Birthdays, Party, Microwave and Skittles.

No I do not put Skittles in the microwave - just what kind of freak do you think I am?

Anyway, it's been another hectic week in our house - Starting with 'the baby'.
I call him 'The Baby" because he's my baby, my youngest, and since he doesn't really talk and sounds like Jack Jack from the Incredibles, I just refer to him as the baby.
The Baby is 2. As of last Tuesday.
He doesn't look like a baby anymore......he's thinned out, and his face has changed to lose that baby look.

He still doesn't speak except for the occasional 'baby' or 'bubble' or 'rainbow'. 3 words in his inventory, although I know he has more if prodded, he only uses 3 with regularity.
We got his assessment report last week which indicated a severe language delay - Receptive language assessed at 6 months and expressive at 9 months. How they think he can say more than he can understand, I'm not sure, but that's the 'official word'.
We've looked into private speech therapy, since the waiting list for the OHIP covered Speech Therapy is roughly 8 months long.
I don't want to wait 8 months.
I also don't want to pay $95/Hr for speech. That can add up pretty quickly, as I don't think 1 or 2 sessions a week would be all that beneficial. He needs consistant therapy, at least every day, and since I don't have $3000 a month sitting in my "pocket money" account, I'll be doing his speech therapy myself.

I knew that someday my university degree would come in handy, and more than just for wiping up spilled juice in the kitchen.
I was actually a linguistics major, and took several courses in speech acquisition, child development, and language. So how do I plan on using my hard earned degree to help my son? Why it's easy. I call it the Skittles method.
It cost about $1 a day. For a bag of Skittles.
My kids love Skittles - More than just about any candy on earth including chocolate. They have to be original flavour of course - none of this fancy luau fruit, or berry burst variations.
Matthew (age 3) is my role model. He can talk, and was speaking in full sentences at 18 months. He was practically born talking. He doesn't stop talking. He's a good role model.

I hold out my hand - with delicious looking skittle on it. I close my hand and tell Joey "Say BABY"
He tries to pry my fingers open.
I look at him again and say "Say BABY" - Opening my hand briefly on the 'baby' part.
He still tries to pry my fingers open.
I turn to Matthew - who has a sweettooth and command "Say BABY"
"BABY" he shouts out enthusiastically and gobbles up the skittle as reward.
I get another skittle and tell Joey to "say BABY"
'bee-bee' - It works - and he gets the skittle.

We try the whole thing over again - each time J tries to pry my hand open instead of using the 'magic word' and each time Matthew is more than willing to play role model for me.
By the 4th time, Joey can say baby on command.
We try another word.
"Say Daddy" - with tasty red skittle as bait
"Bee-bee" is the enthusiastic response from my youngest......

Well, we'll work on listening skills too.....

This week also brought "The Party"
Yes, in addition to my youngest turning 2, My oldest turned 5 and had a party with 9 friends and siblings at one of those kidzone places that has an indoor playground and arcade and a decibel level of 842! It probably wouldn't have been so bad, my 5 yr old boys party, if there wasn't also a 4 yr old girls party at the same time. Girls shriek. Girls are actually louder than boys. At least these girls were. They gave me a headache, but our party was underway, and the kids had a ball.
In the end, it probably was worth the $200 to let them run wild, burn off all that energy, and not have to clean up a thing, not worry about ice-cream cake spilling on the floor, and sit at a table with other parents sipping my diet coke while the kids ran around like little energizer bunnies. There is only one exit, and the door doesn't open unless someone at the front desk pushes a button, so nobody can go in and out without supervision - what a relief in this day and age to be able to let down your guard, let the kids just have fun without hovering or worrying about strangers, or predators. After 3 hours we pronounced it a success and went home, with the rest of our cake and a bunch of awesome new presents as bonus.

In other excitement - The one night this week my 3 yr old decides that he wants to eat something is the night our microwave died. Daddy had to cook eggs 'the old fashioned way' on the stove, in a frying pan;
Our microwave was 9 yrs old - I suppose it had a good run. When we'd first bought it, it was a beast - a mammoth among smaller models. We figured (and rightly so) that it would get a lot of use - so we bought the biggest one we could find with the most whistles and bells we could get for our money (generously donated by family as a wedding gift).
I was sad to see the microwave die.
We've known for at least 3 years now that it's had some tempermental quirks. we kept saying that "someday" it was going to just flake out on us, and then we'd be in a pickle because we've come to depend on it.
Yes I was a bad mommy and heated my baby bottles in the microwave.
We nuke eggs, and ravioli and all sorts of things throughout the day. I used it to soften my ice cream if it's too hard to scoop.
I melt butter for baking. I cannot live without a microwave - well, until I was forced to this week.
But now we have a new one. Bigger and better and shinier.
It looks nice in my kitchen - like it was meant to be here. It's the same brand as our old one, because I hate trying to figure out microwaves - they ARE rocket science sometimes - why can't they make them intuitive? you should be able to punch in 146 and start and the microwave goes for 1 minute and 46 seconds. I hate the ones where you must decide what power level you want first, and input the weight of the egg you want to cook, oh and the temperature outside and the position of the moon before the darn thing decides to go.
I love my new microwave - end of story. It even has a the same 'quickminute' button that our old one had. Less buttons for me to push means more time for me to do other things. Like eat skittles with 'the baby'.




WILT: "Easy to Install" is manufacturer speak for "Thanks for your money, you're on your own now sucker! No we don't have a 1-800 help line"

Skittles are a good motivator, not just for talking, but for getting kids into jammies, and to get out of the garden too.