Happy Anniversary!

Is it possible that it’s already been eight years?  That we've gone from this:

We were so young!

To this?

This year, we gave ourselves something that cannot be bought in stores, but was still the most we have spent (which is saying something since we have celebrated previous years with vacations and jewelry)!  This year, our gift to each other was an extra, extra-large payment to our debt.  Reaching our goal of debt-free sooner will be the best gift of all.   

Before I met Chris, I always thought that the whirlwind relationships and marriages so common in Utah were a little naive.  How could one get to know another well enough in that time to commit for time and eternity?  Well, the Lord has a funny way of showing you that He is always the one in charge since that is exactly how Chris’ and my relationship played out.  We dated for such a short time before Chris proposed, but when you know, you know!

Even though we have had our ups and downs (and believe me, there have been plenty of downs!), I have never doubted my decision to choose Chris.  He shows me everyday how he values our children and me by working tirelessly both in- and outside the home.  He is a hopeless romantic and handyman rolled into one.  My spider-killing, toenail-painting, car-repairing, button-sewing hero.

How did I get so lucky?  Of course, Chris will argue that he got the better half.  And if that’s all we can find to argue about over the next 8, 18 and 80 years, I suppose we’ll both have to count ourselves lucky. 

Averie's Diagnosis

So if you don’t know about Averie’s speech delay yet, you must be new here ;-), but we finally have an official diagnosis: speech apraxia.

Apraxia is actually thought to be a neurological disorder because it is, basically, a problem with the brain communicating to the mouth how it should move to form words.  Kids with apraxia generally have much better receptive speech than expressive (that’s Averie), have severe expressive delays (yep, she’s in the 4^th percentile) and will often substitute their own “words” for real words because they can’t make the sounds correctly (also her).

We’ve had mixed feelings about the services we are receiving through early intervention lately and at our EI speech therapist’s urging, we enrolled Averie in private speech therapy.  

Oh my.  The price tag on that is…high, and because Averie’s delay is not caused by “injury, illness or autism spectrum disorder”, it is not covered by our (otherwise awesome) insurance.  But Averie has only been with Paige (her private therapist) for a month and we are already seeing HUGE progress so I know it is worth every penny.

I am so grateful that Chris is able to get so many extra hours right now and that we’re still able to live with my parents because otherwise, I don’t know if we could manage it and who knows how long it could take before Averie would talk, if ever, if we weren’t able to get help for her during this formative time.

So she’ll be in the private therapy for the foreseeable future and she will have an assessment done by the local school district a little closer to her 3^rd birthday.  If she still qualifies (which she should – progress with apraxia tends to be quite slow), she may either get additional speech therapy through the school district or be eligible to attend preschool and still get the speech therapy there.  We’re kind of hoping for the preschool – we socialize her as much as we can, but I think it would really be great for her.

Right now, the things Averie can reliably say:

Wow

Uh-oh

Oh, no (sounds like Oh, doh)

Nom nom! (when she wants to eat what you have, this one makes me laugh)

Done

No.  I think this is one of those ones that we are supposed to dread but we were elated when she said it, and it’s hard not to laugh at the sly voice she says it when she’s being naughty!

Dah for Daddy and Deh for Declan 

Bye (sometimes; inconsistency is another problem with apraxia)

But the biggest one of all:

Mom!  She really, really means it this time.  Months and months ago, when she started saying “mama” we thought that was it, but it seems that was more the apraxia babble.  But now she actually says it for me, to me.  I love it.

Averie can make all but three alphabet letter sounds independently (J, Q and X) but struggles to combine them into any words, so even though she can say “pah” and “tee” separately, she can’t say “potty”, which we are trying to enforce now for potty training later.

What she lacks in verbal words, she makes up for in signs: milk, more, all done, please, thank you, I’m sorry, open, eat, drink, and down.   

We have a long road ahead but I know we will get there.