Summer 2009 - 20 mos - July

Independence Day was spent with friends and food. Matt got to flex his barbecue skills on a friend's Big Green Egg. The kids were able to get wet in the massive inflatable kiddie pool. I got an opportunity to partake in an adult beverage here and there. What a great time! Thank you Stephanie!

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Martha came down for a short visit. Their first night here they had to endure viewing What Not to Wear on TLC, (a friend of mine from my former career as a dancer was the featured make-over). As always, lots of good eating when visitors are in town, ie www.foxbrosbbq.com, www.cakesandalerestaurant.com, of course La Cocina de Colinas (The Hills Kitchen).

Ian and I hosted our first play date. Up until now we had been going to friends' homes and their children have had to share their toys with Ian. Now Ian has to share his toys. What a rude awakening. Ian screamed, shoved, scratched, hit, bit, when little Ali was touching his toys. Soooo, I will be alternating hosting play date locations so Ian can get a taste of having to share toys. Egads! I'm now concerned when/if the time comes for him to share his mommy and daddy with a sibling.

Ian continues to sign. He has over fifty signs. He now understands that he gets his needs met sooner when he signs, so he is learning signs a little faster. His verbal is on its way, but he hasn't had an explosion of words yet the way he did with signs. He says daddy, mommy, doggy, please, and thank you, which I find to be the most helpful words at this time. Some articles say that signing children have a delay in speech. I'm not too worried about that, at least Ian is able to communicate without throwing a huge tantrum because I don't understand what he wants or needs. Multilingual children also experience a delay in speech because they are learning other languages at the same time, www.multilingualchildren.org. Ian is learning two languages.

The battery in our digital camera has been on it's last recharge for the past few months. So, not a lot of stills have been taken of Ian. We will have to be content with video footage.

Enjoy.