Nana's and bike rides

Today I rode my big bike with training wheels for the first time.  It went pretty well, hopefully I can graduate from my tricycle to the big bike full time now.

Yesterday nana came to visit me.  She is so fun to play with, we have already gone on several walks and to the playground.  This will be my last entry until mommy and daddy return from their cruise - so see ya in a week!

trees

Trees are fun to climb.

Backpack

Two and a half years later, I still like to go for a walk in my backpack. 

D-E-X-T-E-R

Twice a day we line up at school to go outside and play on the playground.  My new teacher, Miss Isabel, has us spell our name before we go outside.  It took about a week before I could do it, but now I love to spell my name!

Invasion of the McCalls

This weekend my good friends Duncan and Aine came to visit me!  I spent all weekend riding my tricycle while Duncan rode his bike.  I also went on several wagon rides with Aine.  We even cooked banana bread together.  It was a lot of fun and I miss them already!

Brown Bear, part 2

Today:
I see..bak (bear), stop doh (red for stop bird), yellow duck, blue horse, white dog, go ba-bap (green for go frog), purple maw (purple cat), bak maaa (black sheep), yellow fooph (yellow fish), nana!



2 Months ago:
I see.. (skip bear) doh (bird), quak quak (duck), blue horse, ba-bap (frog), maw (cat), haha (dog), maa (sheep), fooph (fish), mama!



So I have added some new words and replaced a couple sounds for actual words (duck and dog).  Slow and steady progress :)

Word explosion

To quote Jackie the speech therapist, "we have a talking kid now!"  In the last week Dexter has finally gotten his word explosion and is talking up a storm.  He is saying several new words every day, describing pictures in multiple word sentences and really feeling more comfortable talking. 

Our speech goals for the rest of the summer are correct sound production and longer word strings.  He still has three areas that need more work: vowel distortions, omissions of final sounds (pea for please) and sound substitutions (buk for bug)

He is happy that he can gets his needs/wants across now and Dan and I are happy to know what he wants!  This should make it a lot easier also when Nana and Grandfather come in 10 days to watch him while we are on our cruise.  Yea!

Halloween?

I found my Halloween costume in the closet today so I put it on, got my Halloween buckets and was all set to go knock on the neighbors doors to get some candy for breakfast.  I was a little sad to find out you can't just ask for candy any day of the year.  So instead of asking for candy I went to my favorite playground on base and played in my Yo Gabba Gabba Brobee costume. 

Bedtime

Last night I organized my room before going to sleep.  I pulled out every toy, animal, blanket, and random stuff out of closets I could find.    I don't like to sleep alone, so having all my stuff made it easier. 

Super-Dexter!

I love my new Superman costume cousin Cole gave me.  It has a cape just like SuperWhy!  Thank you so much, I love it!

3 year update!

Vital Stats:
Weight: 32.6 pounds  Height: 38 inches
Clothes I wear size 3T shirts and pants, size 8 shoes

Skills:
Physically, Gross motor:  I am potty trained well.  I still sleep with a diaper on but during the day or during an elusive nap I keep my underwear on.  I am not very interested in learning to ride my bike, but perhaps I will later this summer.  I am a master Frisbee thrower - I will take out your head if your within 10 feet of me - watch out!  I am still pretty clumsy - I think each knee and elbow has cuts on them. 
Physically, Fine motor: I can write several letters (A, C, D, E, F, H. I, L, M, O, R, T, X) and love to draw on my dry erase board

Verbally: I have made some improvement here lately as well.  I am adding 1-3 new words a day.  This week I added park, yellow, white, apple, two, three, bad, dog, duck, hat, bagel, Bosley and Audrey (next door neighbor) to my "words other people besides mommy could understand" list.  I also learned the signs for bear, cat and school this week and I like to use those as well.  I am also finally beginning to occasionally mimic what people say.  I meet with my speech pathologist every week for an hour but in August it moves up to two times per week for two hours a session for eight weeks, then eight weeks off, then eight weeks back on.  That will complete my early intervention speech program and hopefully by then my speech is much improved.  I feel like it has made some real progress lately. 

Likes: My favorite thing is to play in mommy's car - I like to play with car keys, garage door openers, lights, wipers, stick shifts, emergency brakes - you name it, if it is a car I love it.   I like my new room at school.  The kids are so big (3-5 years old) and the playground is huge!  I like going to the park or playground or really anything outside.  I like to play with the hose or sprinkler.  I like to read books, do jigsaw puzzles and watch Super Why on TV.

Favorite Foods: Only new foods to add here are grilled cheese and cheeseburgers.  I also like apple slices and all my old favorites : bagels, waffles, beans, fruit (all but pineapple), peas. 

Dislikes: Bedtime.  I used to be so easy to put asleep but now I fight it - I just know something exciting is going on and I dont want to miss it.  (Also I am a bit scared of the dark and being alone)

What is to come: In 3 weeks Nana and Grandfather are coming to stay with me for 12 days while mommy and daddy go on a cruise to Alaska.  Then in July mommy and I are going to Ohio for 10 days on Cole's 5th birthday and in December we are all going to Florida for Christmas Dec 14-20.  It seems like I am always flying on an airplane somewhere!  I am going to keep working hard on all my skills these next several months and I will keep you all updated!  Thanks for following along with me, these three years have been awesome!

Happy 3rd Birthday to me!

My birthday started with opening some presents in the morning (thank you so much to all that sent me a birthday present!).  Then I spent the afternoon driving to the middle of nowhere, New Mexico to watch mommy run 3 miles in the mud with 12 obstacles along the way.  I only watched the final three (climbing over a huge wall using a rope, swimming in a mud pit under barbed wire and jumping over fire pits).  It is called the "warrior dash" and they give you a cool viking helmet for running.  I liked the viking helmet, I am not a fan of mud it turns out.  Then at night going to a party at a local kids place.  It was a jungle animal place with lots of toys, bouncy houses and best of all a climbing place with four air guns in it that you could shoot foam balls from.  I really could not get enough of the ball gun.  And of course birthday cake!  I am now three years old and I can't wait to see how much fun I can have this year.  It should be my final year in New Mexico before we move next summer.

Hot outside

Hot outside + new birthday sprinkler = super fun

Two, but not for long

I am two.  Can you believe in just three more days I will be three!!  I will be spending my birthday evening at "Monkey Mania Adventure" a kids party place in Albuquerque with some of my classmates.  During the day mommy has a 5k "warrior dash" with lots of her co-workers.  Should be a fun weekend!