Do you understand me now?

Life with Toddlers is difficult at the best of times. When you throw other challenges on top of it, life can just get frustrating.

My son is now almost 4 and happily his speech is very clear, but there are still many sounds that he cannot produce. Which as many parents know it means there are words you just don't understand. For some reason when he chooses one word with a sound he has a hard time with, the other words in the sentence are also hard to understand. Which means there is an entire sentence that is at times in-comprehensive. I ask him to repeat it. Some times 3 times. Then I ask him to sign a word, I ask him to use a different word. And if I still don't get it even after guessing different word, him pointing he gives up and gets very frustrated- and rightly so.

When this happens we take a big breath... Yoga training :) and stop. I ask questions, and try to understand. I guess some more, and then ask him to say it again. Typically by now I understand and we are all very happy.

Once we understand we spend a few minutes on the word that gave him issues. We identify the sound and practice other words with similar sounds. After we go back to the offending word and practice till he feels he can say it well.

It takes time, but we always go back to our roots, repetition, ASL, and big breaths.

Introduction

I have grown up in Bakersfield California most of my life. I am apart of an amazing family, one of love, faith, and learning. My father was a great provider, and an amazing role model. I have 2 older sisters who regularly showed their sisterly love and protected me when needed. My little brother and I fought typical battles trying to out do the other. We were (and are) a happy family, there was nothing we could not do.

Despite my excellent family, there is an outside world that they cannot protect me from. That world found a way to affect me at an early age. At the age of 7 I had an experience at the hand of a friend that changed me. One that I never told and still struggle with. But because of my family and my faith, I started to heal. I knew that God loved me and I was a Child of God. I found solace in scriptures. But, even with that healing, I sunk into depression that went unnoticed until I was 28.

Growing up I knew I felt unhappy and something was wrong. I often would feel a desire to become closer to God, and I often asked for Priesthood blessings. I would do anything I could to make my space a haven, and be near the church or the Temple as often as possible. Those actions saved me when I was most vulnerable. Years later after serving a mission for my church, and getting married, I became pregnant and people started talking about Postpartum Depression , but I still missed the signs and didn't receive help till I had my second child.

I now use everything I have to fight depression. Faith, Family, Yoga, Therapy, and Medicine. I will continue to fight because God loves me, I love my Husband and my two little children, who are sleeping and letting me write this post.

My family is why I started my blog and teaching yoga, they encouraged me to share my stories of my life and hopefully help someone else avoid the heartache that I went through. If you need to talk my email is posted throughout the website.