Short Updates

Altogether, not really worth a whole discussion but worth noting anyway:

Douwe has stopped speech therapy until the start of school next year. Last December or so, his speech therapist had a car accident and turned most of her clients over to a new one she hired in for the purpose. She was a brand new one -- she got her official license a couple weeks after we had started with her -- but it seemed to be going well and I liked her. Then a few weeks ago she called to say that the former ST, her boss, was coming back.

We were already in the process of discussing with the school the option of having Douwe's ST done at school, which would require a new person since this one I gather doesn't do school calls. And in light of that it made zero sense to me to start back with the old ST -- which is sort of like having a teacher come back after an extended absence, you have to get used to each other again -- since there are, when you add them up, only a couple weeks left before summer vacation, during which he wouldn't be getting ST anyway as we will be in another country. Especially since his ST now is only a half hour a week.

And then the coordinator at the speech school said they worked with a different one in town pretty often. So I spoke to her on the phone and I quite like her ideas and Douwe will start with her again in the fall. In the mean time the coordinator from the speech school came out to the house to give us some guidance on things we can do with Douwe at home, and some computer games and so on. Mostly it amounts to "get him to tell stories" which is not difficult.

I will say that I am pleased that the new ST has some experience with bilingual kids; the coordinator is still most leery of the idea that speech activities in either language cross over to be useful in the other one. But they do, whether it makes sense or not.

I have been invited to join a gospel choir of all things. Well, no, to be precise, I have been instructed to be dressed and ready to be picked up on Monday for rehearsal and my protests have been firmly ignored. Ok, you are right, I didn't really have any protests. I'll sing for anybody who asks me, I don't mind. But I am informed that the fact that I cannot read music other than to sight read a melody line is immaterial and that they sing mostly in English, it being gospel and all.

It's more a soul gospel choir than a blues gospel choir (which is as most of you know my own preference). I am more about Mahalia Jackson than Aretha. But hey, maybe I'll teach them a couple of obscure spirituals while I am at it. But I expect it will be fun and it's closer to a social life than I have now.

Now I am going to bed as I have to make my own carrot cake for my birthday. Yes, I am making a carrot cake; they don't have it here and I would like one so that's that.

My kids went out with their father and bought me birthday presents today and I spent most of the day stopping them from telling me what they bought. They are just dying to tell me.