January

My, oh my, where has the time gone? We have been pretty busy, I guess. Let's see...well, January pretty much flew by as we got back into our normal routines after having about three weeks off from most of our activities. Ryan turned 32, and just like every year, I tease him that he is an old man. I found out some new information about a program called "It Takes Two to Talk" by Hanen. Ryan & I will start attending these "classes" for about eight weeks to get more tips on how to help Zooey become even better at her communication.

Zooey is doing really great at her language! Everyone comments on how much she is talking and how good she's doing. People who haven't seen her in over a week are constantly amazed. I prayed for her to have a language explosion, and it looks like God answered that prayer. She loves her SLP, and I think the continued work is really making an impact. In fact, I was told today by the lady from Hanen that Zooey is pretty much where she should be now with the number of words (at least 3-4 word sentences). Now she just needs to work up to being 75-80% intelligible by most adults. We are continuing to work on her speech, which is the pronunciation of words, now.

We enrolled Zooey in preschool for the fall at a wonderful Christian preschool which is right by our house. I am really, really excited for her to go, and when I ask her about it, she is too. We went this morning to drop off some paperwork, and Zooey just wanted to go right then. :)

Zooey is so affectionate! She tells us she loves us, gives us hugs all the time and tells us "it's ok" when something's wrong, while she pats our backs. Whenever she sees RaRa and her big baby belly, she hugs her tummy and tells the baby, "I love you!" Her favorite things right now are play-doh, her LeapPad, books (she recently let me read her the "Eloise Wilken Stories," a 206 page book!), her Bible and devotionals (she always wants to read these), BSF (she gives her teacher a hug and tells her "Hi Teacher! Love you Teacher!" and, of course, Chick-Fil-A, except she always says, "Chick-Fil-A No COW!" She is a spunky, adorable, lovable, fun sweet little girl.