Well, Vivi has been asking more and more questions about Jesus. Her interpretation has become a little comical, so I thought I'd share a little to explain her understanding. She's been very interested in this for the past couple of weeks, so I'm blogging as I remember things that she has said.
She's been asking where Jesus is. We've told her that He is always with us and we talk to Him when we say our prayers. Vivi responded with "Where's His car?"
She knows that Jesus and God love her and they help heal her (and other peoples') boo-boos; that we can talk to Jesus when we are scared of the dark or of new situations. She knows that He made us and gave her Mama and Daddy and that He gave her and
Bryton to Mama and Daddy. She was looking at her elbows the other day and said, "Daddy, I have 2 elbows. Did Jesus give me elbows?" Kyle just kind of said, "Well, yes..." and she said that Jesus would help her boo-boos feel better if she got one on her elbow. She has also asked how Jesus is with us all the time. Try explaining the Holy Spirit to a three year old...Anyway, I (mistakenly) told her that he just kind of flies around and takes care of us. She said, "Oh...kind of like how Daddy flies." Well, sort of...but no airplane. Jesus has his own airline. Probably a jumbo-jet. She's also asked if Jesus sits in the car with her, in the seat between her and
Bryton. I'm not quite sure how to answer that - it might lead to me buckling Him up every time we go somewhere.
Anyway, if I think of more comical conversations we've had, I'll be sure to let ya know. I just think that our basics are down - that Jesus and God love her all the time.
Other than that, Vivi has started school this week - hooray! She was so sad when I dropped her off the first day - she clung to my leg and I was holding
Bryton, so it definitely would have been nice to have had an extra set of hands to hug her and pull her off. She was very happy when I picked her up - immediately asked to go again. I took that as a good sign. I'm a little wary of the preschool situation (long story...) this year, but so far so good. They have colored, read, played outside and in, gone to chapel, and taken lots of potty breaks. They go as a class a couple of times a day (her school is 8:30 - noon). They don't have a potty in her classroom like last year - it's right next door. The first day, she locked herself in the stall. One of the teachers had to crawl under and let her out. Ha. Bless the hearts of the teachers who choose to work with 18 3 year
olds each week. Although, I do find it funny that she was locked in. Too many times to count have I been in a locked stall with her and she unlocks it while I'm sitting on the potty. Isn't blogging great? There will forever be a record of the funny things she and
Bryton do.
Also, this week, Vivi started speech therapy. I've asked her doctors (both in AZ and here) since she started talking about her not speaking the same as other kids her age, but always got the same responses: she's the youngest in her class, kids develop at different rates, etc. Well, at her 3 year old check up (with a new pediatric group), they gave me a referral to a speech pathologist. At our appointment for that earlier this week, the speech pathologist spent about a hour and half with her talking, playing, etc. Here's the situation. She's been repeating syllables and words for several months. She tested above average (rated against your average 3 year old) in the amount of words that she understands and uses...but tested below average for the way she uses consonants in the middle of words. Her brain is putting phrases together faster than her jaw and tongue can coordinate to say, and it makes her repeat things a lot. Her jaw and tongue coordination was below average as well - like her tongue isn't working as
independently from her jaw as well as other 3 year
olds. For example, she doesn't put the "p" in apple...even though she can say the letter "p" at the front of words (potty, purple, pink, etc), but just leaves it out in the middle. So, after receiving a thorough evaluation, the speech doc is going to see her once a week and give us some pointers of things to do at home to help her. She also said to just ignore the stuttering/repeating of syllables because as her tongue and jaw coordination caught up, it would lessen that. Easier said than done...she was trying to tell me something at the store the other day, and was just tripping over her words...I said, "Spit it out, Vivi." She looked at me and spat - like she does when she's brushing her teeth. Hello captain literal. Anyway, I haven't said anything else about it. So, if you see or talk to her, just ignore the stutter and it will eventually go away as her tongue catches up with her brain. I was glad to hear that she scored higher than average for the understanding of words...sometimes I wonder if she knows what the word "NO" means. ha. I bet most 3s have a hard time with that one. Must be the complexity of the word.
Now time for a
Bryton update. He loves his toes. They provide about as much entertainment for him as Vivi does. He's sitting up for several seconds at a time, but you never know when he's gonna lean forward or roll backwards. He can scoot around in a circle, but no real forward or backward movement. He bears weight on his legs really well and loves to stand up. He also loves Vivi - if he's fussing about something, he'll stop as soon as she comes up to him. Today marks 6 months for him!
Yipee! I've given him baby oatmeal a couple of times. He's drooled it back out at me, but still seems to enjoy it. I'm still working on the nap schedule. Vivi doesn't always need an afternoon nap, but really benefits from one or from some rest time.
Bryton needs some sleep time during the day, but doesn't seem to be in the mood when I put Vivi down. And, she usually has 'quiet time' for just an hour or hour and a half. We'll get it one day! Now that school has started for her, it will help get us into more of a set routine.
So, now for some adult updates...Hm...fall is in the air! That means two things - Football season is here (go Tigers! anyone know of a good SEC Blog to keep up with?) and it's
Crock Pot season!
I pulled out the
crock pot a couple of times this summer, but only to make applesauce (recipe: peel apples (can use ones that are about to go bad), cut into chunks, throw in slow cooker with some pumpkin pie spice, which is a combination of cinnamon and ginger mainly. Cook until the apples are mushy. It's our favorite applesauce. Great with sour apples, too. Also, it saves me from having to hunt through the applesauce jars/cups at the store looking for the sauce without added sugar. Hello - apples are sweet enough! If you are gonna have an apple; have an apple. If you are gonna have sugar, have sugar. Sorry - one of my pet peeves - putting sweetener on fruit. Fruit is already sweet! Save your sugar for...I don't know...cake icing! I'll get off my soap box now.) I have some recipes ready to try next week for dinner and I'll post the recipes of our favorites. As for Kyle, he's doing okay, but in need of some job satisfaction. It's pretty hard to come by for him right now. We enjoyed a long weekend with him home, and he got to work on the doors for our entertainment center. Almost done - just need to be stained and hung. We also got some wood so he can make us a computer table for our bedroom. Our computer crashed back in February, and while we were able to reboot and restore everything, it's still running pretty slow. I think it's time to get a new one. I personally want a Mac, but don't really know what all to look for to put on it. Anyway, our current computer is upstairs, but I would really like to have our main computer downstairs in our bedroom - easier access if I want to play with pictures, update Quicken, etc. Our laptop doesn't have printer access either, and it'd be nice to have that downstairs as well. I find it hard to escape up there to get anything done that I need the main computer for without Vivi wanting to come up and play or
Bryton needing something. It'd be easier and quicker if my accessibility was just in the other room from the kiddos...not another floor of the house. I think we want to leave our old computer (bought a Dell in 2003) upstairs and use it for Vivi to play games on, but put all of our main use programs on the one (still to be purchased) in our bedroom. If you have any thoughts on Mac vs. PC, I'd love to hear em!
That brings us to the furniture...sorry...got off track there a little. Anyway, Kyle got some wood and is going to assemble a table for us to put our new computer on. But, since he's working every weekend from now until Christmas, (not literally..just seems that way), I'm not sure when he'll have time to get it done.
Anyway, that's all for now! Both kiddos are snoozing right now, so I'm going to get a few things done before my precious little helpers awake! (Vivi loves using the
Swiffer).
Don't you love the lining - too cute!
