Summer was a blast! Ethan's fave past time was playing outside with the water table and splashing around in his kiddie pool. We would turn on the bubble machine, break out the sidewalk chalk, and have hours of fun in the sun. To add to our summer excitement, Ethan started talking. We began speech therapy when Ethan was 18 months old, because we noticed he didn't progress from babbling to forming actual words. His receptive language skills were great, and he comprehended everything really well, but he wasn't speaking at all. In June, we had him re-evaluated and he was diagnosed with
childhood apraxia of speech, which is a motor speech disorder. His brain knows the words to say, but he has difficulty in planning and programming speech movements. With the help of therapy, Ethan's expressive language skills have blossomed. Among his first words were "yay", "yes", and "ball". You can imagine our delight when he said the words "mama" and "dada" for the first time...it was so very special!
July was a busy month filled with road trips and parties. We visited the
Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC, as well as
Zoo Atlanta. Ethan loves animals, especially books and movies about animals. Seeing the animals in person was such a special treat for him! He has amassed quite the animal posse over the summer. It all began with Crocodilly, a stuffed crocodile he picked out in the gift shop at Riverbanks. Then, he added Lizzy, a rubber lizard from the Atlanta Zoo. He got Willy (a rubber orca), Shark, and Blue Shark, during shopping trips to the grocery store, Wal-Mart, and Target. He likes to carry them around the house, take them into the bath and into bed with him.
We celebrated more birthdays in August, including Daddy's and Uncle Bryan's. We took a trip to Birmingham for Cousin Grace Anne's baptism. August also marked the beginning of a new weekday schedule for Mommy and Ethan. Ethan started attending Mother's Day Out on Monday's and Friday's. Ethan enjoys being around the other kids, playing outside, and doing arts and crafts, while Mommy is able to run errands and make appointments on those days. It's a win-win for everyone! In addition, Michele is a children's leader for Bible Study Fellowship this year, which is a weekly commitment on Tuesday's and Wednesday's. Add speech therapy once a week, play therapy every two weeks, and church activities, and it makes for a very jam-packed schedule. The first couple weeks of Mother's Day Out were the toughest, but thankfully Ethan has adjusted pretty well.
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