The Sounds Of Apraxia

We have a son with a great desire to communicate and many things to tell, but unless you know him well you'll have a difficult time understanding him thanks to apraxia of speech.  He's probably using somewhere between 75 and 100 spoken words at this time and some are more easily recognizable to the untrained ear than others:

Here you'll see that he not only knows his colors, he tries to name them all:

We're so proud of our Rex and his continued hard work and effort in communicating.

Mesrop Mashtots

For her biography project at school, Ella chose to research Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet. She had initially been assigned Ronald Reagan which held zero interest for her, so after some discussion, she and I proposed Mashtots as an alternative and her teacher was more than happy to let her go that route.

The research was done at home and at school, the written portion of the project was completed at school, and the portrait was homework.  The portrait had to use at least three materials symbolizing the person's accomplishments.  So, for Mashtots, we chose a halo to represent his sainthood, a map to represent his travels at a time when traveling was very difficult, pencils to represent that he taught people how to write, some of the letters he invented to represent the new alphabet, and the Armenian flag to represent how he strengthened the Armenian people.

This was a fun project for Ella and me and a great was to celebrate her cultural heritage.  We're pretty proud of our portrait.  Ella plans to give it as a present to her Armenian parents.

Picture Of The Day

My mommy knitted me these comfy socks.  #shelovesme

Chestita Baba Marta

Emilia is sharing the Bulgarian Grandmother March tradition with her classmates today.

P.S. A note from Emilia's wonderful teacher, "Wow!  Baba Marta was a hit!  Thank you SO much for sharing such a detailed story to go along with the bracelets.  The children were cheering for Emilia and giving her high fives and thumbs up.  We all feel connected to Emilia today.  I am excited to share this information with all of the parents.  It really touched my heart."

Frugal February

It's that month of year again where I try to spend very little on groceries and use up supplies we already have at home.  I highlighted below any parts of our meals for which we had all or most ingredients already on hand.  As I mentioned before, we eat a mostly vegetarian diet, so here's our dinner menu for the month, starting on February 2 and ending on March 1, due to the timing of our weekly grocery run.  The total spent each week includes all of our meals, drinks, snacks and desserts, not just the dinners.

2 pasta, meatballs, and marinara
3 steamed vegetables with couscous
4 hamburgers and cheesy potatoes
5 savory pear cheddar bake
6 salad
7 pumpkin  tomato soup
8 brussel sprout and pancetta casserole

Spent: $128.96

9 feta walnut tortillas
10 leftovers
11 chicken and mashed potatoes
12 sweet risotto with fresh fruit
13 salad
14 lovey-red tomato soup with heart shaped grilled cheese and special dessert
15 mac'n cheese with steamed vegetables

Spent: $148.39

Dairy-free chocolate cups filled with dairy-free chocolate pudding.
Whipped cream added for those of us who can eat it.
Happy Valentine's Day!

16 sausage hoagies with bellpeppers and onions
17 leftovers
18 Chick-Fil-A (gift certificate)
19 spaghetti and marinara
20 salad
21 roasted winter vegetables
22 squash and stuffing casserole

Spent: $144.45

23 nacho chips and dips
24 egg salad sandwiches and fresh veggies
25 steamed vegetables and rice
26 Matzo ball soup with vegetables
27 salad
28 homemade lamajun
1 carrot and rice soup

Spent: $142.38

The total spent for the month was $564.18, divided by 420 meals comes to $1.34 per meal. Not bad considering we buy a lot of gluten and dairy free and as much organic as possible.

Madcap Puppets Show

We spent an hour this Sunday afternoon at a free performance of Madcap Puppets which is a children's theater company based here in Cincinnati.  We all had such a good time and Rex lasted until almost the very end before he became restless and asked to leave.  Emilia was fully engaged with the show and cheered and laughed and commented loudly.  Ella sat on the floor nearest the stage with many other children and was absorbed as well. I liked that she checked back to the second row regularly to see if we were still there.

Ella enchanted

This is a larger-than-life backpack puppet
built onto the light frame of a hiking-type backpack

I am going to keep my eyes peeled for more shows by Madcap.  They're fun and I love exposing the kids to the arts in ways that they can enjoy.

At Her Own Pace

Emilia keeps growing and learning at her own pace.  Look at the bottom of the work sheet that came home from school today.

Teacher's note:
Emilia could read all of these words
using finger / sounding out.