Parker Fine Print

I typically only blog about the fun, eventful things happening in our Parker world. But there's a lot more happening around here than gets posted, so I thought I'd list some of the fine print;

1. Car repairs and us are getting to be way too close of friends. Between both cars we've spent almost $3k in the past 3 months... talk about eating into our savings. The silver lining? We have our savings to fall back on so I don't have to tote 2 kids in and out of public transportation. :)


2. I'm going to get braces... someday. Long story short, we have a large-ish sum of cash on a health card that we didn't realize was there. But it can only go towards vision and dental until our deductible is met... haha. Well we have an even higher deductible this year... so we decided to put it towards braces for me. And I am SO EXCITED.  Yes, I am going to be brace face as mom. Hot. But who cares? I don't have to worry about dating drama any more. Not sure when this will happen... some of that car repair money was supposed to fund the rest of the braces.
*edit.... I started this post a while ago and due to #5, we will meet our deductible this year so braces may not come to pass. We'll see.


3. Star Wars. We love Star Wars around here lately, myself included. I've only seen bits and pieces of some of the movies, so Ben and I finally borrowed the first three from a friend and next we're going to watch the last (original) three. Episode III is by far my favorite so far... so sad.



4. Logan is a Sunshine Student this month at preschool. I was explaining to Logan that he was spotlighted in the newsletter for the month and he keeps saying he was "donated" (instead of "spotlighted" - ha).

Here's his spotlight (created from questions he answered):
Logan loves to watch Star Wars, ride bikes with his family, play with legos, go ice skating and fly kites. He likes to eat mac n' cheese, sauerkraut, pizza and cutie oranges. He loves to do crafting in preschool.

And it's true... the boy LOVES sauerkraut. Especially on his pizza. Trust me, that is something he discovered all on his own.


5. We had Linc's hearing test done for the third time in the past 6 months and once again, it referred because of fluid in his ears. Since being in the PEIP program, I've come to suspect that ear infections and/or fluid in his ears could be the culprit behind his low speech scores.

Thanks to a referral from Ben's cousin, we have an appointment with an ENT tomorrow. I'm guessing Lincoln will most likely get tubes put in. I'm not totally thrilled that it's come to this, but I'm more than anxious to see if it helps his speech.

This past week we focused on the words "open" and "no", trying to set up situations and interactions that would incorporate those words so he's not only learn how to say them but also understand their context.  What toddler needs help learning the word "no"? Odd right? Anyway, he's done great this week... his "open" is pretty close and his "no" comes out as "meh".  And if I prompt him and pause, he'll usually say both. Wohoo.

They just tested Lincoln for his 6-month mark in the program and the good news is that he has improved in all areas of development, although the least amount of improvement was in expressive communication (was at 1-2% and now at 9%).  But Shae did warn that if he doesn't continue improvement, he could slip down again just because in only a couple months the expectations and standards of testing change at age 2.

Now setting numbers aside, the biggest amount of improvement we've seen is he is more intent in his communication (ex: he'll come get my attention, and point to something he wants even if it's in a different room, instead of just wandering around whining and moaning.). Also, we can engage him in back-and-forth play so much easier and he will stay engaged for much longer. We've learned this is foundational for learning language so we're thrilled about this. Plus, he and Logan play SO much better together. It's not always peachy, but it's much better than before.

I'm hoping that the combination of ear tubes and the language explosion that typically occurs around age two will just allow his expressive language to take off. 


6. Nothing is official at all, but we're working on moving.  We just need more space. We're constantly tripping over each other and I'm tired of being ultra creative to find storage solutions that work in this quaint little house of ours. And after meeting with a realtor, I think we've lit a candle under us and feel the need to really get the house ready to sell. But like I said, this is all still in the works.


7. Ben has a goal of fishing the Provo river year round, at least once per month. He's kept up with it so far. Plus he's almost done with his Trihex bamboo rod. This is his blog, but he hasn't posted a pic of his latest rod yet... why Ben? 


8. After struggling through 3 different sewing machines, my duvet cover is finally finished! I have yet to take a picture, though, because the room is not in the pristine condition that it was in 3 weeks ago. :) 


9. I've been going to the gym lately and because I did something to my knee while running, I've turned to swimming instead for a while and LOVE it.  I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever love swimming, but it's true. I'm hooked.



Ok, so this turned out to be more of a Lincoln update, but oh well. This is pretty much the nitty gritty of what's been happening around here. High five to you if you made it through.