from the tongue of henry

So, Henry has something called tongue thrust, which essentially means that the only muscle in his tongue that functions is the muscle that makes the tongue go backward and forward, like when a baby suckles. His speech has always been pretty messed up, and he's done a lot of speech therapy in the past, but this year we started doing tongue thrust therapy. He hates it, and I can't say I'm a big fan either. It's pretty disgusting to poke a tongue with a stick. But, every day we do tongue exercises anyway.

About a month ago, Henry was having a really hard day. So, I brought him to our bedroom to read scriptures with me (he loves reading scriptures). After a little while, he said, "Mom, everyone's different."
Me: Yeah, everyone is different.
Henry: And everyone sounds different.
Me: Yeah (getting skeptical).
Henry: How would you like it if I hurt your tongue with a stick just because you sound different?

I explained how everyone sounds a little different, but that the way he sounds is even more different than usual, that I want people to be able to understand him, that the way he talks could make it hard for people to know how smart he really is and that I don't want that to happen, etc.

Then about a week ago, we were in the car and this song came on my iPod (or maybe another song by her, but this is the best link I could find).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYl0uLrXP7U&NR=1
Henry: Her voice sounds funny.
Pause.
Henry: She needs to do tongue exercises.
I started laughing. Another pause.
Henry: Now I understand why I need to do tongue exercises.

mmmmm chocolate

Every year for Valentine's we feel the need to break out the fondue pot, and tonight we had my niece Megan join us in the festivities. Will wasn't big on dipping things, he just wanted to eat his chocolate with a spoon.

Hooray for chocolate!



Playing paper, rock, scissors with Megan. Henry and Elsa decided it's more fun to make up your own weapons in the game. The winners tonight were dinosaur and bow and arrow. Cause what paper, rock, or scissors can stand up to a dinosaur?

And, here are a few more favorites from the last month or so. Here is Elsa's zoo that she created one morning. That girl amazes me at the amount of effort she puts into her projects. Will left this creation alone for about 20 minutes before he stomped all over it.

The other day, the kids were playing superheroes. Henry and Elsa were wearing too-small Batman and Superman costumes. But Will wouldn't wear any costumes, he just wanted to be "Gunner": the caulking avenger.