Well to say we've had an interesting few weeks would be an understatement. Ryan was gone for two weeks for his last workup before he leaves his squadron. He was supposed to finish up there the first week of December, go to school in Pensacola for 5 weeks beginning in January and then come back here to start his department head tour at a squadron down the hall from his current one. However, we found out last week that his new squadron will actually be in Japan. So we are moving there... in a few months. Now that we've had some time to wrap our brains around it, we are very excited.
I went to the library and checked out some Living Language audio and books for me and Learning Japanese for Kids for the girls. They LOVE it. And I am actually learning a lot more from that DVD than the study on my own. It's more my speed. Plus it helps that we watch it at least 5 times a day. Leyton repeats the words back to the DVD and she's pretty good. And Ellis babbles a lot and I just pretend she's speaking Japanese and I just don't understand her.
Before learning Japanese, Leyton had a little trouble with her English. Back in May, she started speech therapy, for a moderate speech impairment, twice a week. They told us most kids do speech therapy for a year. A few weeks before her third birthday, her therapist mentioned that Leyton had already reached all the goals they had set for her. They retested her after she turned 3 so they could compare her results with standardized results from other 3 year olds. Her results were awesome. She still makes mistakes in her articulation of language, like the 'sh' 'th' and 'v' sounds, but these are all normal mistakes that kids her age make. Her score for articulation was the 51st percentile, so completely average for her age. They also tested her Mean Length of Utterance (how many words she typically says in each sentence). Her score was a 4.32. According to research, this score is expected for a 43-46 month old kid... she was 36 months at the time of the test. So basically it proves that she talks a lot :-) After the test, they kicked her out of speech therapy because she is now talking, not just as well, but BETTER than her peers. To borrow her phrase, "Way to go, Leyton!"
Also, Leyton had both her 3-year check-up AND her annual dental visit recently. Last year these were both horrible, because she SCREAMED the entire time. This year was a completely different story. She was so brave! Even though she knew she would have to get a flu shot. She is 3 feet, 2 inches tall which drops her all the way to the 70th percentile (she's been 90+ her entire life). She is 31 pounds, which is the 52nd percentile (she's never been more than 20th percentile). So her numbers are evening out a bit. The dentist said her teeth looked great too. Ryan said she was still a little scared of the dentist, but nothing like last year. I think it helps that they gave her 'surprises' (a new toothbrush, toothpaste, a toy and a sticker). Once again, so proud of our girl.
And I can't do a post without mentioning Ellis. She is hilarious. She is fast and picking up speed every day. She is also becoming quite the sassy pants. She can't really talk yet, other than Mama and Dada, but she manages to sass very well just the same. She is going to end up in timeout VERY soon! Together with her sister, it is NEVER a dull or quiet moment. Or if it is quiet, you better check on them... because they are doing something they aren't supposed to:
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| Leyton's 'I-know-I-am-not-supposed-to-do-this-but-I-am-hoping-I-am-cute-enough-to-get-away-with-it' face |
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| Ellis copying her sister... which is going to get her in big trouble one day soon |
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| yes, that is our Christmas tree... up already |
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| Leyton was VERY disappointed with all the Halloween decorations started disappearing (especially our neighbors awesome spiders), so I told her that when Daddy got home, we would put up our tree |
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| Daddy came home, so I kept my word. They both love to move the ornaments around and decorate. Side note: we have a little stash of broken ornaments on the counter awaiting superglue |
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| This is what quiet kids do. Leyton was supposed to be coloring My Little Pony. Instead, she colored Ellis. Purple. |
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| And Ellis didn't mind. It was one of those really funny moments that I couldn't laugh... instead I had to put Leyton in time-out... and then take pictures |
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| My silly girls |
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| Love them! |
