Heaven on Earth

I've become a little less frugal in my old age. Actually, it is the little people in my life who have changed my frugal ways! I am still cheap, but I splurge when I really want something. I've been eyeing these slings since before Sophia was born. I wish I had reacted earlier because I think I just got a feel of what heaven must be like! The ability to hold snug and cuddle my smallest joy all of the time!

I thought I'd never be able to snuggle my younger children like I did Annabelle. While exploring CVS this evening to burn some Extra Care Bucks, I held my sleeping Sophia nestled next to me in the cradle position. I cuddled and rubbed her sweet body as she slept.

Folks, this is baby wearing at its best! 8 different positions! [There is even a position for carrying twins]. All cotton! No buttons, loops or fasteners! You can even nurse your child in this baby carrier!

I knew it was a must when a lady I met at the children's museum this weekend recommended it. She was obviously very big into attachment parenting (and baby wearing as a result) as she had 7 different baby carriers at home. She was a bit on the extreme end of attachment parenting, so I knew she had done her research. And if you know me, you know some of my parenting tactics are those recommended by Dr. Sears. Of course, the co-sleeping is not really my thing. You wouldn't know that though because Sophia is still sleeping in our bedroom at night! Annabelle was ousted at 2.5 months old.

Bring on the babies while I'm still young! Now I'm thinking 6 may be an ideal number. Hubby, are you cringing yet? Do you believe me yet?

Just Forget It

Annabelle spilled her Sprite from lunch in her car seat today. After taking a short potty break, I told her to get back into her car seat. Her bottom was bare since her panties were soaked.

Annabelle: I need a napkin!

Mommy: What do you need a napkin for?

Annabelle: Because I spilled Sprite in my car seat.

Mommy: Annabelle, I just used a napkin to dry it up.

Annabelle: But it's still wet!

Mommy: Fine.

[Pause]

Mommy: Here you go.

[Annabelle takes the napkin.]

Annabelle: Just forget it! [as she promptly throws the napkin onto the floorboard of the car]

[Insert chuckles from Grandmama and me]


Hmm...who does that sound like? It sounds a lot like something Grandmama would say if you ask me! But, it was quite hilarious coming from a three year, almost four year old!

Giggles

Sorry for the lack of posting, but we've been on a much needed family vacation since Tuesday. Sophia has changed so much in a short week. Following are some updates.

1. She's going 12 hours between feedings! Of course, it is 10:12 p.m. on Sunday, and she last ate at 4:30 p.m., so I suspect tonight will not be too restful.

2. She started reaching out to touch our faces this week.

3. She said "Mama!" Yes she did! She also said "ba-ba." Not that I will record "Mama" down as her first word because I know she has no clue what she really said, but I guess she is officially moving from cooing to babbling. I don't remember Annabelle babbling this early. I'm afraid we may have an early talker on our hands! I'll never be able to speak again around these two motor mouths.

4. She sucks on her fingers and fists all of the time! She is now drooling and if I don't keep her mouth wiped, her poor little chin breaks out. She woke up from a nice nap in the car this evening and got really fussy with that "I'm hurting Mommy" cry. It wasn't the piercing, painful cry though. I think we will see some teeth before long.

5. She has started smiling at Annabelle because Annabelle is, well, she's Annabelle! She especially thought that both Annabelle and I were funny with our faces painted on Wednesday. More on that later!

6. And her giggles are truly real giggles now. They will make your heart smile! This video was taken on Wednesday when we visited the children's museum in Chattanooga. Pardon the extreme closeup, but I was videoing her while she was attached to me in the Baby Bjorn.



P.S. Do I really sound like that?

Baby Doll

Need I say more? This was the same dress that my Grandmother gave me and I wore when I was a baby. Annabelle wore the same dress for her 3 month picture. Of course, Sophia's "3 month" pictures weren't taken until 4 months, but it'll do!

Cuteness

Who can resist a little Sophia cuteness?


In the above picture, Sophia was snug as a bug in her car seat which was attached to her stroller when we visited Fernbank on Saturday for a Dino Birthday Bash. And for the record, I do not swaddle her when we are in the car driving. But, in order to get this child to sleep, she must always be swaddled! Do you see her left hand pushing through? Her naps are getting shorter for obvious reasons! Bummer, bummer, bummer! But, fortunately, her nights are getting longer. 10.5 hours for the first time on the night of her 4 month birthday (August 16th)!!! That was a huge step as her nighttime wakings varied nightly and ranged from every 3 hours to 6 hours to 8 hours on a rare occasion.

And she realized that her feet are actually attached! Last week she started holding her feet. I went to the back seat of our vehicle yesterday to grab a camera to take a picture of a beautiful rainbow, and I found that little stinker sucking her biggest toe! Of course, whenever she spots a camera of any sort (digital or video), she stops what she's doing. So, I got the picture with her foot in mid air.

I love, love, love this age! I forgot how much I loved this age with Annabelle. Too bad it goes ten times faster with the second child! She's going to be crawling before I know it! Slow down Sophia! Please don't grow up so fast! I may have to cry if you are truly forever my baby. I keep telling myself there will be more after you (God willing) so that I rejoice with each milestone instead of cry that my baby is growing up. And, now that Annabelle and Sophia have each other as sisters, I don't think I'd mind too much having a mama's boy!

Dino Birthday Bash

And this is how every princess should dress for a dinosaur's birthday party at Fernbank.

I LOVE being "that" mom. You know, the only one at Fernbank who let her child step foot out of the house wearing a smocked dress with Hello Kitty rain boots attired with Mardi Gras beads and a princess tiara. There was one other little boy wearing his rain boots, but they matched his shirt accordingly.

Poor hubby! I think he'd rather duck and hide under a table than to be seen with us on some days.

She's just exerting her independence! Not to mention, she dresses herself so much faster when I allow her to choose the attire for the day.

No Fear!

Joy Choir

I'm so excited! I just signed Annabelle up for choir this fall with our church. I haven't asked her yet if she'd like to participate, but I know she will. She asks me all the time, "Mommy, when can we go back to my church again?" We haven't visited since a few weeks before Sophia was born. She really loves going to church, so I am hoping that her participation in Joy Choir (for the three year olds) will help us to stay more involved in the church.

This is the first year she is actually eligible to participate since she has a late birthday. I am glad I read the "Seedlings" church bulletin or I would have completely forgotten she was old enough.

I cannot wait to watch her first performance! I wonder how she will do. Will she tense up and not want to go on stage? Or will she want to be the center of attention? Will she be the child that everyone hears sing or will she not even make a peep?

My first baby is growing up way too fast! But, these are definitely some good times!

Fast Forward 12 Years

Dear Annabelle,

I told you just the other day that it was alright to flirt just a little bit with boys. Your Daddy wasn't too happy with me for making that statement to you. Honestly, no joking, he was not happy about it at all! He did not care that you are only three and do not even know what "flirting" means. His response, "No Annabelle. You do NOT flirt with boys." Then he turns to me and says, "A girl who flirts is a tease." I didn't agree until I looked through these pictures and realized what your idea of flirting will be in about 12 years.

Smiling at the boys with your spaghetti strap hanging off your shoulder while driving a Jeep Wrangler that Nonnie bought you is NOT flirting. That is most definitely teasing, and it will not be allowed as long as you are living under our roof!

Love always,

Your Dearest Mommy

P.S. Nonnie, don't even think about buying Annabelle a Jeep Wrangler in 12 years! If you do, she can only drive it in your driveway (just like the toddler version).

Resourceful

This blog entry is simply to run a test to see if I can actually upload videos to my blog. I just hope these videos don't take up a lot of blog space.

Here is my sweet Sophia being resourceful. She found her feet long before she ever found her hands. I swear she's going to be an awesome soccer player one day. This girl can kick like no other! Today I watched her use her left foot to move a toy hanging from her bouncy seat up closer to her so she could grab it with her left hand.

That is smart thinking for an almost 4 month old if you ask me!

It worked, but why did it take so long to load? Any tips for fast loading?

Stay Tuned

I am completely beside myself! Why? Because hubby found one of these, barely used, on Craig's List for only $250! The Toys R Us price is $799.99 before sales tax.

It comes complete with three swings, a slide, monkey bars, a rock wall, a chalk board and a lemonade stand! I cannot wait to see the look on Annabelle's face once it is complete. Just today on the way home from the bank, we passed a day care center and she asked me, "Mommy, when am I going to be able to go to school there?" I laughed because I knew why she had asked me. "Why?" I asked her. "Because I want to play on dat playground," she said. I knew that was her reason!

Hubby really busted his butt to get this playground set. He called yesterday, and someone else was supposed to come and pick it up yesterday evening. He told her that if it fell through to please give him a call back. She called while we were eating dinner last night to tell him that the other people apparently never showed up. So, he told her he'd be there around 11:30 a.m. today. He called her around 10:30 a.m. this morning to learn that someone else was supposed to stop by to pick it up at 11:30 a.m. She told him, "It is first come first serve and it needs to be gone by tomorrow." He wasn't very happy with the circumstances since she hadn't mentioned that to him last night. But, he called a friend who lives out that way, and he met him. He arrived at 11:31 a.m. and beat the other guy there. Hubby and hubby's friend checked it out and decided it was definitely a good deal. So, hubby gave her the $60 he had in his wallet so she knew he was serious. He left his friend there to begin dismantling it, and he left to get the additional cash from an ATM. She called the other guy, who was already on his way, to let him know it was already taken.

Apparently, the playground had been purchased only 2 months ago, and they had put their house on the market and sold it within a week. They had to be out by tomorrow.

They got it dismantled this afternoon. It is currently being stored at his friend's parents house. It worked out well because his friend's parents have a trailer that they are going to use to haul everything back to our house this weekend.

So, hopefully, it will be set up this weekend! I cannot wait to see the expression on Annabelle's face. She is going to be so excited!

And, now, I have ammunition for my new discipline plan I intend to put in place very soon!

Thanks hubby for busting your butt to make this happen for Annabelle (and me too)! I think this is going to make my days a whole lot easier!

Tough Love

I followed through! I did it! And I don't think Annabelle was damaged in the least!

We went to the library this afternoon, "Dinos To Go" by Sandra Boynton in hand.

I instructed Annabelle that she was going to return the book to the librarian and tell the librarian herself that she had colored in the book. I told her that if she refused to tell the librarian herself that we would return all of the books that we checked out yesterday. Was that mean? I needed to threaten to take away something to make her follow through. Otherwise, she may have just stood next to me and not said a thing.

I was so very proud of her! She admitted that she had colored the book, and she showed the librarian where she had colored the book (on the front and the back). I actually hadn't even noticed that she had colored the front of the book until we left for the library.

We got the perfect librarian for Annabelle's lesson! The librarian was in her late 50's or early 60's, and she responded accordingly. She even had me fooled as I started to fear that she was going to make us buy another book!

The librarian said, "Oh no." She started flipping through the pages to check for additional damage. I am sure she was just putting on a show so that Annabelle would learn her lesson. After she looked at the book, she said, "That will be 50 cents."

So, I paid the librarian and told Annabelle that I would loan her the 50 cents and she could pay me back using money from her piggy bank.

Annabelle ventured off at this point and brought back a video. The librarian said, "Are you planning to check out more books?" She asked because she had just scanned my library card and had it on file. I told her, "No. I told her we were only here to return the book." The librarian seemed surprised, but we started talking, and she said, "That is an important lesson to teach her."

She did ask if she could give Annabelle a sticker, and I told her she could. I felt like this let Annabelle know that the librarian was not mad at her, and it was better to tell her that she had colored in the book than to just return it.

Annabelle did reimburse me for the 50 cents without hesitation later this evening. I have no way of knowing if she truly "got it," but I guess only time will tell. It was definitely one of my proudest moments as a mom because I felt like I taught her a very important lesson regarding taking care of things that we borrow from others.

For the record, it only ended up costing 20 cents for the damage. I already had a 30 cents late fee on the account, so she offset the 30 cents against the 50 cents leaving the 20 cents for damage.

Potty Training at Night

I've never attempted to really "potty train" Annabelle at night. It has just sort of happened on its own. She started keeping her diaper dry at night shortly after Sophia was born. And, lately, she keeps her diaper dry probably 6 days out of every week, if not all 7 days.

Of course, that does mean that she generally wakes up in the middle of the night to go tee tee. Generally, it is between 12:30 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. Fortunately, I am normally still up at that hour. She is usually crying, and she wants to be carried to the bathroom.

It doesn't help my sleep routine to get awakened again between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. for a Sophia feeding! Have I mentioned that I LOVE and NEED my sleep?

But, a mother's job never ends does it?

And, Grandmama, hubby also reminded me this evening that I had promised Annabelle I'd take her to Mayfield Dairy as soon as she started keeping her diaper dry at night. I made that promise over a year ago when I was extra zealous and thought that potty training during the day would mean a rather quick transition to being potty trained at night.

What would YOUR Mama do?

During one of Annabelle's many time outs for the day, she found it necessary to color her bed rail AND a library book with a black crayon.

Before judging, please realize that I did not know she had crayons or books with her in bed in time out until after the fact. I don't allow toys or books in the bed during time out!

Well, I didn't realize until shortly before Daddy got home that she had colored on something other than paper. I told her then, "Annabelle, you know better. We only color on paper. That was wrong, and I am going to need to discuss your punishment with your Daddy when he gets home." Honestly, I didn't know the proper punishment as I first thought that Annabelle should return the book to the library and tell the librarian herself that she had colored in the book. But, then I thought, perhaps that is too harsh of a punishment for a three year old. Of course, I think Caillou on her favorite cartoon, Caillou, had to do something very similar when his sister, Rosy, and him tore a book when they were fighting over it.

I discussed her misbehavior with hubby shortly before Annabelle's bedtime when Annabelle was in a different room. It was shortly before our discussion that I realized she had colored the bed rail too! I told him I was thinking to tell her that we would return the book without reading it. He then said, "Well, if it had been me, my mom would have made me return it to the library and tell the librarian what I had done." I suspect this is probably something that hubby actually had to do!

When I approached Annabelle regarding the book again later and told her that we were going to return it without reading it, she cried wholeheartedly and told me, "I colored off the paper on accident." Of course, she didn't tell me this until I threatened to return the book to the library without reading it to her since we just checked it out today.

But, she seemed so sincere, and my heart melted for that little stinker. That was until I studied the book a little bit more and realized that she had specifically colored on a part of the book that had been torn off by someone else. Not to mention, she colored the bed rail ON PURPOSE!

So, we had the discussion yet again.


Mommy: Mommy wants you to tell me the truth because that is the right thing to do. Did you color on the bed rail on purpose or by accident?

Annabelle: On purpose.

Mommy: Why?

Annabelle: Because I didn't think you would see it.

Mommy: Okay, did you color on the book on purpose or by accident?

Annabelle: On purpose.

Mommy: Why?

Annabelle: Because I wanted to.

[Pause]

Annabelle: God and Jesus always know if I'm telling the truth, right?

Mommy: That is right.

[Pause]

Mommy: Now, we are going to return that book tomorrow without reading it, and you are going to tell the librarian that you colored on the book.

[Insert a lot of unnecessary crying because she didn't want to return the book without reading it!]

Mommy: [to hubby] Do you think she's going to actually get it?

Hubby: [whispering to Mommy] Only if you don't take your camera. I know you want to take your camera, don't you?

[Insert slap to hubby's face!]

Only kidding on the slap to hubby's face part, but he definitely deserved it! I should make him take her to return it.


So, just curious, what would YOUR Mama do?

Fernbank Planetarium

Today was Annabelle's very first visit to the Fernbank Planetarium. My good friend, Michelle, and her daughter, Audrey, joined us. With my rocking Groupon Fernbank pass, I can get 2 adults and up to 4 kids into the planetarium shows for free.

The children's program running at the Fernbank Planetarium right now ends on August 7th, so I wanted to get Annabelle in to see it this week before the show ended completely. We saw the Galaxy Gameshow.

Of course, I am not sure how much Annabelle really "got" out of it, but life is all about the experiences, right? I am sure she is learning more from these "field trips" than I realize.

As life with a baby will have it, I naturally got pooped on 10-15 minutes into the show. Pooped on as in poop leaked out of Sophia's diaper onto my shorts. Somehow she missed her onesie. That was a good thing though as I was already running low on clothes hence the pink and plain onesie.

So, what was I to do? It was completely dark and if we left, supposedly we would be locked out! So, Sophia sat in it until she decided she no longer wanted to sit in it. That girl cannot stand a dirty diaper! It just ticks her off. Very unlike her sister because Annabelle never had a care in the world when she had a dirty diaper on.

But, 20-25 minutes into the show, Sophia had enough of sitting in her own poo! So, she fussed and completely refused the paci. What was I to do but leave my friend, Michelle, to care for my oldest child and her daughter, Audrey? I think I put a little too much trust in my own daughter to sit still and be quiet. She was already quite antsy as it was. I am sure the guy sitting next to Annabelle appreciated her getting up and down out of her chair. But, I did get his kids in for free into the show because one should never let a good membership go to waste!

I asked Annabelle before leaving if she wanted to stay and watch the show with Miss Michelle and Audrey. She did, of course. So Sophia and I left promptly.

And I realized as soon as the doors locked behind me that I had forgotten the diaper bag! So, Sophia sat in poo a little longer. I did try to open the doors in hope that they really weren't locked and the admission clerk was kidding. She wasn't! I actually decided to try to go back in after I thought how outrageous it was to leave Annabelle sitting in a row by herself to behave. Just as I was attempting to open the locked door, out comes Miss Michelle and Audrey. Apparently Michelle thought that Audrey may have started getting a little motion sickness from the stars moving in the planetarium, so they decided to leave. It was perfect timing!


Annabelle, Mommy and Sophia sitting in the planetarium waiting on the 11:00 a.m. show to begin. This was a first for Annabelle, and a second for Sophia since Sophia went with Mommy and Daddy this weekend to the adult show in the planetarium. Annabelle is looking more and more like me every single day. It takes pictures of us together for me to realize it. I just wonder who Sophia is going to look like when she is older.

Check out the long-sleeve dress in the above picture of us in the planetarium. Do you think I'd dress my child in long-sleeves in 100 degree weather in August? Nope! Miss Stubborn, for the second day in a row, insisted that she wanted to wear some of her winter clothes. I thought I was teaching her a lesson to not be so stubborn because I was hoping she'd get hot in that dress. It didn't seem to bother her at all! The independence is really shining through!

After the show and a much needed diaper change, we dropped some pennies in the "black hole," as I like to call it. Annabelle loves watching the pennies spin around and around. And then we went outside to see the chickens. We also toured a vegetable garden with squash and tiny peppers. Annabelle still talks about the vegetable garden (as of Wednesday) and wants to go back to see the "tiny, tiny peppers." We enjoyed watching the butterflies in the butterfly garden. Although, there were more butterflies outside of the actual butterfly garden. Annabelle wanted to take a walk through the forest that we had slightly ventured into last time, but we opted out because the mosquitoes were awful!

Annabelle acted as Miss Michelle and Audrey's little tour guide throughout the Fernbank Science Center. She wanted to show them where everything was. And, she apparently did so when Sophia and I had to run out to the car to grab the stroller shortly after we arrived. It was just too much for me to tote her around without the Baby Bjorn, and I left that at home. And, Sophia felt it necessary to spit up all over the floor several times.

The above picture is of the girls with the chickens. Actually, you can only see one rooster between their heads in the picture above. And Audrey is carrying her latest lovey, Diego. I love it! It is so sweet! It reminds me of the days that Annabelle had to take "Teddy" everywhere with her. I miss those days!

We had a wonderful time visiting with friends despite the poopie incident! But, it is the little things that bring laughter to life and help make memories that more memorable. Not to mention, it teaches me to take each incident one step at a time!

Speech Therapy Week 2

Annabelle was not quite herself for speech therapy this morning because she was still recovering from a busy and fun filled weekend with Nonnie. She was even in bed by 8:00 p.m., but the 12 hours of sleep still didn't seem to help. But, she still cooperated very well. She was just a little less talkative.

Miss Andrea focused on the "SH" sound today. Her focus was mainly on the "initial SH words" meaning that the "SH" is at the beginning of the word.

Miss Andrea and Annabelle started speech therapy by playing the "Dora the Explorer ABC Game." There were cards dealt out face up on the table with all of the upper case letters listed on each one. Annabelle was to start with the letter A and find the corresponding card. Then, she was to tell Miss Andrea what was pictured on the card. She moved from A to B to C and so on through the entire alphabet. For some of the letters, here are some of the things I noted or some of the things she said after she saw the picture on the card.

S - Strawberry - I noted that she has trouble saying "straw" in the word strawberry. I have noticed this, and we have a hard time understanding her when she asks for a straw. I cannot remember what we typically think she says as I just asked her to say straw, and she said it correctly!

K - "Uncle Ken's name."

K - Kite - "What happens to it when em eating dare food?" Miss Andrea had told Annabelle that Dora was having a picnic, and these were some of the things that Dora needed on her picnic.

O - Oranges - This is another word that Annabelle has trouble saying.

P - Pineapple - "Pineapple, my favorite!" Oddly enough, pineapple is not Annabelle's favorite fruit. She has just recently starting liking it, but sometimes she can take it or leave it. Watermelon is definitely still one of her favorites.

After the Dora the Explorer game, Miss Andrea asked Annabelle, "I forget. I know you told me, but is she smaller than you?" Annabelle had just said something about Sophia. "Bigger," Annabelle replied. Really? She's bigger? I'm not sure where that comment came from, but it was quite funny.

Next on the agenda was a matching (memory) game on the computer. As Annabelle found the matches of the words with the initial SH sound, she was to repeat the word to Miss Andrea. Following are the words pictured on the game.

shamrock, sheep, shower, shoes, shelf, shovel, chef, shake, shot, she

When asked to say "she," Annabelle responded, "I can only say girl. I cannot say she."

Randomly, Annabelle piped in and said, "One time I bideoed [videoed] someding Ganmama said, and she said stop bideoing [videoing] me." She was referring to last week when she learned to use her new digital camera to video.

After the memory game, Andrea drew the letters S and SH on a piece of paper. She asked Annabelle to draw a dot on the paper next to either the S or the SH depending on the sound she heard in the word stated. Annabelle followed Andrea's directions very well, and I think she completed the exercise accurately.

Connect Four was the next game on the agenda. Andrea asked if Annabelle had ever played Connect Four before. Annabelle told her that she has not and that is when I realized I really need to buy Annabelle some more advanced games. Candyland and Hi Ho Cheerio just don't cut it with this girl! They have always been boring to her. Hi Ho Cheerio holds her interest a whole lot better than Candyland does though.

During the Connect Four game, Andrea held up cards from the Webster-Articulation game. All of the pictures on the cards included the "SH" sound. Annabelle had to say the word with the "SH" sound before she dropped a token into the Connect Four game.

While playing, Annabelle blocked Andrea immediately and apparently grinned. Miss Andrea said, "You have played this before!" because she thought that Annabelle had blocked her on purpose. I think she realized later that it was simply just a coincidence.

Following are the words Annabelle had to say based on the pictures on the Webster-Articulation cards: eyelashes, parachute, leash, squash, radish, pin cushion, paintbrush, dishes

fish = "fis" came out

yellow fishing poles = "jello" fishing poles came out

toothbrush = "toothbrus" came out


For homework this week, Miss Andrea wants Annabelle to focus on her:

(a) initial SH words (i.e. shoe, shapes, sheep, ship, shirt)

(b) final SH words (i.e. brush, cash, dish, fish, leash, push, splash)

(c) initial Y words (i.e. youngest, yo-yo, yummy, yogurt, yellow jacket)


After the therapy was complete, Miss Andrea asked if I had any questions. I asked if Miss Andrea felt comfortable with Annabelle's use of the medial N words. She felt like she was doing fine with those. I also voiced my concern that Annabelle typically gets irritated with me asking her to repeat the words over and over for homework. She'll often tell me, "I don't want to. I am tired of saying dat." Miss Andrea said that Annabelle was very smart, and she was probably just getting bored with the exercises. Miss Andrea suggested giving her stickers on a sticker board with a bigger sticker if she completes all of the homework I have planned. She doesn't know Annabelle, does she? Annabelle requires a "prize" from the Dollar Store for her bigger prize, and after awhile, even the stickers don't motivate her.

I mentioned to Miss Andrea that I was considering purchasing one of the games off of the http://www.superduper.com/ website she recommended where Annabelle has to string together several different words with the same sounds in the game. She said that they didn't have a game like that, and it sounded like a great game for Annabelle since it seems that Annabelle has more articulation issues when she is stringing her words together to form a sentence. She also mentioned that it is fairly common that children aged 2.5 - 3 years will string together very long sentences because they are so smart and have a lot they want to say, but it is hard to understand them because they haven't quite mastered the sounds for certain words yet. She gave me the impression that this is common with very smart children who are able to string together many words to form a sentence. Maybe I was reading into it because we all want our child to be smart, but I got the impression from Miss Andrea that speech therapy was common for these types of children. That goes against the typical stereotype and belief that children in need of speech therapy are not smart. No one can say that I didn't talk to Annabelle as a young child! How else would she be able to string together these very long sentences? Even her doctor at her three year old wellness checkup mentioned that was a four year old milestone.