I am thankful for...
20.  60 degree days in November
19.  good deals
18.  photos to capture my memories
17.  books to take me on adventures I will never have myself
16.  the smell of pumpkin pies baking
15.  technology that lets me see the ones I love who are far away
14.  drinks with friends on long days (or short ones)
13.  showers that leave me feeling refreshed
12.  bedtime stories
11.  sleeping in
10.  warm cozies; blankets, dogs,slippers, and snuggles
9.  coffee to wake me up in the morning
8.  sunshine, and rain to make me appreciate the sunshine, and beer in sunshine
7.  our home, the roof over our head that protects us
6. the food that fills our bellies
5.  my smart beautiful daughter (who is using her talker to ask for carrots as I type)
4.  the ability to stay home while she needs me
3.  my parents moving closer to me, I am so happy to spend so much relaxed time with them
2.  my husband - I am thankful he smokes the turkey outside so I can monopolize the over.  I am thankful he makes me laugh.  I am thankful he wants to protect us and will always check when I hear a noise.  I am thankful they play acrobatics before brushing teeth at bedtime.  I am thankful he loves us with his whole heart.  
1.  the love and support of family and friends I have been blessed with, I am so lucky

Hold on, Mom.

We were late for school.  Shoes were on, jackets were zipped.  I grabbed the talker to walk out the door.  She firmly ripped from my hands and sat down on the steps.

Me:   "Honey, we have to go.  We are going to be late for school."
C (via talker):  "Good Morning.  Hello.  How are you?" (big smile at me)

Sometimes I need a reminder to slow down.  It doesn't matter if we are a couple minutes late.   This made my day, maybe my week.

CVCV

We have been working on consonant vowel consonant vowel since we started with our current speech therapist mid-August.

We practice Mama, Dada, Papa, Baa Baa over and over.  Sometimes with flash cards.  Sometimes with pictures.  Sometimes just in play.

We also attach gestures or signs to words whenever possible.  This provides additional input to jog her memory about how to make the sounds.

Last week she brought me something and said "Mama opa peas" (mama, open please) without any prompting.  We are making progress

Letter Magnets

Today we sat at the table after we ran around the house a while.  On a cookie sheet I had all the vowels lined up.  Approximations we attempted for each sound.  Then a sucker was rewards for about 30 seconds.  She then had to give the sucker back and do another set.  We added "B", P", "D", and "M" one at a time and moved them along the vowels.  Again, after each set the sucker was given as a reward.  She was getting tired, but trying hard after the last set.

Then we changed to a comprehension game instead of a verbal production goal.  I put e, w, d, h, s, b, a, u, t, n, g, and k on the cookie sheet.  Then I made a sounds and asked her to give me the letter that makes the sound.  Initially this went very well.  After about 5 correct letter she started just handing me letters before I asked.  When I held her hands until I finished it was about 50/50 for the remaining letters.  When I refilled the cookie sheet with the letters we talked about eggs, dada, hat, ball, apple, gum, kite as each letter went down.  Then I asked her for the letter kite starts with.

Long Vowel Supergirl

We have been working on elongating our vowels and increasing our breath support for a while.  Each growth spurt if it difficult again to support out vowels.  One example is "E", without proper support is collapses to "ish".

We blow things; bubbles, bubbles in our drink, cotton balls through straws, paint, whistles, recorders, etc.

Yesterday we flew in the air like super girl as long as we held our vowels.  This was an outstanding motivator and may have resulted in the longest vowels to date.   Combining big gross motor movements with speech seems to make a big difference.

Apraxia Focus

I have decided to change the blog for the time being.  Most of my readers know Corinne has apraxia and is learning to talk.  I need a metric to see us making progress and ideas for days I can not think of what to do for our speech goals.  So, I am going to track some of these ideas here.  I think it will be good for me and might give you an idea what we do.  You can stop reading.  It will not hurt my feelings.