Zoo, cupcake and Maggie's Speech Evaluation.

Hey everyone! I hope you have been enjoying the lovely weather (at least for those of you in the NW area). It got really hot there for a while. On one of those 90 degree days the girls and I meet up with Aunt She-she and visited Woodland Park Zoo. We had a wonderful time. The zoo wasn't too crowded and most of the animals were still pretty active since it wasn't too hot yet. Bridget's favorite was (according to her) the big snakes, poisonous frogs, penguins and the Budgie Birds. The Budgie birds were part of this new tropical aviary that is FILLED with these little Budgie's, Cockatoo's and some small parrots. You can buy a popsicle stick with seed on it for a dollar. You stand holding the stick out and the birds will land on the stick to eat the seed. The girls absolutely loved it but I think Shannon and I were thinking the same thoughts concerning all the birds flapping around. A. I hope one of these stupid things don't poop on me and B. I hope one of these stupid things don't get in my hair. After we were done at the zoo we went over to Julia's in Wallingford for a delicious lunch and I was complimented by this nice elderly gentleman that my "two saints behaved wonderfully". I tried to wipe the look of surprise (wha? who? you mean MY kids?) of my face quickly and thanked the nice man. To finish off our day we walked across the street to my favorite cupcake place, Trophy Cupcakes. Yumm... I had the Triple Coconut, Maggie had a PB and J (which was very, very good) and Bridget chose a Vanilla with Chocolate Frosting that she didn't even eat, go figure. Here are some pics that Shannon took...








Maggie had her speech evaluation today and the results were pretty much exactly like we thought they would be. She is at the very bottom of what is considered "normal" for her age range. Her biggest problem is not closing or finishing her words. Instead of saying pig, ball, Dad, Mom etc. she says pi, ba, ma, da and so on and also lacking in vocabulary. The therapist said at this age she should definitely be closing her words and once she starts doing that her vocabulary should start building more. She also lacks pretty much any verb use with the exception of go and eat so we will have to work on that two. She has great comprehension skills and is very outgoing, interactive and engaging but she just doesn't have language skills yet. They thought that she would benefit from having some speech therapy sessions but they had a waiting list that was quite long just to get in. She said we could call around to other speech centers to see if we could get in and she would put us on a list to call when she has cancellations. But she also said that while Maggie would benefit from it wasn't a must and that given some more time she would be fine. So we'll see.... not only would I have to find a clinic that had spots open but that will also take our insurance.

Bridget enjoyed her last day of Pre-K last week. Her final Kindergarten Readiness test was a breeze and she score in the 98% percentile. Ms. Maria said she would have absolutely no problem starting Kindergarten next year. She also said it was funny that the two youngest students in her class (Bridget and her friend Faith are both the only 4 year old's in the class) both scored the highest. Bridget says she is looking forward to going to Kindergarten but that it makes her "nervous". I went and registered her last Friday at the Elementary and it was a little weird because she will be going to the same Elementary that I and all my siblings went to. The secretary in the office actually recognized me and remembered not only myself but Megan and Aaron too. She said she really remembered Aaron (as Mom said "Aaron really left his mark on that school") and I laughingly informed her that he just graduated from Western Washington University.