Valentine's Fun

We bought Brian's batman valentines almost a month ago.  He immediately wanted to get started on them.  I quickly realized that try as he might, he wasn't going to be able to write his name small enough to fit in the tiny little space on the card.  He was quite disappointed. We talked to his OT and she has been working his him to help him learn to write it smaller, but I was growing concerned that he wouldn't be able to do it consistently in time.

Luckily, I found a couple of cute ideas in a magazine, and he got excited about them when I showed him.  The ideas involved some "crafting" on my part, but would definitely provide a larger writing surface for him.   I bought all the supplies and we got to work. 

These are the valentines we created for his classmates.

Cute, right?

These are the valentines we created for his teachers.

Sorry this is a little blurry.  I had to go with no flash because of the foil!

 Love these!

Then at speech last week, Ms. Kathy was working with Brian on a book that involved a child sending valentines by mail to his grandfather.  She mentioned that Brian didn't really seem to get the whole postal service thing.  It makes sense because we don't really use it that much!  He definitely understands getting the mail from the mailbox, but he has never really had an exchange by mail with anyone. 

Every year since we have been married, Shawn and I have sent out little valentines to the kids in our lives.  When the kids were born, we sent some out from them too.  It's a lot of work on my part...lots of writing, folding and fighting with those little heart stickers, so this year we decided to do something different.  I was really pleased with the final product.

Brian and I worked on these yesterday and mailed them out.  He put all the stamps on!

This weekend Shawn and I have both been fighting a yucky bug (that we are really, really hoping the kids don't get), so the cookie making that Brian and I had planned has been put on hold until Monday.  But we will be making heart shaped cut out cookies for his classmates and he is so excited to help! 

I love that he gets so excited about holidays and birthdays!  It makes it more fun for everyone.  Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Checking In

Just checking in to see if anyone is still out there? I have posted so infrequently, perhaps you have all gotten bored and disappeared.

Does life ever slow down? I keep thinking it will and then it doesn't.

Lilah is still battling it out with the double ear infection. She got a shot Monday, followed by one dose of a really strong oral antibiotic. The doc was hoping to "nuke it," as my Mom put it. The results? TBD. She did sleep better last night and has seemed generally happier the last two days. Here's hoping! We do have an appointment with Brian's ENT for her on March 1st just in case. After dealing with tubes twice with B, I almost wish we could just go that route now with Lilah. It takes all the questions out of it, which is nice. Sedation is scary though, so I am torn! This is the third round of antibiotics though, so something's gotta give! Oh, and Miss Lilah is allergic to penicillin. Which is no big surprise considering my mom, Brian and I are also allergic. The poor baby was covered head to toe in spots when the reaction finally showed up. I have pictures on my camera which I will load someday!

Brian is really enjoying school! He comes out with the biggest smile on his face. He seems to be talking and interacting more, although it tends to come in spurts, so some days I spend all day worrying about it and then I spend the next day wondering what I was so worried about! His OT, Kacia, is changing jobs, which I think is going to be so tough on him. He adores her and I am a fan too. She's done a great job of figuring him out. The core strength exercises she has had him doing have done great things for him and she thinks she has finally figured out his eating issues. She thinks that's related to strength-or lack of strength too. It seems that his jaw and lips are weak. So now we have exercises to work on this. It really makes sense and it may help with his speech too from what my aunt says. This totally makes sense as well as the letters that he has a harder time with are made from the parts of his mouth that are weak. Slowly piecing the puzzle that is Brian together, right?! But it really stinks to loose the therapist that has made it all possible. I hope his new one will be just a great!

A few weeks ago Brian agreed to try wax ear plugs so that he could attend two different (LOUD) events. Normally we steer clear of these, but now that's he old enough to be agreeable to things like ear plugs, we decided to give it a try. We went to a dinosaur exhibit one day and he attended the Family Dance (a huge fundraiser for my preschool) another day. He had a blast at both!Potty training is still a work in progress. Number 1 is pretty much good, but Number 2 is a different story. At Melissa's recommendation, we will be stocking a "poop jar" this weekend. And no. It is not a jar to keep poop in. Thankyouverymuch Shawn and Nana! It's for treats that one receives for successfully pooping in the potty. Geez!