Weekend Warriors

J and C had a weekend PACKED with fun!

My parents spent Friday night with us, and treated us to a yummy Saturday morning breakfast before they headed back home - YUM!

After breakfast, J and C got together their camping gear and a list of "necessities" from the grocery store and headed out to meet my cousin, his son (age 4), and my uncle for an overnight camping adventure :)

As I understand it C and his cousin thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  From what I gather they got in lots of exploring, running/racing up and down the hills, and campfire fare (to include hot dogs and smores for supper and oatmeal and sausage for breakfast).

J and C packed up camp on Sunday morning and headed back home, grabbed a quick shower, and then headed back out to catch their first ever professional football game (tickets courtesy of Jason's generous co-worker)!  They dragged back in late Sunday afternoon, happy and exhausted.

I'm thankful that they had so many neat opportunities over the weekend, but in my opinion that's not even the coolest part!  Despite their crazy ambitious schedule, J did NOT bomb my kitchen and laundry room with all of their camping paraphernalia!  What they were not able to put away or wash before they went to the game, they left on the front porch.  (The only exception was the bag of groceries on the counter containing chocolate bars and potato chips...which of course are welcome presents in my kitchen ANYTIME :)  When they returned home from the game, J took care of the loose ends while C told me all about what they'd been up to.  

That man knows me so well!  He knows that even though I fall short (more times than not) I try really hard to keep the kitchen counters cleaned off and it stresses me out when they are a mess.  I know it's weird, but that's just me...one of my many quirks. :)  Despite being busy and tired, he took time and energy to go that extra distance just because he knew I would appreciate it.  Very convicting and an example I would do well to follow more often!

How "I Love You" Used to Sound

Recently C's school offered a very reasonably priced speech/hearing/language screening performed at school by a local professional.  We decided to have C evaluated because he has not grown out of mispronouncing certain sounds (mainly /th/, /l/, & /r/).  We weren't particularly concerned since overall he has great verbal skills and is very easy to understand, but figured a professional assessment was probably a good idea.

The report from his screening indicated that his mispronunciation of /l/ (which he usually pronounces as /w/) is considered delayed since typically children master this particular sound at age 4.  The other sounds he mispronounces are age appropriate and should resolve themselves within the next year.

Interestingly enough, in the last few weeks (since his screening), he seems to be making some progress with all of these sounds - especially /l/.  He also seems really open to J and I correcting his mispronunciation of /l/ so much so that sometimes if he thinks a word has an /l/sound he'll ask us how it should be pronounced if we don't correct him.  All of this to say, in the last few days, we've been doing a lot of talking around our house about /l/ and words that have /l/ in them :)

But yesterday when I dropped him off at school, I realized there WAS one /l/ word that I had been missing (totally subconsciously). That word was "love."  As I dropped him off at school, he said "I wove you, too."  And for the first time it occurred to me...if we are successful in helping him pronounce /l/ correctly, he's going to trade his "I wove you" for "I love you."  Which, of course is a good thing...sort of...I guess :)  

It is just that I've been hearing "I wove you" since he could string 3 words together...it brings back sweet memories of bedtimes, nursery drop-offs, telephone calls, fixed boo-boos, and the list goes on.  So that's why I'm posting this here.  Lord willing - when he finally gets the hang of the real /l/ sound, I want to remember how "I love you" used to sound.