Speech

Heidi has been our little quiet girl.  She hasn't seen much need yet to use words, and while she is excellent at communicating her needs and wants, her repertoire of words is very limited.  Her sign language is fantastic.  :)  Off the top of my head, we've got: my, mine, no, rI(which she says for yes), hi, bye, baby, night night, mama and mommy, and dada.  When required to say it, she will say "mo" for more, "u" for up, and a few other little things.  She has started doing all the animal sounds which is great because it's one of those natural progression things.  

So, with the talking being as late as it is (children her age would typically be conjugating verbs, adding plurals, and saying 3 word sentences by now) we get a little help.  Twice a month Rachel, pictured below comes to our house from the early intervention program and we work together to talk.  Heidi thinks it's great fun as we're basically just playing games and such.  You can see in this first picture below she is actually signing that she wants more games, stop taking pictures mom!

 The way it usually works is there is a fun game to play, and in order to play Heidi has to say the requested words, or make an attempt.  Heidi, say "more!" Heidi says, "bo"or something along those lines.  We praise her and say, "Here's the cow!  Can you say moo moo?"  She cooperates and gets to put the cow in his spot.  Then she signs she wants to do it again and we start over.  "More, I see that.  Can you say more?"  She tries to sign it again, and again, and then finally will give in and say it.  She's usually exhausted and ready for her nap on speech days. It is really hard work for her.

And, once a week, we go see Pam, pictured below.  Pam is a private Speech Therapist and we seem to make more progress with her, slow going as it is.  Once again, it mostly feels like play to Heidi, just pushing her to speak more and more throughout the sessions.

So that's what we do every week!  Just wanted to record it so when it's a distant memory (I hope!) we can remember all the time we spent getting  this girl to talk.  I really do think that she's just going to up and decide to talk one day and we'll all laugh and say, "see, she was just taking her time!"  But, just to make sure we are covering her bases and getting her ready for the world, we are spending a lot of time on this.  Love this girl!

Bang Bang

Heidi has not let me do her hair for about two months now.  Every time I go to comb it, let alone pull it out of her eyes, she screams "OWWW!" and runs away, and then immediately rips whatever is in her hair out.  Every once in a blue moon she would cooperate, giving me hope, but then we'd be right back to a week of a ragamuffin with hair in her eyes.  ALL THE TIME.  Like so:

 You might be thinking I combed her hair forwards here, but this is just how it falls.  So she was constantly sweeping it our of her eyes.

So, I set her in the tree, and took a quickie portrait of my pretty little girl before her hair was ever cut.  

So off to the kiddo salon we went.  They did a great job and didn't even bat an eye when I told them I was probably going to be a nut case about the whole thing.

 She did exactly as I asked and gave us some bangs and a very slight trim up the back.  Of course she let the lady put her hair up.  She waited until we got into the car to pull it out.  :)

And here we are!  Looking so grown up.  And so much more comfortable.  No more ragamuffin hair for Heidi.  Sniff sniff!

This and that. . .

Here's a little bit of this and that from our past week or so. . .

Our budding author, Emilee has written another masterpiece.  This one entitled, "There Was a Pickle."

Gordon went to China, Korea, and Japan.  We are all still catching our breath.  He is back and one of his fun surprises this time was the biggest hit yet.  A disguise from Shanghai, with an expandable mustache that shoots out the sides when you blow into it.

 Heidi has run a fever for three days, twice now.  Always starting on Sunday.  Here she is taking her temperature.  If those little teeth would finish cutting through she would be a happier girl.

 Oh and this one is funny.  The boys took off their shirts during a wrestling match that was getting warm.  Heidi understood the rules to be, "if you are naked from the waist up you can play!"  So, she stripped from the waist up and joined the fun.  It was so cute.

Well, that's about the size of it!  See you soon!

Pumpkin Patchin

What a fun morning we had today!  Everybody was out of school so we headed to our first pumpkin patch in a few years.  We had a great time!

The Brotherhood of the Traveling Wildes

When Ethan was about 2, Gordon came up with the idea of taking him to his first priesthood session at the conference center in SLC.  He's been looking forward to it ever since!  So, since Ethan turned 12 in July and the time had come, he told his brothers about it who also thought it was an awesome idea.  They ALL gathered to Salt Lake City, where they enjoyed some guy time and conference together.  Here are some picture highlights:

I am told there was a LOT of food.  :)  This first stop being made on the way home from the airport.

 fun time. . .

 They hiked the Y!

 And then proceeded to the bookstore and a campus tour.  They got to meet some students in the music building who showed Ethan how they use the computers hooked to piano's to compose.  He loved it!

 Here they are at the conference center.  In order: Spencer, Ethan, Gordon, Joseph, Dad, Jeremy, and Wayne.  Jeremy and Wayne are Keren and Angelina's hub's, respectively.

 And as an added bonus, Spencer's newest baby Eli was blessed that Sunday morning.

What a great trip and a great tradition!  They are all planning on meeting up again each time one of the cousins turns 12.  That's a lot of trips to Utah, but it will be great fun, and a great memory, for sure.

Knee Socks

Some day, Emilee is not going to believe me any more when I tell her that knee socks are the cutest thing ever.  And that's okay.  They definitely have a time and a place.  But I sure am enjoying that time right now.

Soccer!

Aidan, our resident sports pro has been keeping it hot on the soccer field!  Today, he scored a goal and stopped several when he played goalie.  It is so fun to watch Aidan play soccer.  He is intense, and happy, and just plays with his whole heart.  Great job Aidan!

Alaska

This past weekend Gordon and I had the opportunity to go up to Alaska.  By ourselves.  Let me repeat that.  By OURSELVES.  Many thanks to the Richards family and Gordon's sister and her husband who took care of our little flock while we were away.  They did a great job and the kids were happy as clams!  Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Friday:  We slept in, which was heaven.  Made ourselves a yummy breakfast, and then headed out to explore Anchorage on Gordon's parents sweet bikes.  These bikes are so awesome.  I've always wanted to toodle around on a cruiser, and this was the perfect opportunity!  Anchorage is very flat, and full of bike trails, so off we went!

 We stopped at this coffee shop down town for a bowl of hot soup and a cup of cocoa.  It was so fun.  Do you know how often Gordon and I get to go out to lunch together?  About once a year. It felt like such a treat to just be together and do whatever we did or didn't want to.

 On our way home we decided to take a slightly different path, and ran into four giant moose.  We eventually rode by slowly, and as you can see in this picture, I may have been a little bit out of my comfort zone, but it was fun!

 This picture was taken after we rode by, looking back.  Do you see the two females about 4 feet from the road?  It was crazy.

 That evening we rode down to Aleska, which is along the coastal highway.  We saw mountain sheep which was fun, and stopped to take a picture or two of the beautiful scenery.

 We went to dinner at the "Double Musky" Inn which Gordon has been telling me about for the past 15 years.  It did not disappoint. Great food, and fun atmosphere.  Gordon's mom Ann was able to go with us, which was a delight.

Saturday:  We headed out to see Gordon's grandfather Saturday mid day.  He has recently moved to an assisted living situation, and we got to have a nice visit with him there.  Grandpa Wilde was a WW2 pilot of B-17 bombers, and flew 30 successful missions within just 5 months of the war.  If you lived through 30 missions, they let you retire.  He has a lot of amazing stories to tell.

Since it was such a pretty fall day, we took Grandpa out for a drive.  We drove up the canyon and had an ice cream cone and got to see a bit more of Alaska's majestic landscape.  It is so beautiful!

 That night we had dinner with Shawn and Megen, some friends from HS days and then college for me.  It was so much fun!  We headed home Sunday morning feeling rejuvenated and ready to get back to our little brood.

Thanks everyone who helped make this little run up to Alaska possible!  It was well worth the time and effort it took, and watch out. . . I think Gordon and I are both planning our next adventure already!