevents her from forming her sounds correctly. It means that her brain knows what she wants to say and how to say it but it gets jumbled from her brain to her mouth and she just physically does not yet possess the ability to say it. It affects the fine motor skills of the mouth. It would explain why her vocabulary is so small, why half of her words are very unintelligible, and why when she does put 2 (or rarely 3) words together that there's total breakdown in her pronunciation even if she can say those words clearly singly. The best example I can give is this: she pronounces about 80% of her words incorrectly which isn't necessarily the main problem. Over time, with help, a pathologist can help her get past that after finding her error patterns and focusing on that to fix it. They main problem is that she is randomly incorrect. She doesn't always say the same word incorrectly the same way. When she says cheese it is sometimes "dease" and sometimes "tease" and sometimes just "ease" but never "cheese". When she says kitty it is sometimes "kiki" and sometimes "gigi" and sometimes "giki" but never "kitty". She says couch "kowsh" and sometimes "towsh". The patternless errors is one of the main symptoms of apraxia. There are many, many more symptoms that go into a diagnosis, some of which Kylee does portray, but for now it's just a possibility. She'll have to be watched for some time to come before it can definitively determined as she's still a little young for that diagnosis. It's just something we've been told to be prepared for down the road and to keep it in the backs of our minds.

But in the meantime, she's just as cute as ever and growing like a weed on steriods. This little girl is soooo tall and has lost a lot of her baby fat the past few months. I've had to drop her down a pant size. She's gotten so skinny and has the longest legs! We've been spending lots of time outside and she's getting more freckles sprinkled across her nose, forehead, and cheekbones. Her hair has gotten a little lighter lately which is making the little bit of red she does have more profound. Her hands aren't baby hands anymore. She has the longest, leanest fingers. Piano fingers for sure. She still has the prettiest loose curls at the ends of her hair which is well past her shoulders now. She has the longest eyelashes. She often gets refered to as my twin when we're out running errands. She loves to have her nails painted. She HAS to pick out her own clothes and shoes everyday (at times, this is irritating!) She usually likes her hair to be done. And she looooooves dresses! Dora is her favorite cartoon. Cheestos are her favorite food. She prefers my fiber cereal to sugary cereal, ha! And loves her vegetables though her appetite is tiny. She is 100% potty trained. It only took me 3 days to train her for pee but took another 4 weeks after that to train her for poop. She hasn't had an accident since day 3 with me but Ryan just informed me that she's peeing her pants every night that I'm in class. I knew she was gonna have a hard time with me being gone three nights a week until 10:30. She's suuuuuuper attached to me and gets real upset when I'm not around. But I'll be done in one more week and then we'll get back on track.

As for Nolan, he's a funny little bugger. He is sooooo freakin cute! He has the greatest smile and an infectious laugh. I shave his hair every 2 weeks, Ryan hates his curls. This doesn't make any sense to me because they're the same curls as Ryan has but whatever. His hair has gotten a lot darker than it was. He's super outgoing and loves people. He has a huge appetite and is more of a daddy's boy. He's a skinny bean compared to how he was a year ago. I think he's going to be built like Ryan. He doesn't think so, but I totally do. Nolan walks just like Ryan! He has shorty little legs and his bulleggedness is almost gone. He has the funniest little run cause his stride is so short. It makes me laugh every time I see it. He has Ryan's ears, people comment on them all the time, it's so funny. And he inherited Ryan's cute butt. His blue eyes aren't as striking as Kylee's, there's a little grey in them. He is obsessed with Bella and can point out a doggie from 2 miles away. His favorite food is waffles (wawa mama, wawa!!) and he wont touch a vegetable to save his life. Not even the good ones, cheesy potatoes, baked beans... nothing. And his favorite pasttime is still whining. He's super emotional and is a huge weenie but his cuteness totally makes up for it :-)

I guess that's it for the kiddos. They are the absolute loves of my life and I love every second of being around them. I wont be home with them for much longer so I'm relishing every bit of it as I can for now.