Nolan turns seven years old today. Seven – doesn’t that seem like a milestone? To me it seems like he is leaving the “early childhood” phase. He’s very excited about this birthday. I’m praying to be able to make it a special transition for him.
Nolan is working so hard to conquer his speech problems. We are almost at a place where he CAN say most sounds….it’s a matter of slowing down now and saying them in routine speech. This is HUGE. When we left Alaska we were still at about 50% as far as “understandability”. He is also working very hard on his phonics. We’d been told to delay reading for him and we did. Now they are saying that the think his reading program is the big factor in his learning the sounds…because it is forcing him to slow down and concentrate on individual sounds….who knows?
We usually don’t have “friend parties”. It’s been our experience that each child has requested a “friend party” once or twice. For the most part they discover they would rather have a “family party”. We’ve got the “family party” routine well-honed. Everything came together this year for Nolan to have a “friend party”. 1. We have friends. Friends are not something we take for granted as a military family. In any given year you may be the new kid on the block or your best buddy may move the week before your birthday. You never know…so on a year when you have friends; it’s best to go for it. 2. Mike is insanely busy this week – the week before the ORI and so our typical “family party” – a whole day of celebrations will be “off” anyway. 3. Zander’s birthday falls on Saturday and so the boys can easily have a big combo party. 4. Narnia fever is big in our house and we are dying for a Narnia Party – what a great opportunity to have a birthday party as well. {g}
I’ve taken time to prepare him that since he is having a party this will be different than other years. We had planned to do family gifts today but I’m not sure if Mike will be home in time. We will have some decorations (thanks BreAnne), we’ll sing, we’ll have ice-cream and have our blessing circle….but the cake and such will be on Saturday. I think he’s prepared for this.
Children’s birthday’s are always a time of reflection for me. I can remember clearly being told that it was highly unlikely I’d carry babies to term….and here I am the mother of many. I remember clearly the day I told God he was “enough” and I’d make a choice to be content with no children….and soon after BreAnne entered our life….Nolan - our 4th son….7th child….turns 7 today. Yippee!
2 comments:
DeEtta,
Good job on keeping up with the speech therapy. For the most part, speech and math were about all we did for a 2-3 year period and it's really paid off now since said child now speaks so clearly that we often mistake the girls for each other when on the phone.
Hang in there. I remember those days and you think it takes FOREVER to see any progress.... slow but steady and you will.
Cb
Thanks for the encouragement. This week was the first time that he was really not wanting to go to speech. They have these one way windows at this spot and I think I need to go back and watch and see what is up. He has always LOVED going..this is his 3rd year.
My heart breaks when someone teases him...but some day he'll either be tough enough that it won't demolish him or he'll be speaking so well that folks who meet him for the first time won't know that he used to "talk funny".
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