A Little Talky Time and a Very Sweet Reunion.....

Okay so it's been long, almost a month, since my last post. I'm a slacker. There were many times I thought about posting like when Josh had his first golf tournament and although they didn't win, he came in second on his team. Josh had lots going on this month like his new braces. I had hoped to do a whole post just about him but we kept forgetting the camera every time he had his team shirt on and the fact that his golf clubs are in a locker at the golf course didn't help.....or maybe it's just because we don't see much of him anymore and when he is home, we are doing homework. Notice I didn't say Josh is doing homework, but that WE are doing homework. It's been a long month and I feel like I'm losing my mind slightly but there are some very good fun things to report on so we will quickly do those now before I get to experience 9th grade all over again tonight, because you realize this is a nightly occurrence right? mostly well past 10 p.m., lucky if we are done before 11 or 12. ;) I didn't realize how much school he would actually miss for tournaments. It's crazy....it seems weird to me that they pull these kids out for full days.....but whatever, I'm just the mother, I know nothing.....oh except that I came in pretty handy last night when he needed a creative book report poster (which by the way didn't really count for anything anyway since he had chosen a different project at the beginning of the term and didn't realize he couldn't change it.....so those wonderful two hours I spent...well, let's just say I could've been blogging. And I'm definitely not bitter.) Okay, enough, enough......on to the topics of my post.

This week was Meili's initial consultation with the speech therapist. I really didn't expect it to go all that well. First of all....the obvious.....she doesn't speak much English...next, she is very shy and can be quite obstinate about cooperating when she is faced with strangers, etc. which is all very understandable. Much to my delight she entirely wooed the speech therapist and the two graduate students. They thought she was adorable (of course) and she really was the cutest thing ever. We went into a little room where there were lots of toys (which made me relax a little). They decided to let me stay during the observation which was smart. I guess normally they would do a formal evaluation where they sit down with the child, go through pictures, etc. but of course Meili is not sitting still for 2 seconds so we opted to just play. She did wonderfully. Of course the objective was to get her to talk and at first I was a little worried she might not speak a word but after a few minutes of playing on the floor with her, I got her talking. The speech therapist was amazing. She knew just how to get involved and Meili really opened up and started playing with her. It was so fun to watch her be relaxed and comfortable in a strange environment. We were able to get her to say pretty much everything the therapist needed her to. The therapist was so impressed with how much she already is understanding and also that she is communicating so well. Socially, she said Meili is doing amazing....the way she was playing with the toys and with me was very good......(and here I thought kids all played the same :). She says she is speaking in 4-5 word sentences and that her syllables are spot on. She said her vowels are wonderful and that a lot of her consonants are sounding really good. She only noticed a little bit of "hypernasality" with some of her more difficult sounds but Meili was mispronouncing them anyway which can lead to the increased nasal tone as well. All-in-all, we were so encouraged. They want to do one-on-one sessions with her for an hour twice a week and those should start in the next week or so. We are really starting to pick up on more of the English that is coming out of her. It's fun to see her little babble turn into words that we recognize. She's such a little smartie and learns so quickly.

The highlight of our week was last Sunday. We had the wonderful honor and privilege of attending Lili's baby blessing. If you need a refresher, Lili and her parents were in China with us. We spent many wonderful days with them. When we received Lili's announcement in the mail, I showed Meili and asked her if she wanted to go see Lili. She grabbed the announcement, clutched it to her chest, and started squealing. It was the cutest thing. The Welshes live in Salt Lake in a beautiful neighborhood just north of the State Capitol. And the weather was gorgeous. The Welshes invited us to the lunch at their house afterward and it was awesome to meet their beautiful children. Such sweethearts. Jen did a great job right down to the last detail.....paper lanterns, pictures everywhere of Lili, ladybug sugar cookies, "lili" cupcakes, beautiful flowers, slide show, and on and on. She's awesome! I told her she could come up and be my "lady in charge" when we have Meili's blessing. It was also really cool to meet some of the Welshes' extended family. They made us feel so welcome. What wonderful people. It was so great to see Lili of course and she is doing so well. All smiles and lots of energy.


Although you'd never know by this picture, Meili and Lili were all smiles and seemed really happy to see each other again.


Lili is even adorable with orange Oreos everywhere.....as was Russel :)


Abi and Izzy met, both soon to be 12.....Izzy next week and Abi in January. Abi thought Izzy was great. We also "casually" introduced Mr. Handsome Matthew to Meili......can you see a little matchmaking in the future? The Welshes adopted Matthew when he was 1 and he is tooo cute. He turned 3 in June.


And if you can believe it, we were able to round up all the kids for a double family shot right before we left.....that's a heck of a lot kids to be rounding (not as much as some we realize but definitely a lot). Meili still hasn't learned to smile when somebody besides Daddy is taking the picture so we hope she learns REAL fast as we have family pictures scheduled for this weekend. Anyway, since Aidan and Addie (the other two Welsh children) didn't get their own picture, I will tell you how sweet they are. Addie is just a sweetheart, full of life and love. I was so impressed with Aidan. I started talking to him a little at the house and couldn't believe how cute he was talking with me and smiling and being just overly cute. So there you have it.....friends for life. We are already conjuring up what we will do next with 10 kids!

And here is the final goodbye as we left to head back to Logan.....