Just can't seem to get back into the groove of things here. Allergies have hit Jbird and I since we have been back. Does not seem to matter what time I go to bed, still wake up tired and wanting to nap. Aside from a small handful of days, the heat is tolerable though - the evenings and nights very nice. Great way to cool off the house since we don't have A/C

JB has gotten back into speech therapy. Talked with the therapist this morning. She is pretty convinced that it is motor planning, which is what she suspected all along. It has just taken him producing more sounds for her to know for sure. One of the signs of motor planning is not being able to produce the same sounds over and over. You will ask him to say hammer and the first time it is 'hamber', the second time 'hamf' and the third time 'humfer' and the fourth and fifth still something different. Usually the first try is the closest. So she will begin a round of very boring, monotonous drills where she will touch a part of his mouth and hope to continually produce the same sound (a finger on the lips and he should say 'b' or 'p'. Hoping to get 3 minutes in the first couple of sessions and then build up to 5 minutes several times a session. She says most kids get it but there are some kids that never fully develop a properly spoken language. The brain knows what it needs to say, but just can't get the right sounds to the mouth. He is still very young and is producing more sounds than some of her other clients. It does appear that we are still in it for the long haul though, in regards to how long speech will continue. It is just interesting to look at our language. She said, for example, JB has some good consonant sounds, but not vowels. She said that the only vowel sound that really has 'reference points' is the 'e'. Meaning the tongue should feel the back of the teeth. Most other vowel sounds are just different placement of the tongue in the mouth, without it actually touching something. Either way, he is still such a joy and as my cousin pointed out, his smile is default. So happy and easy going.

Signing the boys up for VBS next week. One last hurray before school starts later in August. Will be a nice break for me because JR will be on vacation next week. He is heading into the wilderness with a backpack, bear spray and gun. A much needed break for him. He has been putting in lots of extra hours doing odds and ends for people. Almost like starting a small side business to see what kind of interest there is out there.

I finally downloaded all the pictures from our trip and will post some pictures once I have gone through them all. Off to get lunch and then maybe a nap.