A Mini-Conversation with J-man

J-man JUST turned 3 in April.
I think he might have potty trained early because he can stay dry - but he really never showed much interest.
So I told myself that we'd put it off until a) he can talk better (*snort*)
b) it warmed up. As we are a streaker family when it comes to potty training.

One of the prepping things we've always done ---
wait.
---we've done it all of TWICE.
I make it sound like we've got 8 kids successfully potty trained.

Let me say, instead, that something we did with the First two was to mention, to the pre-potty trained child, that they could GO IN the potty instead of in the diaper.

J-man and I had such a conversation yesterday after he and his diaper sloshed to be changed.
(I swear he holds it in until he has the time to be changed.)

Me: When are you going to start pottying in the potty?

J-man: Nah yeh mama.

Me: When?

J-man: a little slower as mom's obviously slow on the up-take tonight: Nah. Yeh. Mama.

I just had to laugh. The Professor chuckled.

He can communicate.

When is he going to start using the toilet?
Not Yet, Mama.

A Song in My Head

Remember in my previous post - I said that the Signing Time theme song was stuck in my head after being up with Mini-E?

Let me share the joy. (You might have to turn off my music box at the bottom)
It really is a fun song. We are now the proud owners of 4 DVD's -- and J-man has watched them all. What's more fun? -- G has been listening and signing along. And on top of that - I'm remembering!!

Speech Therapy and Signing Time

We had a fantastic Speech Therapy session on Tuesday.

It started with my mom - she called and said "What time do I need to be there to watch the other kids?" I was planning on taking all of them because Mom had spent the entire day on Monday with us (because of various Dr visits) and I didn't want to impose. Not only did she come to watch the kids, she brought a lasagna to heat up! It was such a nice surprise and a blessing.

J-man went right in with our therapist and plopped right down in his seat. He did ask for Mr. Potato Head but Miss Judy had a bucket of puppies. These puppies jumped from word to word. Each word had a final "p" sound and he got most of the words. He even won the heart of Miss Judy. She told me that he was so full of life. My heart was so thrilled.

Today we went to Target and we were looking through the card section for the perfect card for A&EMom and he saw a fuzzy sheep card and said "Sheep" and just grinned. Mini-Me said, excitedly, "Mom! He said 'sheep'!" I looked up from the card I was considering and he said it again. I wanted to Hoot and holler. I kept it restrained to clapping with a "Yay!!" and "Good Job".
This mom is soooo proud.

Miss Judy said that we could add some signs to his day to help him along with his vocabulary. ThoughtfulMom had mentioned "Signing Time" oh so long ago. Right after we started the Speech Therapy hunt I purchased Vol. 1, Vol. 3 & Vol. 4 from Amazon. We got Vol. 1 yesterday.

J-man watched it at least 10 times. Well, that may not be accurate. Since he can operate the DVD on the computer by himself, he kept playing it and playing it. He picked up the signs for "Shoes", "Milk", "Ball", "more", "Want". And a bonus was that Mini-E picked up the sign for "milk". I'm not sure she knows what to do with it.

Mini-Me wasn't sure she was pleased at all when I made us all sit down and watch. But She finally found a happy heart when we learned the signs for "Wake up" (from the Internet) and "Daddy" from the DVD. Now we can sign our favorite phrase "Wake Up, Daddy" because The Professor likes to pretend to sleep. Which then causes the kids to yell as loud as they can (Thanks to Jeff from the Wiggles) "Wake UP Daddy!!" Now they can tap him and sign it. Hopefully saving the poor Professor's ears.

I sat down and ordered more DVD's from Amazon (because they are the same price as the SigningTimes website - but I have a trial subscription to Amazon Prime = free shipping). J-man just saw me clicking on things from "Signing Times" site and he started whining "Wa Tha" which is "Watch That" without the final sounds.

I can't wait to see the other videos. I haven't used my sign language in YEARS. I've forgotten more than I remember knowing. So it's fun remembering.

There was a downside to watching/listening to the Signing Time DVD yesterday. When Mini-E got up in the middle of the night, I got second shift at 3am. I got her to bed. I snuggled back in bed and all I could hear was "It's signing time with Alex and Leah...It's singing time with Alex and Leah...come and play". Of course, the final song makes me cry.

If it helps J-man communicate, I'll be glad to listen.

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.