ps. We're a little behind (the obvious, AL & we're po'h students) ...but, Jay just got an iPod mini as a graduation present and I won't admit it to him, but those gizmos are pretty cool. Anyone else have one? (well, besides Mo, because LA people always get the cool toys and she probably has something even better now that I haven't even heard of and won't hear of for another few years because...see first line)
Hey there,
Doug, I'm glad to hear that you and I are on equal footing in terms of the new Star Wars...I have to admit, I've been mildly depressed since I saw it, because (again) what am I supposed to look forward to now? Anyway, at least I'm not as bad as this person (or maybe I am, afterall, I did get a bit misty during the movie...). Anyway, www.postsecret.blogspot.com see the postcard about Star Wars/Tsunami.
There are some wacked out people out there (okay okay & funny--hysterical, actually). I'm in my behavioral science course now (1 week to go) and one of my classmates claims that if we read that site we don't have to study our psychiatric disorders...I'll let you know how that goes, because one thing is FOR SURE--I'm tired of studying. I'm looking forward to research this summer. Funny, because last year at this time, I was saying exactly the opposite.
Anyway, back to it.
Miss you guys.
K
Hi all. I just wanted to let you know I finally got around to putting up the pictures from our trip to Boston for Doug and Anne's wedding. Actually, I put them up a week ago; it's taken me this long to find an extra minute to let you know they're up. Enjoy.
I loved Revenge of the Sith. I've already seen it twice. I'd even go see it again. I just think some of the dialogue between Padme and Anakin/Vader is weak.
Kristin, I left a comment on your "PS" post. Click on "1 comment" to see it.
Jon, I know exactly how you feel and I agree with Kristin.
BLD98
I don't know how to post on this new fan-dangled thing. But, Jon, I think wanting to punch her in the face is an improvement...over complete dispair, I mean. I think it's healthy to be angry.
So, anyway, feel validated.
You are normal (at least in this regard).
I say move on (but, I said that before). You'll find her. YOU WILL.
Ignore Doug, Revenge of the Sith was spectacular.
Yoda was basically the main protagonist...it's a long way from when he was a hand puppet. Also, it definitely emphasized that all six movies are really about Darth Vadar, which makes me happy because I always thought Luke was lame. Anyway, I'm a big fan.
AND, totally depressed because what the heck am I supposed to look forward to now?!?!?!
I think I needed that early intervention stuff when I was a child. I'm pretty sure my parents thought I was a slow developer. Supposedly, I could barely talk, and when I did, I just talked nonsense all the time. My favorite thing to say was "bee deet" and "nonny bee deet" which apparently meant "big jet" and "very big jet". There is something to be said for having your own language though.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I'll be moving boxes and furniture over the next several days. Fun stuff...
Hi Kristin (and other interested parties). Here's a link to the history of Early Intervention in NYC. I know Dan and Betsy are familiar with it because she worked for a similar system in Boston.
Basically, it's a safety net to catch kids with problems while it's still early enough to help them the most. We don't really need it since we're well educated about potential issues (like hearing deficits), Caleb gets excellent primary care from his pediatrician, and we could pay out of pocket if we absolutely had to, but it's a great service to those who don't have those kind of supports in place. It is nice for us, too, since Caleb's insurance doesn't cover speech therapy. It would be a significant cost for us. (Of course, we did "pre-pay" through our taxes.)
Because we went through the system, we had about ten meetings, all a week apart, before Caleb was approved and services started. By then, he'd started talking. He's still a little behind where they'd like him to be, so I think they'd continue anyway. But I'm confident by his first assessment, they'll consider him back on track and will discontinue the services. We're moving to Kansas, so we'd be stopping them anyway. We just don't have to worry about finding a therapist after we move.
As for the signing, it is supposed to be a way for babies to express wants and needs before their physically capable of speaking. The idea is to curb frustration that babies feel because they know what they want to communicate, but they don't have the ability to actually communicate it.
All the documented research that I've found says that babies who use signs actually speak earlier than babies who don't - perhaps because signing encourages adults to speak more with them and therefore increases spoken interaction and opportunities to learn. Our pediatrician isn't sure. Personally, I wonder if there are different populations of signers. For example, Caleb was way ahead in his motor skills, sitting, cruising, crawling and walking early on the spectrum. Perhaps he liked focusing on getting around and depended on the signs to get him by while he was too busy to learn to speak.
We did stop using the signs and he started talking more. (The speech therapist suggested by not responding so quickly to his signs, we'd give him more incentive to talk.) I'm not sure if it really made a difference or if he would have started talking anyway. He says lots of words he never learned signs for, like turtle, and still does the sign for most of the words he has signs for, like apple and more. I can say that the screeching decreased whenever Caleb learned a sign for something he wanted, like Clementines. For that reason alone, despite the potential for later talking (which I admittedly doubt), we plan to sign with the next kid.
The BLD blog has a lot of archives.
I finally got around to fixing the template. Let me know what you think.
In other nerd news, Revenge of the Sith is very, very good. Some of the dialogue is still pretty weak ("No, I love you more"), but I think it is definitely in the same league as the first trilogy.
Hi Jill,
I don't know what early intervention speech therapy is or what it is for--fill us non-mom(s) (& Jon) in...
I was curious why you were teaching Caleb signing, but always thought it was a way to fill in until his words caught up. Did I miss a critical link?
Anyway, best of luck on your trek. Just think, one of these days going to the grocery store will be infinitely less complicated and apartments will be real people size :)
Hope all is well.
Kristin
I know, it's been a while since you heard from me. Thanks, Kristin and Jon, for holding down the fort.
For those of you who didn't know, Caleb qualified for Early Intervention speech therapy. Of course, it takes a while for all the t's to be crossed and all the i's dotted - and by the time we started, he was talking. But she still comes and plays with him. We're trying to get him to say a verb now, but the closest we've come is "bye bye" which means "take me outside right now or suffer the consequences." He does, however, say many words (probably 15 or so). It's exciting and amazing to think about how much he must be learning right now - an entire language! I wish it were so easy for me.
In sad news, we won't be able to make Amanda and Jason's wedding. We're very disappointed and tried everything we could think of to work out a way, but it just wasn't possible. We're sorry to miss all of you, but we'll be at the New Year's celebration (cross our hearts).
Jon, I know you wanted plenty of notice. We're going to be staying overnight in your lovely home city the night of July 1st on our trek cross-country with our family and most of our earthly belongings. Are you free for dinner? You'd probably have to meet us at my aunt and uncle's house, but they won't mind. You could even bring a guest, if you were so inclined.
For those of you who are interested in what Kristin and I are talking about, my friend JC's website is http://www.jcsteinbrunner.com/
Hey Jon,
I perused JC's site and his work is very very impressive. Not that I know a damn thing about art, except what I like. And, I like his stuff. There is a painting in one of the cafe links that has one of the Roman emperors and it's not a crinkled paper one that I think is fantastic. That's not to say that I don't like the crinkled ones, I do. In fact, I really enjoyed his explanation of them and I'm not sure if this means anything, but if I'd had to guess what he was trying to do prior to reading that blurb, I would have guessed right. I never know if artists want average joe's to try to figure out their inspiration or not. For all I know, that could be an insult...too uptight or something.
Birmingham has a flourishing art scene and after reading your email and seeing JC's work, I'm inspired to go take some of it in.
Anyhoooooo, tell him I said hey when you get a chance and that I was really impressed by the work they did in Chile. Although, it seems as if that was 2 or more years ago.
Time flies, eh?
Miss you all.
Kristin
ps. If anyone hears what flavor the new Walsh is going to be--do tell! If not, let's start taking bets. I'm betting on a boy.
Hello all (we seem to have upped our readership lately). I had a pretty fun weekend in Chicago. I went up there for a swim clinic and also had an opportunity to hang out with an old high school buddy JC - Kristin I'm sure you remember him! It was fun to spend time with him, reminisce a little bit, and hang out on his turf for a while. The Chicago scene is pretty crazy, and it was a new experience for me going to artsy, trendy bars. We don't have too many of those in Cleveland, but of course my artist friend JC knew all the hot spots for artists (and many poser artists, according to him) to hang out. I also learned a lot of new stuff from some of the top collegiate and club swimming coaches in the country, so it was definitely a worthwhile trip.
Hello hello!
Sorry I've been incommunicado. Jay graduated last weekend and this week I've been terribly busy with exams (one to go) and such. It's only midterms for me, but I'm still looking forward to their being OVER.
The talk shouldn't be dreaded if you're on the same page, which is pretty easy to gauge if she keeps saying yes. I'm with Dan, though, in that it's not really necessary. If you keep doing stuff together and keep enjoying each other's company--why wreck things with talking? I'm all for the keeping on keeping on approach. Talking is for when things start to go badly. Then, it's over-rated and people should just move on. If someone says, "We have to talk." Just say goodbye, it's easier on everyone.
Then again, I haven't dated in 8 years, so I might not be the best person to ask. Then again, I'm not sure how much I ever dated. But, I did do a lot of talking and from experience can say that it's BAD!
You can now give your posts a title, if you so choose.
Also, please bear with me while I try to come up with a nicer template for the site. I have to go to sleep now, but I will try to have it done by tomorrow night.
If any of you talked to Paul Goodwin (a family friend from Montreal) at the wedding, you might have heard him speak ridiculously highly of the "work" Rob & I did regarding using an accelerometer to make an active subwoofer. Apparently, several of his classmates have used our "formula" for some project of their own. Or something like that. All I heard was "the Doucet-Fasani formula" before I started laughing uncontrollably.
Where are my Dartmouth blog pen pals? Jill, you haven't posted in over a week. What, are you busy trying to raise a child or something? Not much new to report here. It has been a very busy week, beginning on Monday with our recruiting trip to Ohio State. It went very well. I will be surprised if OSU doesn't do well this year - they are loaded with ridiculous athletes. If they don't challenge for the Big 10 championship, I will blame the coaching staff. I'm getting ready to move into my house at the end of this month, so I'm excited about that. I don't really have any furniture, but it's over-rated. I'm thinking about putting a pool table in my living room. Who uses a living room anyway?
