2 days, 4 friends, priceless

The kids and I took a trip to Omaha this week. The main reason was to have Anna's speech evaluated by my 2 SLP (speech language pathologist) friends, but we were lucky to also visit old friends from a time when "Playdate" was still in my vocabulary. We also got to visit the Omaha zoo, which really is fantastic w/ a Desert Dome, Aquarium, Butterfly House and indoor jungle....of course pictures were not an option on this trip (see other blog about missing camera and throw in a prayer if you so desire :).

We saw Miss K., who visited us last week and the R. family, who came to Newburgh to visit us years ago. In years past we also were able to see them at Worlds of Fun and Six Flags during the times when we were away from the Iowa/Nebraska area.

Anna's speech eval. went well. Miss D. and Miss C. have been helping me via email to figure out Anna's speech. Today they got to see her live and in person. They believe her errors aren't developmental, which means that her speech isn't just delayed. She actually says some later developing sounds, while skipping most initial consonants and very early developing sounds. Miss D. indicated that she thinks the it is a "motor-articulation" issue and was pleased with how well Anna would work with her given her young age. There was a consensus that this is a speech issue, not a language one, and that Anna's receptive language shows great indicators. The end result is that we are going to start speech therapy, probably privately, since the school uses Early Childhood Educators rather than Speech Language Pathologists with the youngest kids and Anna needs someone who understands motor artic. issues.

Although our goal for today was to have Anna's speech evaluated, I really just enjoyed being around Miss D and Miss C. and their children. I have met Miss D's oldest child, but she was a baby at the time (now 6 years old). The rest of the kids I have only seen in pictures. Both ladies are great moms and it was wonderful to watch them with their kids. And again, it is great to have lasting friendships carry on over the years. Miss D. and I were talking about how we haven't seen each other in almost 4 years and yet it doesn't seem to matter. I actually realized that Miss D. started working at Boys Town less than a month before I left for Indiana, so most of our relationship has been via work over the internet and phone. It is amazing how well you can admire someone without even being in the same room all that much.