Cheekwood & Centennial Park

A couple of weeks ago we went to Cheekwood on a Friday to see all the scarecrows.  While there, we spent a little time in the pumpkin patch and took some pictures.

Rylan's hair was SO LONG!

Cheekwood has some of the coolest looking pumpkins!

The boys call these their "Daddy shirts" and want to wear them all the time.  Brian always wears a button down shirt with jeans to work.

Smelling the mums ...

Next we headed over to Centennial Park for the TACA Arts and Crafts Fair.  First though, we had to feed the ducks.  Luckily no one fell in :)

There was a blimp in the distance (closer to downtown).  Later in the afternoon we saw it over our house!

We visited the kids craft tent at the art fair first.  At one table the kids made rockets based on the play that organization was currently doing.

We did a quick loop around the art fair (it was all the normal stuff - nothing unique enough to buy) and Carter spotted kettle corn so we got some.  Kettle corn is one of his favorite foods (right now).

Before leaving, the boys ran around the Parthenon for awhile (which eating popcorn - Carter would eat a whole huge bag if I let him).

Headaches

Carter said he had a headache this morning on the way to school and told me this ...

"A headache is when you think too hard and your brain gets hot.  Then it hurts.  Mom, think hard and see what happens."

Push Ups

Someone has been paying attention when I've been working out ...

Soccer Update

Both boys have some really good soccer skills for their age.  They aren't the best players in their age groups, but they are both in the better half.  However, neither one shows off their skills in games.  Both tend to watch the other kids playing more than getting in there and playing themselves.

So I decided it was time to bribe them.  I told them that for every good thing they do (score, assist with a score, have a good defensive play), they get a piece of candy (a dum-dum or roll of smarties).  And it's working, especially for Carter.  Over the last few weeks, Carter has gotten about 6 treats per game, and Rylan about 3 (but that has still been a stretch).

Carter is so much more aggressive - he's been scoring about 5 goals a game and passes a ton so that other kids score.  Brian hasn't been teaching the kids to pass (everything we read suggests waiting another year or two before teaching that) but Carter's figured it out and it really confuses the other teams!  He's also getting back on defense and taking the ball away from the other team when they approach him.  I'm super proud of his increased effort!!  More importantly, he's having more fun and is proud of himself.

Rylan has been doing a little better too but the afternoon games are still killing him.  This weekend was fall break and Carter's team was really short-handed.  We let Rylan play on his team for the first half of the game (which was at 11 am).  Rylan was AWESOME!  He got in there and played so hard.  During his own afternoon games Rylan might kick the ball once or twice and be proud of that and then stand around.  (This week's game was awful though - Rylan got no short car nap before the game and had played in Carter's game so he was so tired.  The other team was worse than ours for once so we could easily score.  However, when another boy on Rylan's team took the ball from him near the goal and scored, and Rylan broke down.  Inconsolable crying.  This happened a couple of times and then I just let him sit out the rest of the game.  But he did score a couple of goals before that at least.)  The bribery has been helping Rylan a tiny, tiny bit in the last few games though.

I got some pictures of the boys last weekend.  Carter actually took all the pictures of Rylan's game.

On the way to a goal ...

Drew from our team last spring was on the other team during this game.  He's still super cute!

Liam (right behind Carter) is super fast and has the best facial expressions while dribbling!

Another goal about to be scored ...

Carter kept with this one and put it in ...

I have so many blondes on my team!

Some slow, careful dribbling ...

Happy, even when just standing around :)

Go, Rylan!!!

The other team just scored :)

Carter's a pretty good photographer!

Only two more games left in the season!

Music City Half Marathon

This morning I ran the Music City Half Marathon for the second year in a row.  What a difference a year makes!  I beat my time from last year by 15 minutes and 47 seconds.  The weather was great - 65F and partly cloudy at the start with it only getting to 68F by the finish.  It was at least 20 degrees cooler last year!

I've been doing lots of long runs lately since I'm training for the marathon but not a lot of short runs for speed (basically, I'm not fast right now, but I have some endurance).  I started off running faster than I had planned but was able to maintain that pace for awhile and not slow down much during the race.

I finished in an amazing (for me) 1 hr, 46 min, and 33 sec!  That is 8:08/mile pace!!!  I beat my best half marathon time by 4 minutes and 49 seconds.  I even got 2nd in my age category!  And the race isn't super tiny - there were 516 finishers.  I was the 12th place female and 59th place overall.

While I waited for the awards ceremony, I got to enjoy some local craft beer.  Not bad :)

Only 4 more weeks until the marathon!

THD Kids Workshop

Last weekend in-between soccer games, we took the boys to Home Depot for their kids workshop.  Since it's fire prevention month, Home Depot had a fire truck at the store (as well as the police department).  The boys got to go in the truck and got lots of goodies (stickers, coloring books, bracelets, and more).

And then they got to build and paint (the best part!) a fire airplane.

And this month, the kids also got a Lego set!  Score!!!

Touch-A-Truck

This morning we took the boys to Touch-a-Truck in Thompson's Station before their soccer games.  We got there right as it started up so we got to do everything with no lines.  Our first stop was face painting.  Carter opted for some hand painting - a pumpkin on one hand and snake on the other.

Surprisingly, Rylan went for a spiderman mask (which is what Carter did last year).

Once again, doesn't really look like spiderman :)

A lot of the same trucks that were at Touch-A-Truck the last couple of years were there again - which meant lots of cool emergency vehicles, construction trucks, and random other trucks.

Sitting inside a fire truck ...

"This scoop is HUGE!"

Carter didn't care about sitting inside the bulldozer - he just wanted to stand on the highest part above the wheel!

Just like his brother :)

"Hi, Mom!"

Rylan's favorite ... the cement truck.

Locked up :)

Tractors of any sort are always cool.

Another scoop, smaller this time ...

And Carter's favorite (I think, for the second year in a row) ... the party bus.  I'm sure it's clean, right??? :)

It was dark on the bus, but here is video of a little pole dancer :)

Recent Pictures

I organized a playdate for Carter's class on Monday at Granny White Park.  Carter had been asking for a few weeks to have a playdate with Sadie Mae and Quinn so we had to pick a day and time that worked for them and then invite the rest of the class.  It ended up being Carter (and Rylan) and 6 girls from his class!!!   The girls included Sadie Mae (the little girl Carter "married" on the school playground last year), Quinn, Lyla, Sarah Kate, Maddie, and Lacie.  Sadie Mae and Quinn are really good friends and when they finally got there, Carter followed them around like a lost puppy (always trailing by several yards).  But they eventually all started playing together and were the last three at the playdate.  Aren't they cute!!!  (L to R: Quinn, Carter, & Sadie Mae)

After hip hop class on Monday, we went to Culver's for dinner.  Apparently Monday is Kids Night and they have a crazy balloon man there (different than the one Chick-fil-A has on Tuesdays for their Kids Night).  This life-size Frankenstein was pretty cool.

It wasn't very crowded so the boys were both able to get balloons.  The guy asked Rylan what he wanted first and he said a dinosaur.  So he got a t-rex hat.

Carter wanted the same thing but the balloon guy suggested he get a jet fighter to shoot the dinosaur.  Carter's eyes got big and he agreed.  The jet fighter ended up being more of a backpack but I think Carter was happy (I told him he was like Buzz Lightyear).

I hit 100,000 miles on my car on Tuesday morning on the way to preschool.  Does that mean I can get a new one? :)

It is "E week" for Carter's class this week at school.  Show-and-tell was moved to today and Carter brought in an elephant.  It was actually a little difficult to come up with show-and-tell items that started with the letter e!

Brian's dad visited us for a couple of days this week.  He was flying home from St. Louis and had a layover here.  He was able to extend his layover 48 hours and stay with us 2 nights.  When we picked Art up from the airport on Monday, we went to the zoo before Carter's hip hop class.

We drug Art around all day yesterday to school, speech, and soccer and then today Rylan and I took him to Cheekwood and the downtown library storytime before taking him to the airport.  It was a short but fun visit!

Carter had these two drawings in his school bag today.  The first is apparently for Halloween and is a monster wearing earmuffs with faces on them.  Hhhmmmmmm ...

This one is much less scary and just shows how much better Carter is getting at staying in the lines and filling in shapes while coloring.

Speech and Language Evaluation Report

Brian and I had our meeting with the preschool speech teacher (Rholanda Smartt) today for Rylan.  For thinking that Rylan probably wouldn't qualify for the program, he definitely does!  His list of articulation errors is even longer than Carter's was when he was first tested!

Here are some highlights from the Speech and Language Evaluation Report ...

Referral/General Education Intervention:
...During his initial screening, Rylan's speech was characterized by errors in final consonant deletion and fronting.  His overall intelligibility was rated to be 20-30% intelligible to the unfamiliar listener. ... [Rholanda said that at age 3, they expect children to be at least 50% intelligible.]

Curricular Based Assessment and Observations:
[I don't get to talk to Rylan's teachers at preschool very much so this is the most I've found out about how he's doing there!]
Classroom Observation 9/24/2013:
Rylan was observed in his preschool classroom during center time (e.g. play, art center).  Rylan was observed to be very hesitant in sharing his name with the therapist, whereas his peers were less reluctant.  He enjoyed playing by himself with the cars and street map, but also did not mind when a friend joined him in play.  Rylan did approach the therapist to show her a toy, but his utterance was unintelligible.  Rylan was inconsistent with responding to the teacher's questions, but once he was at the art table, he did comment while coloring.  The teacher mentioned that she did understand Rylan at that time due to the topic being known (e.g. crayons).  However, when Rylan was sharing a story about his tattoo, the teacher or the therapist could not interpret his message.  After the art table, he did include himself in play with his friends.  He got his peers' attention by saying, "Hey".  He later initiated interaction with the therapist by saying, "Hey", and answered her questions with, "A flower", and "Hey, star".  He then said, "I go play over there", pointing to the toys.  He was observed to include himself in his peers' conversation by saying, "Hey, I go to beach".  After the conversation, his peers joined him in playing blocks.  When it was time to pick up, he helped and was observed to comment to the teacher about the toys.  Overall, during play, he was pretty quiet, but did not mind sharing his space or toys with his friends.  Rylan's teacher noted that he is typically quiet, but follows directions and transitions well in the classroom.

Formal Assessment:
Sound errors noted in the standardized testing were analyzed for error patterns.  Noted patterns and number of occurrences are listed below.

Phonological Error Patterns - 
Final Consonant Deletion (do for dog) - 73% of occurrence
Stopping (pish for fish)
Velar Fronting (tup for cup) - 100% of occurrence
Gliding (wook for look) - 100% of occurrence
Deaffrication (tair for chair) - 100% of occurrence
Medial Constant Deletion (moey for monkey) - 40% of occurence

Informal Assessment:
Errors of final consonant deletion and fronting were noted in connected speech.  Rylan was observed to speak using 3-5 word utterances.  He was not observed to be hesitant about his speech production during the speech sample and would attempt to clarify his utterances when asked.

Articulation/Phonology:
Based on these assessments, Rylan's articulation/phonology is not considered to be within normal limits.

And here are some highlights from the Individual Education Program (IEP) Initial Report ...

Measurable Annual Goals and Benchmarks/Short-term Instructional Objectives for IEP and Transition Activities:

Annual Goal: Rylan will improved intelligibility of speech to be a successful communicator in his classroom setting by mastery of the below objectives with at least 80% accuracy.

1. Rylan will eliminate the phonological process of final consonant deletion in syllables and words with 80% accuracy in 4/5 opportunities.
2. Rylan will eliminate the phonological process of final consonant deletion in phrases/sentences with 80% accuracy in 4/5 opportunities.
3. Rylan will eliminate the phonological process of final consonant deletion in conversational speech as measured by three 3-minute speech samples with at least 80% accuracy.
4. Rylan will produce s-blends (sp, st, sm, sn, sk) in words and phrases with 80% accuracy in 4/5 opportunities.

[These are the goals for the first year.  Obviously the main goal is to correct the final consonant deletion issue.  Next will be to work on s-blends.]

Like Carter is currently doing, Rylan will now be having two 30-minute sessions each week at Crockett Elementary School with the preschool speech teacher.  Rholanda's schedule is pretty full so we didn't have much of a choice on therapy times.  We ended up choosing Mondays and Wednesdays at 1:45 pm (Carter goes Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:30 pm).  I like that this time will not interfere with us doing playdates in the mornings but it is technically right in the middle of Rylan's nap time.  However, I feel like I can get Rylan in a shorter, earlier nap on those days and we should be okay (I probably won't fight Rylan taking a car nap on the way home from playdates on those days).  Rylan's Wednesday session will be while Carter is at school and Rylan and I will have to race over there to get him on time.

Spending more time with Rholanda today, I feel much better about her.  I really loved the teacher Carter had for 1 1/2 years before Rholanda, but she was very different and it's been hard to get used to the differences in methods and styles.  But Rholanda did tell me the other day that Carter is her favorite student.  All of Carter's teachers tell me this!!!  It's so crazy!  I'm assuming it's because he really, really loves to please his teachers, he's a hard worker, and well behaved for other people.

I asked Rholanda today if Rylan's speech is related to Carter's speech.  I was wondering if he picked up a lot of the same issues that Carter has by just listening to him.  I was also wondering if it's because of how Brian and I speak or if it's genetic.  Rholanda said there are no studies that support any of these reasons for siblings having similar articulation issues and that it seems to be random.

Rholanda is out of town for the next 1 1/2 weeks so Rylan will start his sessions on October 21st as long as I get him registered with the school system by then.  I'm excited that he's now also going to be getting assistance.  Carter has improved so much since being in the program and I'm looking forward to seeing improvements with Rylan's speech as well!