Preschool!

And this little piggy went to preschool...  We had debated about whether or not to send Cadence to preschool this year.  She still has two years before kindergarten and considering her speech delay, I was concerned that putting her in a room with 8 or 9 others kids would leave both her and the teacher frustrated.  We were going to hold off until a friend of mine, and former school teacher, said that she wanted to teach a small preschool group in her home.  It sounded like the perfect set-up.

So Cadence, my baby, has started school!  Only two days a week for three hours a day, so I don't feel like she's gone too much, but I'm not going to lie (and I won't get Parent of the Year for saying this) it's nice to have a little breather.  Even better than that, though, she seems to be loving it!  She wakes up on school mornings ready to "go to cool".  By the time we get to Ms. Holly's house she has grown a little more clingy and whines "Don't go, Mommy".  She is easily distracted with the new toys that surround her and I leave without tears.  By the time I get back though, she smiles and says "Mommy, go away!"  The perfect mix of happy to see me but happy enough to stay there and play with toys and friends that she doesn't see everyday.  I think that this will be good!

Hamming it up for the first day

Officially the second day, but my printer had no ink the first day!  And I loved the outfit that she put together!

The peaks and valleys of speech delays

Lately, it feels more like a deep, dark, endless abyss than just a valley.  Melodramatic, I know, but some days seem more challenging than others.  And we've had a lot of those recently.  Cadence has been in speech therapy since her last surgery over a year ago.  One of our biggest "leaps" was when she finally started to initiate words on her.  This was a very welcome change from the previous behavior of "point, whine, grunt, cry" when she wanted something.  Now, she talks all day!  I know that she is forming the words in her little brain and they are working themselves over her tongue and out of her mouth, but it just isn't coming together.  I probably understand about 10% of what she says the first time she says it.  And she talks a lot!  Which means that I spend about 90% of my time with her desperately trying to figure out what she is saying.  It's like language immersion into toddlerese.  It can be exhausting.  Truly exhausting. 

An example of what happens about 27 times a day:  Cadence points towards the front of the house and says "uck".  I say "You want the window open?  You want to go outside?  Is there a bird outside?  An airplane?  Should we go look at some flowers?  Can you say it again?  I don't understand."  Granted, she takes most of it in stride.  But as you can imagine, there is often varying degrees on frustration on everybody's part.  Most days I know it will get better.  I know that she will be intelligible when she goes to college.  I know that I need patience... something that has NEVER come easy to me!  Is it too much to ask to know what's going on in my little girl's head?  Of course, I have a feeling I'll be saying this in about 4 years regarding Sierra!  Maybe I should just be content with the fact that Cadence is at least sharing with me right now rather than worrying about understanding it!

Regardless of what she says, doesn't say, what is comprehensible or not,

this little girl is surrounded by love!

Boom!

It finally happened!  This girl has had her language explosion!  There were some days I thought it would never happen.  I really feared that we would be living in the land of grunting, pointing, and whining indefinitely!  A couple of months ago I thought we were on the edge, but it's taken a bit longer than expected.  I can say with a sigh of relief  'It's finally here'.

Cadence had a few strikes against her. First, not having the right hardware for speech (aka an intact palate) as well as not hearing English until she was 16 months old.  She has also been surrounded by two helpful big sisters and parents who wanted to make the whining stop wanted to meet her every need quickly and efficiently!  Therefore, she probably hasn't had much drive to actually say what she wants.  But now she wants to talk.  She wants to say the words and be understood.  It's not crisp and clear, but it's definitely much better than before and it's initiated on her own... no prompting from me.  When I give her her cup she says the sweetest "Thank you, momma".  It truly makes my heart melt!  So for those of you with this same long journey ahead - it will happen (I just hope you have more patience that me!).

These are pictures from FINALLY meeting little Beatrix!  She is adorable, although she and Cadence don't seem so sure of each other here!

Seeing the light

Cadence has been a barrage of sound since she came home from China.  She soon had all of the vowels down pat.  She formed her first real word within a day or so of having her cleft lip repair in January - "Mama"! (Sierra swears she said "antelope" when we were at the Inner Mongolia Museum, but I'm not buying it!)  On the way home from the hospital after her lip repair she put her lips together, for the first time ever, and said "mmmm.."  Basically, that was the end of her consonants.  We started speech therapy in February where we spent one hour a week with her therapist observing her.  Yes, basically observing her for about 4 months!  I knew it wasn't going exactly as I hoped but I have never seen a 21 month old child with a cleft lip/palate learn to talk!  For anyone else starting on this journey - be PROACTIVE!  If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't! 

We started with a new speech therapist in the beginning of June and she has been amazing!  She works relentlessly with Cadence, challenges her, and cheers her on!  Since that time Cadence has thrown out a few more consonants - b, p, w, c/k, n, d, g, h, l(!).  But it has felt like such a long road.  Girlfriend is very smart (aren't they all!), strong willed, determined and knows exactly what she wants.  I mean Exactly!  She is right on target with her receptive language and knows a few signs, but I am longing for the day when she says "Mama, can I have some juice?".  Heck, I'll even settle for "Juice?".  I am so ready for the days of pointing, whining, groaning, and crying to not be the beginning of all of our conversations.

Alas, I saw a light last week.  A small light, but it was there!  I was reading her a book at bedtime and she was pointing to the pictures on her quilt.  "Ball" and "block" fell from her lips.  What?! Okay, so not that clearly, but I knew what she was saying and the biggest thing - she initiated it!  It wasn't in response to me saying "Is that a ball?" or "What is that, a block?".  She said the words, all by themselves, all on her own.  Within the last few days she has said "cup, drink, cat, cow" and a few other words with no prompting!

I see the light and now this tunnel doesn't seem quite as long and scary!