My Best Early Birthday Present - 28 Years Ago Today!

Twenty eight years ago today, I received the best early birthday present anyone could ask for - my younger son Greg was born! Now he's all grown up with a couple of kids of his own (this picture was taken shortly before his son was born in late July), and just a few months away from getting his Master's Degree and I have to applaud him for all he has accomplished. He is a wonderful son, a great dad and just a great guy!

Greg's first few years were a bit tough at times - he was diagnosed with significant hearing loss by the time he was 3 - not enough to be considered deaf, but definitely enough to make speech and anything that required keen hearing a bit of a struggle for him. He also had some motor skill issues that thankfully were resolved pretty quickly through physical therapy and developmental therapy once they were identified.

Identifying his problems took weeks of testing - and thankfully the March of Dimes had a wonderful program in place to work with our local school district to test him at every level and get him into speech and preschool programs that honestly worked wonders. Greg was always a smart baby - in fact, by the time we realized his speech delay was something to be concerned about, he had mastered reading lips on his own. He had surgery (ear tubes with a tympanoplasty -restructuring of his eardrum) to improve his hearing somewhat. A trip to an ENT had revealed that Greg was one of those kids with non-symptomatic ear infections. Minimal retraction of the eardrum, but significant infection of the middle ear without the typical symptoms of either pain or fever over a couple of years combined with allergic responses had caused his hearing loss while the motor skill issues were determined to probably be inherited.

In his preschool programs, he bloomed! He's always been a hard worker, ready to put effort into achieving the things that are important to him... and even at 3, he would work so hard to form the consonant sounds that he could barely hear. He continued to need speech therapy for several years, but today, outside of a bit of a stutter when he's overtired or superstressed, you'd never know this handsome young man had ever had a problem with his speech. Always an excellent student (I was a lucky parent - all of my kids excelled scholastically), he also went on to be quite the athlete, having been a star baseball and football player thru to the high school level, as well as playing basketball and soccer with the neighborhood kids. He is also great at bowling, enjoys golf, and plays softball with his brother on a local team. He also enjoys watching NASCAR and participating in boating and winter sport activities as his schedule and budget allows. So, today, in honor of Greg's birthday, my shopping trip will feature sports related items - for the sports fan in your world! Happy Birthday Greg, and happy shopping to everyone else!



This Baseball Skinny Necktie from rabbitstop is a great way for any up and coming executive or executive-to-be to express his love of the game, even when he has to be away from the game.










Perfect for your football fan's desk or den bookshelf, this quarterback desk clock from artisanwoodcrafting is made of mahogany mounted on a cherry base.






After a long day out on the back nine, your favorite golfer will be ready to freshen up a bit and these Golf Ball Soaps from karenssoaps are the perfect gift to help them do it!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!!!