Ball, Missing Sounds, & $25.00

We have had some big breakthroughs around here lately. 

1. Kristi told Autumn to say ball today, she did.  We thought it was an accident and asked her to say it again and sure enough she said the same thing. 

2. Ivy has been going to speech since about March or so.  During her first assessment, I think we were told she needed to work on everything.  She left off the consonants at the beginning of the words, consonants at the end of words, and mixed up the other ones she said.  I guess she really just spoke in vowels.  We can safely say there wasn’t a lot of understanding going on.  We have made amazing progress throughout speech class and I am so proud of her but as we picked up on some things, we realized what we were missing, we were still left without “s” and “f” sounds in the beginning of words.  For example, swimming suit = imming uit,  silly mom = illy mom, school = cool, fun = un, first = irst.   Our secretary from work asked Angie one day how she understood Ivy, to which Angie correctly responded that you simply take the word you don’t understand put an s or an f on the front and you can figure it out.  Well, she counted to 10 the other day (which used to sound like this – one, two, ee, or, ive, ix, evan, eight, nine, ten) and miraculously used all of her sounds.  Ever since, f and s have found a way into her vocabulary and continue to be more present each day. 

3.  I just donated $25.00 to California’s Proposition 37.  This is the Right to Know Initiative asking to label GMOs (genetically modified organisms).  I have always loved the name brand food and if someone told me 10 years ago I would be where I am today I would have been shocked and full of disbelief.  When Autumn became allergic to corn and I began learning and researching and understanding, I gained so much more knowledge than I thought possible.  As part of that research I learned that almost all of the corn we eat comes from genetically modified corn.  I also learned that since the introduction of genetically modified corn, allergies in children has increased 255%.   As a result of my own continued research and recent articles about GMO products, we have changed the way we eat around here.  At first we made changes to my diet and Autumn’s to prevent her from having a reaction to something but now it is so much more than that.  It is about eating healthy and limiting the number of pesticides and GMO foods we eat.  We are slowly changing to as many organic foods as we can, as to be labeled organic it cannot contain GMOs.  We try to buy mostly organic fruits and vegetables.  We have switched to local honey from a cute little man down the street.  We look for the Verified NonGMO Project labels on the foods we eat.  It is a process.  Now don’t get me wrong, I still let the kids eat Halloween candy, they still get the snack at music class, we go out to dinner and I know it won’t be the end of the world if they eat this stuff, but I am going to continue to do what I can.  Proposition 37 has $41 million raised by big companies to fight it passing.  I don’t live in California, but I donated $25.00 because I want it to pass.  I want companies to be required to tell me what is in the food I eat.  I want to make decisions for my family based on the knowledge and information available to me.  If it passes in California, it will obviously affect labeling everywhere. 

Like I said, breakthroughs.  From a new word, to a new sound, to a new way of thinking, all of which make me very happy. 

And it has nothing to do with anything on this post, but Ivy just went to find her books for bed tonight and told me she wants to read Lady and the Trampoline, that obviously makes me happy too.