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It is amazing how even just a little bit of help from speech therapy and the difference that it is making.  Baby B had his 3rd session this past week and the therapist was really pleased with his progress thus far.

In just the past 2 weeks since Baby B’s last speech therapy session, he has said the words “Shoe” when he picks up his shoes, the word “Bear” when he sees a bear on the ipad and “please”. He is also making great eye contact and clapping for himself when he does something after we praise him.  The speech pathologist even mentioned yesterday that he might even be caught up to where he needs to be within 6 months. That being said, I think that that is very ambitious, but still, progress.

God love this kid. He just looks at you and smiles and your heart melts. His brother is into everything, but Baby B, just goes with the flow. Lives life at his own pace.

 

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Who doesn’t love fish sticks? To my knowledge, the boys have not had fish sticks thus far, but that is all about to change. On Sundays, I try to cook as much as I can for the week. Well, this past Sunday, I snuck in a recipe for the boys: Homemade Fish sticks.

Here is the recipe from One Hungry Mamma and on initial tasting, the fish sticks are really good. That being said, now that I have made them, I will probably alter the recipe a little. But overall, this is really a healthy recipe and the boys really loved it.

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It always seems to happen when you least expect it, because families are not able to really plan for a rainy day fund. And lord knows, if they have to replace a car, it makes it even harder.
Well, we are now in that situation. My wife’s SUV is done. The transmission is slipping and the cost to replace the transmission doesn’t warrant putting the money back into it, as the return wouldn’t pay off.
So, we are bitting the bullet and have been looking at, lord help me, mini vans.

I have to state for the record that I’m an SUV guy. I like them, the way that they drive, the storage, etc. I realize that a mini van makes sense with kids, but let’s be honest, most guys would chose an SUV any day over a mini van. I’ve spent a lot of time this week emailing car salesmen about a new car and talking pricing, mileage, safety, etc.  And I think that I’ve narrowed the search down to two mini vans.  They are literally the same, except some features and one has 19,000 more miles than the other. The price is also obviously higher for the lower mileage mini van too. But, I learning that I have to not have much say in the car, other than how much we can spend.

And at the end of the day, it is my wife’s mini van, and she will be the one driving it the most and really the most important thing is that she and the boys are safe.

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It is so funny watching the boys when we take them out for dinner.  Last night we took the boys to Buffalo Wild Wings and the boys just had a blast. They love the tvs. They love that they can be loud. And they love that they can be kids there. And for us, it makes our lives easier, because the boys can be kids there. And the staff goes out of their way to stop and talk with the boys and interact with them.

And, they love the wings. Mild of course and boneless.   Dinner out is a treat with our schedules during the week, but a family atmosphere is exactly what we needed for our dinner out.

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Life can be sometimes you have to laugh about what is going on, because it is really just too embarrassing to cry in public.  Well, today was one of those days for me. Yesterday morning, after just getting settled into work, I get a call from my wife, her SUV has broken down.  So, I pack up and head back down the road, and this was happening while AAA was taking her SUV to the mechanic.

Well, today I got the call, the call that I was hoping that would not becoming in. My family mechanic said the words “The transmission is shot”. Well crap was my reply and then I started laughing. It wasn’t funny at all, but sometimes you have to laugh, because I didn’t want to start crying in front of co-workers when he told me that it would be close to $5,000 to repair her SUV.
I felt like I had been kicked in the gut. I could not believe that I was having this conversation. I was literally going to make the final payment on the SUV next week.

But the next few things almost brought me to tears. I called my father in law about borrowing his truck, he offered to rent us a car. I called my mom, she offered to drive 5 hours to come and stay with the boys so that my wife and I could go and look at cars. And then my Godfather sent me a text and it read “how much money do you need?”

What is love? When those closest to you offer you everything to help you out, without you even having to say a word. Because as each one of those three important people in my life made their offers, I teared up.  I had not budgeted for or even thought that there would on the radar for another year. I had already started thinking through how we were going to be able to save money. Well, so much for that idea, so sometimes you have to laugh and roll on.

And, now it looks like we are going to be looking for a new SUV.

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Repetition, Repetition and more Repetition. That was the theme from Baby B’s first session with the speech pathologist.

I was really amazed at how the speech pathologist not only interacted with Baby B, but maybe even more importantly, Baby A. And when I offered to take Baby A upstairs, she quickly said that Baby A would be one of her biggest helpers in getting his little brother to talk. So as she was working with the boys, talking with them, showing them different animials and showing them the sign language for them, she was teaching my wife and I what we needed to do to help when she is not there. And it came back to repetition.

Perfect example is that she had a box with paper animals in there. And she was knock on top of the box 3 times (again, repetition) and then she would say open. Well, Baby A, he was all over that, as it only took him seeing that 1 time to figure out what to do. Baby B, he was more observant. Studying what was going on and finally he walked over, knocked on the top of the box 3 times and she said Open and he got a toy out. Well, that just sparked it all. But it was that repetition that got it going.

This morning was a good session for him and for us. It gave us some information and tools that we needed to help out.

And tonight, as I prepare dinner and talk with the boys, I’ll be using as much repetition as possible.

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I am finding that everyday, I’m learning something new from my sons. While driving to work this morning, I started thinking about the boys and that we had a rough night with Baby A. And when I say that it was rough, basically he was acting like a 2 year old. He fussed. He said No a lot. He laid in the floor and pitched a fit and did not want to goto bed.

And this morning, I go and get him out of his room when he woke up and he smiled and said “Hi Daddy”. For him, today is a new day. He didn’t remember how he acted the night before. The only thing that he knew was that he was going to get some milk and that he and his brother were going to chase each other around the living room.

But as I drove to work, I thought about how as adults, we remember. We remember too much sometimes. We remember parts to conversations and hold onto comments and actions. And I wish that we could wake up each morning and simply say that today is a new day and that yesterday is in the past.

 

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I Love You is arguably one of the most powerful phrase in the English language, yet it is so often not used. But every night, my wife and I tell the boys good night and we always tell them, I Love You. And we say it to each boy, because we both want them to know that as individuals, how much we love them.

Well, a few days ago, I was asking Baby A a question and whatever his response was made me laugh. So, I just pulled him close to me and whispered “I Love You” in his ear and gave him a kiss on the head. He looked up and smiled and said “I Love You Daddy”. Well, that was it. I had to wipe the tears away from my eyes at that point.

I do not really remember growing up in a family that said that phrase that much. I am sure that we said it, but I don’t know that it was overly used.  But, I vowed that when I had children that I would say it as often as I could to them, because I always wanted them to know how much they are loved.

So boys, one day you’ll read these blogs and get a glimpse into some of the stories and things that we’ve gone through. I just hope that you know how much I love you and how much you are loved, not just by your mother and myself, but a lot of people.  You have both brought a lot of love and joy to so many lives and we are just lucky to have you both as sons.

 

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Sunday night after dinner, my mother who is in town, said why don’t we get ice cream?  Well that is like asking the kids if they want to go to the park and play, we all know the answer. So after dinner, we went over to get ice cream. And I have to admit, the ice cream shop is smart, because they gave the kids a small cone of vanilla for free and we spent a good $10 on ice cream for the adults. And it was money well spent.

The kids loved having their own cones, even while trying to get licks in off of ours. There is just something about eating ice cream on a hot summer day.  And I am pretty sure that we have started a new family tradition as well.

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