April/May continues...

Continuing where I left off from my previous entry since it was getting super long and well, so will this one.  :D

Other happenings in the month of April:

Blake was evaluated for any delays at the beginning April and all four ladies that came to the house were about to kidnap him.  Their words were that he was "delicious".  His results showed that he is age appropriate on everything.  PHEW!!! Thank goodness!  That was a great relief for me.

Other than that...I've been trying to get in a workout regimen and spending time outside with the boys daily.  Blake is giving up his naps and each day when Alex gets off the bus they enjoy running around our front yard, chasing Bailey or balls, blowing bubbles or any dandelions they find.

Some photos:

Blake enjoying his time coloring with

 

Also in this period of time was Easter....We started our Easter Sunday with a nice little Easter egg hunt in our home.  Alex showed great promise to the hunt that was to follow at my Pappy's house, where we go and have one every Easter.  To our surprise, Blake did equally well when it came to count at Pappy's house.  Surprisingly enough, I did not take many photos at Pappy's house.

the boys dying their Easter eggs

Blake during the egg hunt

Me & my boys

Also during this blog post, I'll mention my Mother's Day, which was May 8th.  Alex treated me at school to a Mother's Day Pampering at school that previous Friday.  We had to bring a picture of us, which he chose the following self-portrait:

 

At the Mother's Day Pampering, he invited me to his school where he pampered me by drawing a portrait of me, doing my nails (by applying stickers) and lotioning my hands, creating a crown and making homemade lemonade.  He also gave me a plant and a painting of a flower with the reason why he loves his mommy on the back which read "I love my Mommy because she takes me to the park and plays outside with me."  I went on to ask why he loves this person and that person.  I'll share the one that melted my heart.  I asked him why he loves his teacher (which I know he does) and he says because she gives him the BEST hugs.  <tear>  Tell me, how lucky I am to be his Mommy.

my sweet boy Alex

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shame on me...

O-M-G...shame on me...I can't believe I didn't make any entries in the month of April.  Looking at my last blog entry reminds me just how long ago that was!  What's been happening?  Well, a lot of the time for me was spent finishing up the last touches on my sister, Holly's, bridal shower...which went off without a hitch on May 1st...well, except that she wasn't surprised.

Here are a few pictures from Holly's shower...

favors I made:

 

The bride-to-be:

Holly & her beautiful future Mother-in-Law, Maria

Holly & me (Matron of Honor)

Holly, me & Vanessa, her future sister-in-law

Holly opening one of my gifts

White butterflies remind Holly of my mom and I wanted her to be with Holly always

Holly wearing her fabulous ribbon hat made by the mad hatters, I mean our beautiful tall cousins

Holly & our two aunts, Joy & Laurel

Chugging along .... March updates

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, Alex started his new school this month and riding the school bus.  He LOVES it.  I CANNOT believe it's only been one month that he's been there, March seems to have been a long month for us.  I feel like Alex has been attending this school for much longer.  I have great communication with the teachers and they've informed me that they are happy with his progress and are finding things that are working with him and have also shared some of the techniques with me to utilize at home.  I, too, see lots of progress and couldn't be happier.  While Alex is at school, Blake enjoys his time alone but always misses his brother.  He spends his time having a "tea"/snack party with his dinosaurs, watching movies/shows that Alex doesn't allow us to watch (he has break-down/ out of control tantrums/crying during them).  And Mommy enjoys one-on-one time with Blake and sometimes catches a nap along with Blake before Alex returns on the bus.

Here's a couple pictures of Alex waiting for the bus for the first time:

and a couple photos of Blake's "tea"/snack party with his dinosaurs:

I've also met with the developmental pediatrician again and he's given his diagnosis for Alex.  He diagnosed Alex to have PDD-nos (Pervasive Develomental Disorder) which is an autism spectrum disorder. The two main characteristics of the disorder are difficulties with social interaction skills and communication.  Initially the diagnosis was directed more towards Aspergers but generally people with Aspergers do not have a language delay (except pragmatically; its use in everyday life) and Alex has receptive language delays as well as pragmatic difficulties.  The doctor said that this diagnosis is not a lifelong diagnosis and Alex will be reevaluated later to see if it changes.  Truly, it does not matter whether he has one or the other because he is having the appropriate therapies at school anyways. Alex was also diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).  I told the doctor that I wouldn't consider Alex to be hyperactive and wondered if he had just the Attention problem.  The doctor then asked if Alex has impulse problems.  The answer is yes.  He said we have 5 options in treatment: 1) Do nothing; 2) Bypass strategies (i.e. sitting near the teacher, taking tests in another room, facing desk towards wall versus out the window)...not really age appropriate right now; 3) the use of Stimulant meds; 4) the use of Non-stimulant meds; and 5) the use of Alpha Omega 3 Fatty Acids (fish oil).  We're leaning towards fish oil and after speaking with a customer at Old Navy, we're also looking into possibly treating him homeopathically.   I'll fill you in on his progress along the way.

OK, so, what else has March been filled with? Well, we had one absolutely gorgeous day that happened to be on a Friday and Alex had off of school.  The temperature was 76 degrees and sunny.  We went and enjoyed time at the park.  The boys had a great time and played with a bunch of other children around their age.  When we got home, unfortunately, Alex, in a haste to follow Mommy & Blake to the potty (Blake is slowly beginning to potty train), missed the step down from our great room to dining room and he ended up smashing his front teeth into the hardwood floor.  Mommy is super quick with ice and there wasn't much blood but Alex's top two front teeth appeared to be pushed in.  After an emergency visit to the dentist, all is well so far.  X-rays showed that he didn't break anything but his two front teeth will remain slightly angled in.  Since he had an overbite to begin with, it does not interfere with his bite and his permanent teeth do not appear to have been damaged.  Here's a picture of his teeth from that day and we have a follow-up visit with the dentist next Thursday.  My poor boy.

Since that lovely day, we've not had any Spring-like weather and have actually had SNOW again.  We're actually predicted to have snow again tomorrow!

Blake has been doing well.  We did go and schedule an Early Intervention meeting to have him evaluated for any delays, per the woman that is in charge of Alex's special education's suggestion; since Alex's delays are medical-related.  The evaluation is schedule for April 11th.  I'm eager to find out where he stands, either way.

Both boys are super smart and I have to constantly watch them.  They really enjoy spending time outside and are looking forward to the warmer weather.  Blake is constantly looking to sneak out the door and I need to make sure that the doors are secure or else he would gladly let himself out.   Alex is still very interested in his super heroes.  Right now his super hero of choice is Superman.  Blake enjoys them as well but his item of choice remains his dinosaurs.  Alex also likes pretending he's a knight, since they've converted part of their classroom as a castle.  We enjoy sword fights and Daddy even created a shield for him.

Some more photos from March:

Alex wearing his green for St. Patty's day

Blake wearing his green for St. Patty's day

Alex finds Blake

little stinker was hiding in the toy cabinet

both (ok, me too) thought it was hysterical

til next time!  Hopefully we'll have some outdoors pics to share!!!

February News

As I hinted to last post, we had some "stuff" in progress and would share when we had the outcomes.  As a result to having some challenges with Alex in his preschool and observing some actions at home, we decided to have Alex evaluated for special services in school.  We also brought him in to see a developmental pediatrician to see his views but are still awaiting any diagnosis.  The outcome of the evaluations show that Alex has a slight delay in his fine motor skills, which may be as a result to him having low muscle tone in his upper extremities.  He also has a slight delay in his receptive language skills and its use in his everyday life.  He tested to have average to above average IQ and his vocabulary ranked at a 5 year old's....so not everything is in the delayed spectrum.  As a result to these evaluations, he has been accepted into a therapeutic structured integrated program where the special education teacher and aids are included in a regular education classroom, which meets 5 half days a week.  Also Alex qualifies for speech therapy and occupational therapy twice a week.  He will be riding on a school bus to and from school (in a carseat) as long as he likes it.  All of this is included in our taxes and therefore at no additional cost to us.  When we visited the classroom Alex seemed very happy with the school.  The teachers were very welcoming and there was a great energy throughout.  We couldn't be happier with how this is all turning out.  Alex starts his new school tomorrow.  I'll update you in March on his experiences.

We went and looked at a preschool for Blake as well this month.  We have decided not to go back to the preschool that Alex initially had gone to and toured another that we are excited to send Blake to.  They offer the general academic program seen elsewhere but also include a few enrichment activities that we think fun and beneficial such as drumming and dance. 

Here's a photo of the boys this month...both sat in a box.  They don't get better than this.  :-D

late January post...a day late

Well, my goal is to do two posts a month and well, I'm a day late.  Oh well.  I DID actually consider staying up late last night to make the deadline but my Zzzzz's won out.

So we have been "blessed" with more snow in the month of January than we have since 1925!  A lot of exercise is being had by Dave, as we don't have a working snow blower at the moment... I would help out but he's generally adamant about doing it.  Today, I actually did help out, minimally.  Alex, I believe, has had one day of school in the entire month (being that he goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the snow has just been landing exactly on those days).

What else has happened since last writing.  Well, Dave has celebrated his 26th birthday (again) and we've had a nice visit from Uncle Brent.  Unfortunately our lives get in the way and visits with friends and family are often the first to get pushed aside, so a visit from my brother was a wonderful treat.  I think he & the boys had a grand time together.  One of the highlights of his visit, in Blake's opinion, was putting a big Raisin Bran box on his head and walking around.  Its the little things.  Here are some photos:

Alex

Blake & Uncle Brent

Blake watching Uncle Brent show him how its done

Hilarious

Here, let me try

Super hero Alex

Mmmmm, ice cream sandwich

Mommy & Blake

Mommy & Alex

Blake & Uncle Brent

As for Dave's birthday - days before, Alex declared that he wanted to make Daddy a special birthday cake.  What kind of cake did he have in mind? A Wolverine cake, of course.  Wolverine, for those that don't know, is a super hero that Alex admires currently.  I had every intention on making my little boy happy and surprising his dear old dad by doing this.  The weather was against us and both days following his declaration, it snowed and Dave took our car so I couldn't go and buy vanilla icing/coloring to make it.  I was bummed and told Alex we'll just be making Daddy a chocolate cake.  His response: Yuck!  I was chatting with a friend who reminded me that I could make vanilla icing myself with ingredients I had on-hand.  Well, duh, homemade icing....why didn't I think of that?  I ran to the cake decorating kit that my brother handed down to me and sure enough, there was yellow dye and I knew I had blue dye from when I made Alex's Thomas cake.  Here's how it turned out:

It snowed on Dave's birthday and he called when he was leaving from work.  I didn't take into consideration just how long it would take for him to get home, so timing for his special birthday dinner was way off. It took him about twice as long to get home.  The boys were super excited to show Daddy his cake and sing Happy Birthday, practicing all day long.  He walked in about 7:15 p.m., the boys surprised Daddy with his cake and singing.  Unfortunately with timing, we promised the boys they could enjoy a piece of cake the next day and put them to bed as usual....then ate our dinner.  What was for dinner? Steak, poblano pepper sauce, brussel sprouts and tomato & mozzarella salad....some of Dave's favorites and thankfully it was still yummy despite the delay.  Nope, no picture of this.

Other than that, I've been enjoying my time with the boys and they're growing to really love each other and play more together, which is lovely.  I catch them often now holding hands, ok, dragging each other around the room (walking) or one time I even caught them dancing together.  It makes my heart melt.  I, of course, see how far they'll go and ask them to hug each other and to my delight, they do so.  :-D

Here are just a couple that I love:

So that's all that I'm sharing for the month of January, although there are some other works in progress that I'll share when we find out the outcomes.  I'll leave you with this picture of icicles that are out chilling out front.

Snow days and some more pics of you know who.....

First, I'll start this entry off with just some pics I took of the boys the other day that I'm loving.

No, his head wasn't stuck....I swear

 

 

Checking out the snow

So...we've received accumulating snow twice now and are expecting a big storm on Wednesday and apparently more even next week. We love snow....at least initially when it falls and is all pretty and well, also to play in.  The melting part, the slushy stuff....I'm not too huge a fan of.

I would love to bring the boys to play outside all by myself but its just not feasible.  My hours at Old Navy gave us the opportunity to enjoy some tubing time with the boys in our front yard Sunday morning.   I'm hoping that Dave will need to work from home on Wednesday and perhaps we could get some more time outside again.

The boys doing a trial run

Bailey enjoying the snow

my snow angel Alex

my snow angel Blake

til next time..........