A funny thing about speech therapy

There has been residual feelings left over from our last speech therapy appointment. Namely with the ticket I received. *L* Residual Feeling Number 1: Mini-Me asked for several days "Did you pay your ticket?" or "It's only this many days until the 23rd." (which was the due date to pay up).

I finally asked her, you know - after about the 5th or 6th time, "Are you worried about something?"

It's very sweet. She didn't want me to go to jail. So she didn't want me to forget to pay the ticket. Awww.. I had to explain to her that they would just charge me more money if I didn't pay this ticket. And, in order for me to go to jail, I'd have to get lots and lots of tickets and NOT pay them. I realize "lots and lots" could be 3 or it could be 15. You never know.

Residual Feeling #2 - G and I spent the day together running errands on Saturday. It was fun. I hope it was fun for him. Somewhere along the way he asked "Are we going to go with you to the speech therapy appointment?"

"Yes." I said, " and you'll get to play in the waiting room."

"How many appointments will there be?" He wanted to know.

"Oh, I don't know, there will be many though."

"Many?" He asked incredulously, "You're going to get lots of tickets."

I was momentarily stunned that he had equated after that one incident - that each time we'd go to speech therapy we'd get a ticket. I did correct his thinking. It's amazing what their little brains come up with.

Yesterday was our first official therapy appointment. J-man went into the therapy room by himself. The Therapist tried to talk to him at first, but I was watching through the mirror - he was having a power struggle.

She won, though. She used the Mrs. Potato Head weapon and got him to the little table where her picture book sat in waiting.

She tested his vocabulary and he did really well. He "tested' right at his age level...and I was so surprised that he got "Circle" that I wanted to shout. He used Mrs. Potato Head's arms to point to the pictures she called out to him. And he had a great time.

A few times he sat and studied the pictures before he answered. I gotta tell you- I was one very proud mom after that visit.

During the power struggle, she said (talking to me through the mirror) that when kids this age aren't used to being in a structured preschool setting - this takes some getting used to. And we just have to lay down the ground rules.

I'm watching through the mirror, watching my very jolly, newly 3, very big boy and thinking - He's not got an issue with sitting, he's on a power trip. He was very jolly and all smiles about it, though. He's a happy tyrant.

This week we're to work on the "p" sound.

I'm every praying that God will loosen his tongue and help him communicate. It's been fun watching that prayer get answered. He's mimicking everything G says and it's very sweet. He's also been saying more words. Well, half of the words, anyway.

So I can't wait to see how Speech Therapy helps him.