Captain Cutler

Such an epic Scooby Doo villain, isn't he?  Today we got our Scooby Doo DVD set - seasons one and two!  That was pretty fast on the order, if I do say so myself.  Anyway, we plugged that in tonight before bedtime and watched three episodes with Madison, including "A Clue for Scooby Doo," which features Captain Cutler, the "ghost" you see above.  It's a great series for that spooky vibe, where it's always figured out there's not a real haunt, but rather some guy or girl they met earlier trying to scare everyone off.

Madison enjoyed it, which was great to see.  These are a part of our heritage, and a part of pretty much every kid's background growing up.  Scooby Doo is still on television these days - and I was surprised to see the dates on these episodes.  Did you know that this episode with Captain Cutler is from 1969?

We have several Scooby-Doo themed ornaments on the Christmas tree, so it'll probably make more sense to Madison now.  She's known who he was, but had never seen anything with him in it.  This time of year is the perfect season for that opportunity!

Daddy is feeling the full effects of the illness now - it's his turn again.  Goodness, I don't remember being this sick on-and-off ever in my life.  It all started when Madison started going to school - I think this is a rite of passage for parents!

Daddy joined Madison and Mommy for piano practice, but shortly after it was all over, he decided to go home rather than back to work.  Very sleepy...

Madison's piano practice is going well:  she understands the different scales, and can find her finger placement on keys surprisingly fast.  Faster than Daddy, in fact!  She does enjoy the classes, and things are getting more and more complicated - pretty soon we'll all be expert pianists!

Ballet class continued, which was nice for Madison to go to.  She had a pretty busy day today, actually - that's the way Tuesdays are though.

What she didn't realize was that Daddy and Mommy came to school this morning to talk about her with a speech therapy teacher.  We agreed to set up a few visits per week between Madison and her speech teacher, which seems like an obvious decision.  Still, the school needed our consent and it was good to meet some more of the staff there, and of course they probably would benefit from hearing anything from us.  We were very impressed with the staff there, and have been as of late of course.  This comes as a confirmation that it was good to move here, yet another one.  This school has been good.

One thing we discussed was the possibility of apraxia.  Based on the viewpoints of a few of the staff members there, it seems that apraxia is not the diagnosis for Madison's speech patterns.  This is good news obviously, although the speech delay is still present - so what could it be that causes her to speak as she does?  One suggestion thrown out this morning had to do with the amount of "tummy time" she lacked growing up in China, that perhaps she didn't get to develop some of her chest muscles (her breathing muscles) as well as she could.  That is a simple way of putting it, of course.  But the air flow as she talks is something noticeable, as it always has been.  One recommendation has been a Pilates ball, which could be used in exercises to build up some of these muscles.  Combine this with her continuing practice on weaker areas of speech, and we could see some significant developments over the year.  Of course, the last year alone has been significant:  she's speaking better and better as time goes on.  This is of course thrilling to Mommy and Daddy.

She's a smart girl, although most parents will say that about their child.  She just needs a little catching up with speech.  She'll be fine, although you can understand how anxious we are to hear her speak English a little more fluently!