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!

Preschool Happenings

Brian has been learning so much at school this year.  His "report card" came home last week and it's so impressive! I pulled out the one from last year to compare.  The improvement is just amazing! 

His speech is improving rapidly as well.  His private speech teacher is working on helping him to unjumble his sentences.  He has some trouble with subject verb agreement and this gives him troubles when he's trying to tell us what he has done all day!  I can pretty much understand everything, but others might not be able to.  However, the idea that they are working on subject verb agreement, when last year at this time we were just trying to get him to put sentences together, is exciting! 

He's also working on specific sounds with the school therapist.  The "f" sound has always been a struggle for him.  He's finally getting it!  The other day, Lilah was saying "pish, pish," when pointing at a fish.  Brian said, "Lilah, put your teeth over your lip and say Fish."  It was awesome!  She did say it correctly by the way.

Brian comes home everyday excited to tell us what he has done in school. Usually it centers around the letter they are learning.  Although, that will end soon as they will complete the alphabet next week.  He has really taken to learning to write all of the letters and say their phonetic sounds.  It's neat to see him on the verge of learning to read! 

A few weeks ago, Brian's class was learning about the Chinese New Year.  He was really excited about the dragon!  When I taught at Villa we wrote a unit about the Chinese New Year and the art teacher even created a dragon with my students.  They have a parade each year and they still use the dragon that was created while I was there.  I emailed the art teacher to see if we could stop by and see the dragon and she said yes!

This week Brian's school is doing a little reading program where the kids have to read for 15 minutes a day and if they do, they will receive a prize next week.  On Monday, I was busy so I asked Brian to head downstairs to read for a few minutes on his own.  I had to stop what I was doing when I heard this happening...

 Love my kids!

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!!

Before My Eyes

Brian has turned many corners recently right before my eyes. It's especially nice when someone who doesn't see him often makes a comment about his speech or his behavior - and how much both have improved. It gives me perspective and helps me to see how far he's come.

His speech therapist, Kathy, couldn't more thrilled with the progress he's making. She says she doesn't even want to comment on the things he's not picked up on yet, since she knows where he has been. It occurred to me the other day that she didn't even know what Brian's "monkey speak" was since it's been so long since he's done that. You know, when he used to pretend he was Curious George and used "oo-oo, ah-ah" for every word? Kathy has only been his therapist since December, so she never heard it!

I remember thinking last December that all I really wanted was to have a conversation with Brian. I was just desperate to really be able to talk him. I can do that now. They aren't always the most enlightening or lengthy chats, but they are in fact, conversations. It's so exciting to hear him shout from the back seat of the car, "Mama! Look, it's a tractor!" He is noticing so much more about his world than he used to. Or at least now he has the communication skills to tell me all about what he's noticing.

Brian even got into trouble last week at school for talking! Something we never thought would happen. His teacher said she was shocked when she realized it was Brian making all that chatter.

One thing that his speech therapy has certainly improved is his arguing skills. If I say, "Brian, we're going to the doctor today." He'll reply with something like, "No go to the doctor. The doctor is closed!" I'll say back, "No bud, I am pretty sure they are open." And he'll say, "No, not open, doctor is closed. Let's go to the animal zoo." Most days this is hilarious. Most days.

OT has been a tremendous help to Brian as well. He ate a HOTDOG at OT last week. It was the most meat he had ever eaten IN HIS LIFE. He continued the trend by sampling a burger and some chicken that night and has eaten a hotdog almost everyday since. He is also eating small bites of apples now. Emily, the OT even got him to pedal his bike last week. He was so proud!

Potty training (knock on wood) seems to be a success for the most part, finally. Even #2, which is so nice!! I was getting really tired of cleaning up that mess. He is very proud of this accomplishment as well.

It's just nice to see him taking pride in himself.

I started using a picture chart like Brian uses at speech therapy and at school. It's just a bunch of picture cards with velcro on them that we attach to a line of velcro so he knows the schedule for the day. When we finish a task, he moves it to another strip of velcro which represents "all done." I started using it over spring break just to see how he would react to it. My plan was to try it for a week and bring it back for summer. I didn't count on him absolutely loving it! I've had to add a few pictures to accommodate our current schedule-school, swimming, soccer- because Brian requires me to fill the picture chart every single day. Like I said he loves it and I think it's because it helps him prepare for the next thing. We usually have big melt downs with every transition, and not so much with the schedule. He loves getting to move each piece to "all done" and thus, he's ready to move on when I say it's time. It's been wonderful!

As mentioned above, we started soccer and swim lessons last week too. Soccer was not the best, but it could have been (and 6 months ago would have been) much worse. He's definitely the kid who is distracted by all the grass and dirt. He doesn't follow all directions given by the coach. BUT he stayed on his field (there were 4 others he could have run to, not to mention a playground). He kicked the ball some. He ran with the other kids mostly. He had fun. And thankfully, his coach is one of our best friend's brothers. And he is an incredibly patient man. Thank God.

Swim lessons were a success! Brian impressed the instructor and me with his skills and attention to detail. I was so happy to see him shine!

Brian can be a lot to handle some days. Other days, he's just like any other 3 (almost 4) year old. I have learned a great deal of patience from being his mom. I have learned to take pride in little victories and to celebrate small successes. But when I look back over the course of 6 months, it becomes evident that he has made large strides and huge progress.

Love that boy.

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!

First Day

(Yes, Tory, this post is for you! I promise to respond to your email soon. Love you!!)

Brian's first day of school was September 6th. I was very nervous about how he would do. He has been coming to the preschool since he was about 11 months old and really thinks he owns the place. I was afraid he would cry for me, or at least run away and try to find me when he realized I was gone. (I hid in the church the first couple of days just in case he made a break for my office. Ridiculous, I know, but I left I had to let him get adjusted to the idea.)

But he didn't cry and he didn't run. He did really well. He even stayed dry the first day! (He's really supposed to be completely potty trained, but the teachers are working with us on this given all of the change we've had in our lives the past 3 months. Job perk!) He sat when he was supposed to sit (mostly), he played with the other kids, he participated (some). What more can a mom ask?

He has continued to do well and has improved in his focus each time he has attended class (which is a total of 7 times now). He's not the worst one in the class (YES!!) and the teachers even think he's "cute." He even talks to them. He answered a couple of questions the first week that no one else knew the answer to. This is huge on so many levels for a kid with a speech delay!

The four year old teachers have graciously allowed him to participate in class on the days he's not in school as well. They don't keep him all day long, but when they do, he pretty much does what they ask of him and they enjoy having him around. And it's a huge help to me as I adjust to working with a two month old on my lap! ('Cause you know Miss Lilah doesn't like to be put down. Ever.)

I'm just so glad he's enjoying school. We plan to keep him in preschool for 3 years, so this year is really just about him learning to follow directions better and to love school. Hopefully he will continue to have fun and maybe learn a thing or two as well!

Moving Right Along

Lilah is growing like crazy. She was over 9 lbs when mom and I weighed her on Tuesday (2 weeks old). Just like when Brian was a baby, you can literally see the weight being added to her little face, legs and arms. She is going to be a chunk just like he was. I love fat babies!!

She is so strong too. She continues to raise her head up during tummy time. She grabs for things..my hair, the shower curtain (when I lay her on the bathmat so I can go potty!), her brother's hand. She is also very alert and is becoming more aware of her surroundings. She loves the ceiling fans, her mobile, studying people's face, etc. It 's so much fun to watch her little mind develop.
Brian is making strides right along with her. Although he seems to have had an oral regression. This week alone I have caught him with money, paper clips, marbles and my hair bands in his mouth. Definitely something to watch.

On the positive side though, his speech and understanding of speech is improving by leaps and bounds. He is obsessed with the movie "Cinderella" and asks to watch it over and over. He calls it, "Rella." He's so cute when he watches it. He mimics the mice and even dances around when they are making her dress. He's dancing a lot now. And singing like crazy. He just seems to want to interact more in general and its' so exciting to see.

Yesterday we had visitors on the way, so I unlocked the doors before sitting down to nurse. When they knocked I sat on the couch calling, "Come in! Come in!" They never did, so I asked Brian to answer the door. He did! His doing things like this all the time now. He'll grab my phone for me and my water when asked. Child labor is a beautiful thing!! What was even cooler about the door incident was that later Mom was knocking on the door and Brian at on the couch calling, "Come in! Come in!" Hahahaha!!

I'm seeing him struggle a bit with having Lilah here, but overall he's doing remarkably well. He is still not happy that I'm not putting him to bed, and he seems to be a bit more emotional over things in general. Yesterday he stubbed his toe and had an absolute fit for waaayyy longer than he normally would have. He's also very tired though as he's not napping at all these days.

He also has a harder time with people leaving right now. Whitney leaving was a huge problem the other day. He was devastated! Maybe he sensed that she would be gone for a long while? It's amazing to me that he knows her even though she's only in town two or three times a year. They have a special bond that I LOVE!!



He's still doing so well with Lilah though, like I said. He asked to hold her several times a day, runs to check on her when she cries and still loves feeding her a bottle. He is very interested in nursing and often says, "Lilah eat Mama. Ha ha!" Too cute. And an easy explanation for the return of his oral fixation.

Another example of his acute and sudden awareness of the world around him is that yesterday when Tracy (Max's mom) visited, he asked her over and over, "Where is Max?" He was very insistent. Max is away at camp for 3 weeks and he was very upset to not have Max here when Tracy was. He also asked to go swimming, which is something he has done with Max and Tracy twice since Lilah has been here. His memory is definitely improving and he's able to vocalize it, which is awesome!

I'm trying really hard to give Brian as much Mommy time as possible. One of his favorite games is "tickle monster" and he asks to play quite a bit. It's kind of a strange request to someone on the outside since it's a game played in our bed. He'll come over and try to pull me off the couch and says, "Mama. Bed." Ha ha! He loves it though, so I try to play when I can!

5 Days!!!

Just a quick update...5 days and Lilah will be here!! WOW!

Tuesday as doc day...

First up...speech therapy. Jess said Brian's best session ever. Unfortunately no speech next week...she has CPR training. Anyway, he is doing quite a bit better. Still not where he should be, but he's definitely improving!

Next...vet. Ruben got his drain tube out. It was one continuous tube, not two like I thought. I had to hold him while they clipped his stitches and slid the thing out. Yuck! He was shaking like a leaf, but otherwise handled it like a champ. He has to go back Saturday to get the rest of the stitches removed. Tonight is his first night with no canned dog food. We'll see how he does. He was not a happy camper when I filled his bowl with dry food. He finishes his antibiotic tomorrow. His wound is healing and itching like crazy. Yucky scabs are forming and falling off. Ick.

Last...my LAST OB appointment. Everything was right on track. I had them check me just so I could breathe a little easier knowing I wasn't going to go before Tuesday. I was only a finger tip dilated (such a gross term), so I left reassured. Whit came along and got to hear Miss Lilah's heartbeat! We walked into the waiting room just as the Casey Anthony verdict was being given. I guess that's an interesting, "where were you..." In an OB office that was dead silent because everyone wanted to hear the outcome. The receptionist was even holding up the phone to whomever she was making an appointment for so she could hear!

We also went to zoo on Tuesday to take flowers for Kimba and Tessa. Poor baby Zuri.

The rest of this week has been (and will be) just a whirlwind of getting things ready for Lilah. The preschool is in good hands, most errands have been run, tomorrow I will be packing for the hospital, Saturday we get our king sized bed....we're almost ready for go time!

I do have pics on the camera which I will upload and post over the weekend. I still have my 36.5 week belly shot on there and we will be taking the last one 38.5 (a little late) tomorrow! Time is flying!!

Speech Therapy-Visit 1

Yesterday was Brian's first speech therapy appointment. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was excited to get started! Jessica, his therapist, mainly spent the time getting to know Brian-by observing and playing with him, and by asking me questions. I think the next few appointments will be this way and then hopefully we will get into some real work! She mentioned that there is an observation room with a window where Brian can get his therapy with me watching, but not being in the room. I think this is a really good plan and I hope we get to do it. I just think he would do better without me around.

She gave us a few things to work on. She wants us to incorporate some signing in hopes of fading out the repeating of language that he tends to do. One of the signs she asked us to work on was "open" and he had already said "open" spontaneously twice by the end of the day yesterday, so that has clicked. Or it may have been all of the Easter eggs he had to ask us to "open" over the weekend. Either way, it's progress and I'll take!

I'll get an Easter post up soon. I had to use Mom's camera for part of the day and I don't have those pictures uploaded yet.

Today I am waiting at the lab to get my glucose test. I chugged the orange drink in maybe 30 seconds and I have another 25 minutes or so to wait to get blood drawn. Then I will be heading upstairs to my OB appointment. I am 28 weeks, so I am thinking we are heading into the every two weeks zone!

The Sqeaky Wheel

On Friday we went to see Dr. Arjmand for Brian's ENT follow up from his surgery (tubes and adenoids) and what was supposed to be a follow up from his hearing test last week. The hearing test didn't go so well by the way. Brian put his arms wayyyy up over his head and locked his shoulders therefore blocking his ears. It's a little hard to put earphones in the ears of a two year old in this position. Thus, we will be retesting on our 9 year wedding anniversary in June. And as previously stated, his audiologist is moving away, so we will be switching to an audiologist, Tommy, on our side of the river, which will be much more convenient.

As for the ENT appointment, Brian's ears look good and so does his throat. I asked Dr. Arjmand's nurse about speech and whether or not she had a good way to get him in faster. She said, "the squeaky wheel, gets the grease." Enough said. I can be that wheel. No problem.

I also asked Dr. Arjmand and he said to tell them I can come any day, any time. So, as we were leaving, I called the scheduling center and guess what?! We start speech THIS Tuesday at 8a.m. I am so excited to get started!! We will be seeing a speech therapist named Jessica on this side of the river! 8a.m. is a little earlier than I would like...I am hoping Brian can get up and moving and be ready to work by then. But it does work out well because I can get to work by 9:15 or so. Wish us luck!

Speech Eval

So, we went for the speech evaluation today. Bottom line is that Brian will be starting speech therapy once a week. It may be a month from now-with the way lovely insurance companies like to take their time-but it's happening!

The evaluator made me feel really good in all decisions that we have made up to this point. She said he seems to be able to say all sounds and his intonation is great. In other words, she does not think his speech issue is related to his hearing loss. Which translates into-we did not make a bad decision by not aiding him. Whew.

She also said I did the right thing by getting a 2nd opinion even though we have been denied by First Steps 3 times. Whew.

The way she summed up his issue is this. A lot of what he says is scripted, or repetitive. He says things he has heard said and does not often speak spontaneously. This is the perfect summation of what I had been trying explain to First Steps!

She thinks one on one therapy will really help this issue. She also said that he might be put in group therapy if the one on one starts to show results. I am fine with one on one, but group might be fun too!

The bad news for today though is that we found out his audiologist Shana is leaving. This will be our second audiologist that we have lost. So sad. We think we will choose a new one in Kentucky so that we won't have to drive to main anymore. If we have to change, we may as well get some benefit from it! We can't exactly fly to New York once a year to get a hearing test (New York is where Shana is heading)! Although we might consider it...she's pretty great!

Quick Updates

*Potty training is still going really well! Brian has had few accidents the last couple of days and NONE today! He did spend a few hours in a pull up here and there, and that's kind of hit of miss-but mostly he keeps those pretty dry too. And he stayed dry ALL NIGHT last night. Plus today we went back to work and he used the potty there twice with no accidents!! I was really concerned today because he didn't do his #2 midday like he usually does. But, right before bath time I put him on the toilet to pee and he got the other out too, so all is well there! Yay for Brian!

*The baby doctor yesterday said that everything is perfect with Miss Lilah. My blood pressure, pee test and belly measurement were all "perfect." Her heart rate was 148 which was "perfect." Yay for Lilah! Next visit = glucose test. My back is really sore...could have something to do with sitting on the side of the tub for 4 days. Ha ha! I am also so, so tired. That could have something to do with the fact that Mr. Brian has not napped in over a week. Yeah, I think those days are gone for good. Not so yay!

*Brian is having a speech evaluation at Children's tomorrow. They got him in really quick for which I am very grateful! Hopefully they can help get his speech moving along. He does really well when he wants something, but he's a bit lazy when it comes to talking for any other reason. Who knows, maybe he won't need any speech therapy, but it's something we certainly need to check on. So, yay for Children's for getting him in so fast!