Our house is just always crazy lately, it seems! We think we get one thing under control, then something else comes up. For a while now, we have known that William is having difficulty with his speech. The poor guy learned to talk through the middle of his swallowing issues. (Not a good combination.) I decided to wait until his 4 year check up to bring it up with his pediatrician. She recognized my concerns right away and put in for William to get an oral evaluation for speech & feeding. After 2 months of waiting, he was finally seen. Yes, It was not good. Out of 70 sounds William should be able to make right now, he failed over 40 of them. He also is still showing signs of decreased muscle tone in the right side of his face. (The same issue they worked on 2 years ago.) All of it seems to be bad (but good for the time) habits he formed to help protect his airway while his dysphaegia was at its worst. I am glad he did, but now it seems like it is going to be a huge process to retrain his way of doing things. For now, William is going to therapy twice a week to focus on speech, articulation, and feeding. I am so grateful for his therapist, Mrs. Kathy. She is the same therapist William had when he was undergoing his vital-stim therapy. She is amazing and William really likes her a lot. Mrs. Kathy wants him to have an OT evaluation also, just to make sure there is not some underlying muscular/neurological condition we might be missing. I don't know how long it will be for that to get scheduled though. I am just hoping we will see improvements soon. I am so saddened to watch my son be made fun of by other children for something he cannot control. He is a great kid and does not need that starin on his budding confidence.

The Fourth of July was a blast for our family this year. Even as the kids get older, we realize that there is something new to amaze them each year. To start off our weekend, our ward held its annual Fourth of July breakfast but added a "bike parade" to the fun. The kids were encouraged to decorate their bikes, scooters, or wagons in a patriotic theme. We did not have much time to do so, but our kids enjoyed just riding in the parade with all the other kids.

That afternoon we went to a dinner party at the Williams' house, which was incredible! We all had so much fun! We ate lots of fattening American food and then shot off things we weren't suppose to shoot off in their front yard. The kids also were able to light some sparklers. When the party ended, we took the kids to a quick firework show at the highschool with Sam's parents. The show was not great at all, but he time to spend together as a family is what made it worth every minute! With Sunday being the actual 4th, we did not go anywhere but to church. That night, being so exhausted from the day before, we chose to stay home and watch the fireworks across the area from our upstairs windows. It is kind of nice being on a "hill" so that we can see so many shows.