Joyfully Overloaded

Hey Baby! -- That's what I say to you all the time.  Last night when you on your way to bed you gave me a hug and said, "night baby"... Your words are such gifts to me.  This fall will mark two years of speech therapy.  You have come so far. I love the way you are beginning to play with words as you find new combinations to try out on us. My favorite thing about you is that when you smile your whole face lights up.  You truly are my Happy One. This past year you have grown up so much.  Physically you are a giant. My guess is that you will be the biggest brother when you reach adulthood. It has been a long time since we've had any feeding issues.  The only thing you have left to learn is that if your in the middle of chewing something and you see something better you can swallow what you are chewing, you do not have to spit it out to get the next thing. Your words are coming, mostly in nouns, but they are beginning to fall out of your mouth.  It's ...

Reading days My 5th grade teacher did the idea and I loved it. It’s super simple but a welcome change of pace. We make little cozy spots, have fun snacks and school that day is simply just reading. I usually do a read out loud to them for a bit and they read on their own as well or work on their book projects. We get their sleeping bags out, pull cushions off the couch. Sometimes we even set up a little tent and they read inside. I often have mellow instrumental music quietly playing in the background. The day is shorter, cozy and fun. I don’t usually plan them in, but when I notice the boys seem run down because of life or colds I’ll throw one of these days in. I’ve done the same with science where all we do all day is science experiments that I’ve had waiting. Snow days I always make them do school on snow days, with the reminder that once Spring gets here we don’t want to be stuck inside doing school. However I do make snow days a bit more fun. I require them to do their basic math...