Balch Family Blog

Last Saturday I wasn’t out of bed for more then 10 min. So I decided to make up for it this morning. Mark had to work this morning so the boys and I went for a walk. We took the camera and took pictures of many different things. Camden really enjoys playing photographer! As we walked by the park we noticed the sprinklers were on, so I let the boys play in the water. They had a blast!

When we got back to the house I noticed a plant was looking shabby so I tried to trim it. Then I noticed that we had some weeds so I pulled those. Our big tree in the front is dropping these little things all over our yard, so I plugged in Mark’s Blower/Vac and vacuumed them up. Then I decided our driveway needed a hose down. The boys played in the car and water and helped by sweeping the driveway.

The boys got dirty enough to need a quick bath. They ate lunch and then Carsten went to bed. In the afternoon we went to see trains and do some shopping. The trains were a huge hit with both the boys! Afterwards we went to GolfSmith and then to the Chandler Mall. We had dinner at Kona Grill. They have the best Macadamia Nut Chicken ever! So yummy! After a short walk in the mall Carsten started to scream his head off so back to the car we went! Carsten was asleep in the car before we got home!

All in all a great day!

You can view the pictures in our gallery by clicking here.

I have a lot to catch everyone up on! I will start with the most recent. I had to take Carsten to urgent care on Friday evening when he spiked a fever of 105.9º. That was way too high for my comfort. We got there and he was checked out and found to have strep throat. Poor guy! The doctor also said it sounds like his croup may be back. We haven’t heard any seal barking coughs lately so we don’t think so. He is doing better now, but still not 100%.

On Friday morning I took Carsten for a hearing test. I have had concerns about his hearing for about 7 months now. He did really well and he is hearing speech sounds within normal limits. He did not respond to the pure tones well, but the doctor said when they are this young they are not interesting enough to warrant attention. We will recheck his hearing in 4 months to see how he does then.

A week ago Tuesday I had an SLP and an Early Interventionist come out to evaluate him. For the past 7 months I have been concerned about his speech, or lack there of. After his evaluation, he does qualify for speech therapy and is on the waiting list. As his mom, and an SLP, I know what I should be doing and we do so much language bombardment but sometimes they learn more from people other than their moms. So we will see how that comes out.

Camden is doing great! He really enjoyed the last unit they did at school. It was all about space. They made the moon and Saturn and the very first day he told me about how we don’t have 9 planets anymore. That Pluto is not really a planet it is an “ice ball.” It is really exciting to see him learn! Kindergarten is going to be very big adventure!

Yesterday, our family went to the Phoenix Zoo. Mark’s dad works for Boeing and every year they have a family day. In the past it has always been on the Boeing Plant Site. They get inflatables and have it catered. The last 2 years they have had carnival games to play. We always got our picture taken with an Apache Longbow Helicopter. They did it a little different this year. We all went to the zoo. There were jump-houses and yummy food like previous years, but that was it. We were able to walk around the zoo and ride the train too. It was nice, but the zoo had a least two other large groups there and it was open to the public. It was packed! I think the boys liked playing in the tree house and splash park more then the animals. I think the consensus was that we all preferred the events at Boeing more than the zoo day.

Here are a couple of pictures from the zoo.