A New Year

School starts in a few days and combined our books are going to put us in the poor house. I'm taking 15 credits, which makes me a little nervous. All of my classes are 5000 level but I usually do fine. I'm taking child language development, clinical methods, psychometrics, and Hearing disorders and evaluations. All of these classes are on campus and for my Speech Pathology major. I am also a Teaching Assistant for my Finance class that I took last semester. I am way excited to have this opportunity, but also nervous. People's grades will be in my hands. But I've always wanted this opportunity so I accepted it even though my school load is enormous. Max will spend some of his afternoons with his friend Alena while I'm in class. They live right upstairs and most of the time I'm gone will be during his two naps. I hope I don't miss out on too much. I'm sure he will be taking his first steps in the next couple months and I definitely want to witness that.

Jacob is taking 9 credits this semester but 2 of them are math classes. I hate math with a passion. He finished up his applications for a few Universities this past week. They aren't due until February but we decided the sooner the better to get them in so we can prepare for the future. Jacob applied to BYU, the UofU, and SVU (Southern Virginia University). School will be much easier for him once I'm graduated and done, which won't be until next Fall.

Last week we went to Petco to buy a new light bulb for our turtle's cage. When we were leaving I saw this woman with her four dogs and her little boy. He looked like he was three, and he had a binkie shoved into his mouth. I understand how important and necessary binkies can be. But I don't think it is a necessity when your child is talking and walking. Max only likes it when he's sleeping or when we cuddle trying to help him fall asleep, which he doesn't really due much of anymore. I've decided to ween him off of it slowly. He is only allowed to use it once a day, which means he can only use it for one nap and that's it. He can't use it at night at all. Oh well. I think I'm doing good, but sometimes we forget that there is a binkie already hidden under the blankets in his crib and he finds it and sticks it in. Hopefully we will continue to progress nicely.

Max has become a talker. He talks to himself, his toys, the wall, and me. He is starting to repeat a lot of the phonemes that I say to him. la la, da da, ba ba, etc. I'm excited to take my child speech development class this semester. I hope it will help me to understand what little Max is going through and comprehending.