Prebble Family Tales

We had a jam-packed spring! We had Gareth’s IFSP meeting in early April. We met with his therapists and other members of his team to discuss his progress over the last year and to set goals for the next few months. There were 14 people at his meeting–that’s a lot of people involved with one little guy! We are very grateful for everyone’s help and Gareth continues to make progress in all areas.

Our most exciting development this spring has been the growth in Gareth’s communication skills. Gareth has been working with Janice Light, an expert in the field of communication disorders, from PSU each week. Janice brings a computer called a Gemini for Gareth to use to communicate. The Gemini has a touch screen. Gareth just hits a picture on the screeen and the computer speaks the word for him. Gareth uses his Gemini to sing songs, to read books, and to make choices. He absolutely LOVES his Gemini and he has made huge strides with it! <%popup(20040510-gemini.jpg|640|424|Talking with the Gemini)%> Janice has also been adding words to Gareth’s picture speech books; at last count he had over 350 words in his speech books and far more than that on his computer! WOW!!

When we weren’t working hard on Gareth’s developmental goals this spring, we were enjoying the beautiful weather. <%popup(20040510-closeupcutie.jpg|640|480|Fun in the Sun)%> Gareth asked to go outside often to play–he loves playing in his swing and walking in his walker on the patio. <%popup(20040510-swinging copy.jpg|480|630|Whee!)%>

All of this activity wore Gareth out. Check out this month’s cute sleeping picture…<%popup(20040510-squishy face.jpg|640|480|Squishy Face)%>

Hippity Hoppity…Easter Time was here! Gareth braved a chilly day to travel downtown to meet the Easter Bunny <%popup(20040510-bunny.jpg|361|640|Meeting the Bunny)%> and to see Grandma <%popup(20040510-grandma bunny.jpg|640|444|Grandma Bunny)%> (he gave Grandma some funny looks because of those ears!) a few days before Easter. Gareth colored Easter eggs with his Aunt Brianna, Mommy and Daddy <%popup(20040510-coloring eggs.jpg|640|452|Coloring Eggs)%>. On Easter morning, the Easter Bunny left pictures of places around the house where the eggs were hidden. Gareth picked the places he wanted to search. <%popup(20040510-found it.jpg|640|420|Found one!)%> He had a fun time finding his Easter eggs (well, except for the one on his bed–he thought we were putting him to bed instead of just looking for an egg!) The highlight of Easter was seeing Gareth suck on a marshmallow peep until he was a sticky, gooey mess (he ate most of the pack in a week!) <%popup(20040510-peeps.jpg|640|525|Mmm! Good!)%>