Addi Style

I thought I would make a post all about Addi because a. She is awesome, b. She has been a busy girl lately, and c. She is still the most hilarious person I know.

A few weeks ago Brian and I met with a friend of a friend who happens to be a pediatric speech therapist. We wanted to get her opinion as to whether or not she thought Addi was a in need of some speech therapy. She told us that Addi has definite signs of an articulation disorder and she seems to have a hard time mimicking others' facial movements in order to make certain sounds. She recommended that we have Addi evaluated through a statewide program called Child Find for group therapy, and also through Children's Hospital for private therapy.

So far Addi has only had her Child Find evaluation. The evaluation was in a stocked playroom with an Occupational Therapist and a Speech Therapist. They took turns working with Addi and talking with me, and observing the two of us playing together. Addi did great with the OT -- she has awesome gross and fine motor skills and is even ahead in her pre-writing skills. The SP decided at the very end of the eval that Addi was in need of some speech work. She tends to pronounce words well if asked to identify objects in a picture, but her pronunciation regresses when she is using words in a sentence. Now Addi will go to a once a week preschool that focuses on group speech therapy in addition to her twice weekly regular preschool. Next we will have her Children's Hospital eval and figure out what sort of private speech therapy is needed.

In other news, Addi has been rocking some new looks lately. Here we have:

The Stylish and Hip (yes, those are pom poms on her boots)

The Casual (love the hot pink Converse and her "Rock n' Roll is the Devil's Music" T-shirt)

The "I'm too hot to wear a shirt, but not high-heeled sandals"

The "I want to go out front and play, but I'm too lazy to put on pants"

Recently Brian and I went out to dinner with some friends while Addi and Maren stayed home with Noni and Poppy. As a fun treat Addi got to help bake cupcakes and decorate them Halloween-style. They decided to use half of the batter to make a mini-cake, which Addi wanted to give to Auntie Ash for her birthday. Lucky Auntie Ash, who wouldn't want a chocolate iced strawberry cake with candy corns and gummy pumpkins on top?

Addi has taken great care to name all of her animals and babies -- especially her beloved snakes. From left to right we have: Big, Simon, Sven Vonderhoot (or as Addi calls him Hooty Hoot), Grammy, Christian and Tonya. I have nothing left to say about that.
Now, more than ever, Addi loves to help us around the house. And now that she can actually follow drections and has some coordination she is truly helpful. She is constantly helping to put things away, entertain Maren and get herself dressed. I love it! One of the adorable things she loves to do now is break out her toy vacuum cleaner every time I use the real one and we vacuum in tandem.
Addi is seriously the best big sister ever. She loves to sweet talk Maren and play with her while I do chores, and the love Maren has for Addi is almost tangible. Every morning Addi comes armed with her favorite book of the day and jumps into bed with us for some a.m. reading. The other morning she decided to read to Maren and the result was only the cutest scene ever!


I saved the best for last. Yesterday Addi and her neighborhood BFF Maggie were outside riding bikes while the Moms chatted. All of a sudden the girls had disappeared into Maggie's house. When Maggie's mom went to find them a few minutes later they were found totally naked and washing their hands in the toilet water. They said they were naked b/c they were going to put on princess dresses (Maggie is queen of the princess dresses). Maggie's mom helped the girls dress up and out they came!

I will end this post with an Addi quote: "Mama, I don't have boobs . . . I just have nipples."