'Momm-E' & 'Holy Shim'

Both of my kids have had seemed to grow up before my eyes this month. I swear there have been mornings that they have literally grown inches in their sleep or woken up more mature, with more language, or just plain sassier.
Mom and I took Coco to Vancouver at the beginning of the month, and that trip really flipped a bunch of switches in her little brain. Her language exploded. She finally found her 'e' sound and was able to say 'momm-y or bub-ie'. It was amazing to hear because up until that point she would call a baby 'baba'. I credit so much of her speech to our speech therapist who is amazing in almost every way. We debated the idea of paying out of pocket for speech for a long while, but it was the best decision we ever made. The therapist has suggest that Coco will most likely be done with therapy within the month, but I am not so sure about that. It seems like we still have some work to do, but the gap has most certainly narrowed, and the end is very much in sight.
Isaac has been more difficult than normal, testing in as many ways as he can find to show his independence. He will swing from the sweetest kid on the planet to the biggest a-hole I know (yes, I just called my kid an a-hole), but all of the behavior is age appropriate and probably important for him to experience. His favorite new saying when something goes wrong is 'Holy Shim', which has clearly come from another child. It is half hilarious, but more than half alarming, and I continue to remind him that it is 'bathroom talk'. At times I think I could deal with the Holy Shims if he would just stop testing me in other ways, but I am not sure that his behavior is taking requests at this time. The good news is that all of my friends who have Children Isaac's age are complaining about similar things. Makes me feel like it is less Isaac, more four and a half.
This summer Isaac was given a sunflower from his teachers.When we received it, it was about 4" tall, with a single leaf. Isaac and I have both been working together to keep the sunflower alive over the past several months. We bring it inside when it is too hot, We move it around depending on where the sun is, and we give it water every day - upon which Isaac always asks, 'when is the flower going to come'. I am pleased to announce that we have a flower! Here is the latest photo of our sunflower standing proud.