Six and Three

Another June 21st has come and gone.

This year the kids' birthday celebrations did not begin until their actual birthday.  Kind of a rare event for us.  Usually, it seems the entire month of June is spent celebrating the big day.  But to make up for it we will be still partying well into July, so don't worry about them.  They will be just fine.

We had a quiet day at home with some presents and donuts and the celebrity neighbor girl over for the afternoon.  The ball of fur Myka is holding is a Webkinz pet she has been eyeing since buying a birthday gift for a friend a month ago.  They come with a code for a website that lets you take care of the pet online, buying it food and clothes and playing with it, etc.  This one is a Yorkie named Susan who likes cotton candy and swimming.  I think Susan and I will get along just fine.

Of course, Eli thought he needed one too, since Myka kept asking.  But really, since he doesn't use the computer yet, it is another present for Myka.  I am holding off letter her log him in so that she has something to look forward to on a rainy day.  And so Eli gets to play with him for a few days at least.

After Eli's nap we headed to Chuck E Cheese for pizza and games.  Quite a step down from the Texas Roadhouse meal she picked last year, but we manage to have fun there anyway.  I brought a few pieces of cake and we had our own little party right there for the same price we pay at Texas Roadhouse, so it wasn't all bad.

Eli has more fun here anyway.

And he definitely eats more.

 After trying to get Eli to "look excited!" for a picture, Myka decided she would demonstrate.

And their birthday just wouldn't be complete without a trip to the basement for a tornado warning.  At 8:30 the sirens went off and everyone was plucked out of bed for some quality time underground.  I realized that has happened on every even birthday for Myka, so she is 50%.  I'll let you know in 2 years if the streak is still alive.

Happy Birthday, Myka and Eli!

T-t-t-t-today, Junior!

A month or so ago Eli developed a stutter.

I wasn't too worried because 1) Myka did the EXACT same thing at age 3 (see? actually he is advanced...) and 2) after panicking a little when Myka started stuttering, I found out that it's not concerning to anyone but the parents unless it is a specific letter or sound that is causing the problem.  Since they both began their stuttering with the first word to any sentence it was more a matter of their brain and their mouth being out of sync than a real speech problem.

Eli woke up one day having trouble with the first word to every sentence, and it progressed to where he couldn't get out any words in a sentence without saying the first syllable at least 3 or 4 times.  After about 3 weeks he started to realize he was doing it and would finally stop and say, "c-c-c-c-c-can y-y-you just say it?"  Usually I would know what he was trying to say but just let him struggle through it, and when I asked why he wanted me to say it for him he would say, "my my my my mouth won't work."

Here is pretty much the worst of what we saw.  Watching this video with us was the first time we think he realized he was doing it.



Not that stuttering is funny, but the highlight of it all for us was when he was sitting at the table trying to ask Kurt something with the word "people" in it and we heard, "p-p-p-p--p,p-p,p-(smile) (giggle) I said pee-pee." 

Then sometime last week I noticed it was pretty much gone, which was good because waiting for the words to come was really testing my pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-patience. 

This video is 11 days later.

And yes, he did say he doesn't like swimming.  One problem gone and another emerges.