Almost Three Years Old!!

My little boy turns 3 tomorrow. :( Where oh where have the days, weeks and months gone??? I can still remember clearly the fist time that he was placed into my arms. I fell in love with him from the moment that I met him and I have never stopped loving him since. He is the sweetest little boy and I am so blessed to have him in my life.

Colton, to celebrate your 3rd birthday, here are some of mommy's favorite memories of this past year:

Picking you up from school and hearing "Hi Ma". (So many people take these two words for granted, however these are two of my favorite words that I can't wait to hear at the end of my day)

Watching Monster Trucks multiple times together. You usually want to watch the same show and you love it when they crash!

Going to the Zoo with daddy.

Beach Trip (May 2010)

Having Tuesday and Thursdays afternoons together

Pigeon Forge Trip -- Playing in the snow

Singing songs together in the car. You love Veggie Tales, Toddler Songs and Praise & Worship Songs

Dancing at the House while daddy plays the guitar.

Hearing you ask for ketchup (k-up) every time we sit down to eat supper.

Watching you learn more and more new words. You are sooo smart!!

Bubba & Sissy

These two adore each other!!

( Snuggle Time in the Morning watching cartoons.)

Update on Colton & New Words

Yesterday, I had an appointment with the Tuscaloosa County schools regarding Colton’s delay in speech. Since he will be turning 3 in a few weeks, Early Intervention will stop with their speech therapies and the Tuscaloosa County Schools will take over. Colton had an evaluation last week and I was anxious to see what they thought about Colton. Turns out he is not behind as much as we had thought!! (Praise God!) When we started therapy at the University of Alabama in November, Colton was on about a 13 month old level for speech. Last Friday, they said he was on a 26 month old level!!!! Just in 6 months he has caught up and is only 10 months behind in his speech development. I couldn’t be more proud of him!

Since I had a meeting with the school, Big Daddy took Colton to speech at the University. Big Daddy said Colton did GREAT and Ms. Angie his teacher was shock at how much he had improved in just 2 weeks since we had seen her. He is now saying more words each and every day and is gaining more confidence in himself. Our goal in therapy is for him to start combining words (2 to 3 words together), for him to pronounce words more clearly, for him to communicate more with words and to get him ready for Kindergarten. Please say a special prayer for these four goals.

Here is a new list of words Colton has said over the past few days:
Play Outside
Go Outside
Slide
Swing
Thank you (Said this after I gave him some candy)
Please
Sock
Soap

FYI: Pictures will be posted soon!! I got a new camera for Christmas and for some reason I can’t get them uploaded on the website. I’m working on it though, so hopefully soon I’ll have some new ones to show you.

God's Little Surprises

God surprises me every day through my precious little boy and it just shows me how much He loves me. I had talked to Colton's speech teacher Wednesday and we were discussing Colton's improvement since November of last year. He has made GREAT progress and he is constantly saying new words and is trying to talk more. However, we still are having problems with him either answering questions or asking for something. I was a little discouraged because of this setback, however Wednesday night our little man asked me for "toothpaste" and also said the following new words: "cars", "boat" and "pirates". It was just what I needed to hear!!

Moster Truck Driver

Colton is obssesed with Monster Trucks!!! He would rather watch the Monster Truck competitions on TV instead of any cartoon these days.

Since watching the competitons, he has become a brave little boy and tries to be just like the drivers. Here he is ridiing on his 4-wheeler at home.

Pictures before church

Little man is growing up!!!

Cupcakes with Mommy

Colton and I made cupcakes for daddy for Valentines Day this year. He loved icing the cupcakes but his favorite part was putting the sprinkles on them.

 

McWane Center Trip

We took Colton to the McWane Center for the second time back in January. It is the neatest place for kids and Colton loved it. This time it was a little bit busier because we went on a weekend, however; Colton still got to play in all of the exhibits.

One of his favorite exhibits was the “Underwater” World. He loved looking at all of the fish.

After we checked out the “Underwater World” Colton wanted to play in the “Discovery Center”. This boy is extremely smart and he wanted to try to figure out how everything worked on this level.

One of his favorites at the “Discovery Center” was the flying airplane!

We then headed to one of my favorite areas, the “Kids Playhouse”. It’s a gated in area, where the kids can just run and play. Colton loved the Airplane and the Water Table.

    

 

Overall, we had a wonderful family day and we can’t wait to go back soon!!

Colton's Words

Here are a few new words that Colton has been saying this week:

Tea

Egg -- He said this after dropping the eggs on the kitchen floor

Cupcake -- While baking cupcakes for daddy

Drink

Good

Shoes

Ball

Keys

We are noticing that he is trying to say more words each and everyday and we couldn't be more proud of him. Speech has helped sooo much and we are so blessed to have Ms. Angie to help us get Colton back on track with his speech and communication.

Gatlinburg Aquarium

While we were in Gatlinburg, we decided to take Colton to the aquarium since he loves fish and since it was too cold to be outside!

The aquarium was packed that night, so luckily, Colton had daddy that could lift him up to see all the fish.

Colton loved the area where he could turn all the water pipes on and off.

 

        Checking out all the fish with daddy.

Playing in the kid’s play area.

And in the fish tank!

    Checking out all the fun exhibits.

Playing in the ocean hole with mommy.      

   Checking out all the big fish with daddy!    

One of the neatest exhibits was the penguin hole. Colton and I crawled under the water area and ended up in the middle of all the penguins. 

 

A few pictures with mommy before we left.

          

Colton did so well in the aquarium and he wasn’t very excited when we had to leave. Looking forward to our next trip there soon!