Summer time

Apologies blog readers for the delay.....summer has taken off like crazy and we're having a good time - already I don't know where the time has gone. The kids are full-speed ahead in summer mode - although the weather in Seattle has been gray and cool, so it hasn't felt much like summer. We've had a few sunny days in the last week and we soak it up like crazy. This week-end was beautiful - Saturday I took the big kids for an hour long bike ride on a trail, then we went to the pool and played outside. Taylor ventured into the kiddie pool for the first time and enjoyed it. She splashed and didn't mind the water, so we considered it a success.

The big kids have been busy - they've been swimming a lot - even when it has been cool. Jacob loves swimming in the meets, but not the practices. Lauren doesn't mind the practices, but isn't a fan of the meets. There are a lot of people and it's a bit intimidating for her. Lauren did a drama camp and loved it, and Jacob is doing a sports camp this week - soccer, basketball and baseball. It's so important to me that their days are full of play, friends, and summer fun. They've done art projects, played endless games of "store", tons of creative play with Playmobile toys, and generally been good little buddies to each other. We're continuing to work with Lauren on her reading and Jacob has been practicing his numbers and letters. They've been good sports - in their quest to earn a Nintendo DS video game. I'm not above bribing....so far, it is working.

Taylor has had a great time too - Susan was on vacation for 10 days, so she had a break from therapy. But, Taylor actually misses therapy now because she is working so much on walking and she loves it. She gets so excited - she starts kicking her feet when we get to the door, which means she wants to walk. She also is really enjoying being outside, which is awesome. We take lots of family walks at the end of the day - she loves to "drive" her little red car. She has a cute little sign when she gets excited - she pants like a little puppy and kicks her feet. If you say "Taylor, do you want to go outside?" She reacts like this and we love it. She cracks up at the big kids playing - whether they're shooting hoops, doing cannonballs into the pool, or just running circles. I think she is having a good summer.

She's also having lots of fun with Teacher Beth, her teacher from the EEU that is coming several times a week for a few hours each day. This gives Taylor focused "smart" play time and Beth really engages her. She has created a whole binder to track Taylor's progress and specific skills across play, expressive communication, receptive communication, sensory, motor, and feeding. One example - she took over 20 pictures of Taylor's favorite things and basic needs (bottle, high chair for eating, crib for sleeping, etc) and she works with Taylor to get to choose and communicate what she wants to do. We all think Taylor has said "yeah" in the last few days - and David and I think we heard her say "night" - for "night, night" when we were putting her to bed and David thinks she heard her say "ball". We're so hoping we're on the cusp of a communication breakthrough - it would be so wonderful.

We've been busy as usual - David and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary, we've spent a few week-ends on Whidbey Island, I had a busy work trip to LA for a few days, and we're getting ready to go to David's family reunion next week. So, it's busy, but we're trying to embrace each day - the kids are all so cute right now and we're in a good behavior phase, so we're having lots of fun.

I'll post pics soon - Taylor has many teeth now and is getting so big!