Fall and a Brian Update

This should really be two posts, but I am out of time today!  Tomorrow is set to be our last aural rehab appointment.  This means that Brian has done a great job transitioning to wearing his hearing aids and he has met or is very close to meeting all of the goals they set for him!  This means we are heading back to what should be our last segment of time in private speech therapy.  Can I get a Hallelujah?   P.S. Brian also got a 100% on his first AR test today.  That kid rocks!

Onto the fall happenings.  We have visited many a pumpkin patch.  Lilah went twice with the preschool and we also went with some of our best friends.  One of the preschool days Uncle Bill and Gavin even joined us!

The kids are LOVING their costumes and have had several chances to wear them.  They have attended two Halloween parties-one at Brian's school and one at the preschool.  It's such a fun time of year with kids!

I apologize for the many, many pictures below.  There were many, many more taken :)

Brian LOVES these things!

This is the new thing...finger in nose.

He made the pin after getting it out of treat box.  So excited!  He later gifted it to his teacher. 

Had to get Bib's kissing pic!

Argh!

So excited to be riding a school bus to Brian's school Halloween party!

Proudly showing off his class pumpkins!

Cool spider hats they made at the preschool Halloween party.

Friends

I have always said that I very badly want Brian and Lilah to be friends above all else.  I want them to love each other, to look out for each other, and to turn to each other when life gets tough.  It's awesome to see how close they really are. 

I mean sure they bicker...especially in the car.  They can make me crazy "trolling" each other as Shawn calls it.  They are very different in most ways. They are, however, both ridiculously stubborn.  They come by this honestly. 

BUT, they also adore each other.  They play well together, comfort each other and laugh hysterically with each other.  They hold hands!  Some days Brian says he's going to marry Lilah :)   They melt my heart with their friendship.

I always try to take some fall pictures of these two sweeties and this year has been no different.  Lilah is getting into posing, so it's a little more difficult than it used to be, but we got a few...

Spiderman

Brian got his Spiderman ears on Thursday.  We decided to go ahead and try two.  He didn't have any issues adjusting to one, so we don't foresee any issues with two, and so far that's held true.  He was excited to see them and to show them off!  Now we just have to keep at the aural rehab and eventually move back into speech therapy and hope they pay off.  We are working on his auditory memory in aural rehab.  Yesterday the therapist retested his ability to differentiate between same sounding words and he is much improved in that area already.

Peanut Butter

One of the few stories we have of Shawn and his father is one his mom told often.  Brian, Shawn's dad, was frustrated with Shawn for getting into his stereo equipment, so Shawn's mom gave Shawn a jar of peanut butter and let him go at the stereo equipment with the peanut butter.  I am sure Brian went nuts, who wouldn't?  But it had to be a great reminder of what's really important in life.  We could all use that reminder from time to time. 

And Daddy's little girl...

well she might be the next in line to destroy stereo equipment with peanut butter...

Last Game of the Season

For Mom's birthday, we went to one of the final Reds games of the season.  The kids behaved better at the games this season than I expected, especially Lilah.  After the game we went to the Banks to hang out until it was time to head to dinner at the revolving restaurant.  Aside from Lilah attempting to poke my eye out with her finger that she had just stuck in a PUBLIC toilet,  it was a good time.

Me and my girl :)

Yum!  Cherry freeze!

Love that they love each other :)

Writer of the Week

This is long overdue, but I waited and waited to get a picture of Brian's writing on the official "Writer of the Week" bulletin board to no avail.  It turns out that they post these and then after the week is over, they send home the award.  I didn't know to look.  Bad mama! Next year I will be smarter.

Anyway, Brian was SO PROUD to come home and tell me he got the "writer of the week" award.

He is doing so well in school and we couldn't be more proud!  He seems to be in the top reading group as he is already coming home books to "read," sight words and four letter "spelling" words.  He knows 12 of the 14 sight words on his first sheet, so I believe he will get a new sheet by the end of the week.  His progress report that came home today said "Meets Expectations" for all categories and he has gotten all of his spelling words right on two two "tests" they have had this year.  He is rockin' his math workbook and got awesome scores on his MAPS test (used to guide curriculum) in Math.  It's so exciting to see!

Now, his behavior could be better.  He has had to move his clip to yellow twice so far this school year, which disappoints me.  I talked to another mom and she said that yellow is just a warning and I shouldn't worry too much about it, so I am trying not to.  Both times it's been for talking too much, which my mom makes sure to remind me, I got that a lot in school too, so...maybe he comes by it honestly?  And really we've spent a TON of time, money, and effort on speech therapy for this kid, so really, it's a kind of confusing to tell him NOT to talk!

Here's to hoping that the rest of the year goes well!