Saturday, May 9, 2015

Here I am

Here I am, AGAIN, needing to play catch up on the blog.  What has change? Why was it so easy to blog so much when LeAInne was little but I barely make it here to blog anymore?  LeAnne grew up on the blog while it seems Christian is growing up on Facebook.  Some of it may have to do with the fact I am not on my laptop much, well until lately that is, after I broke my iPad. So sad! Anyway here I am and lets jump into an update before the kids wake up.

Since I last blogged Christian has definitely make progress with his speech and we have continued to peruse more therapy.  Staring next Tuesday he will start going to see a Speech Pathologist at Walla Walla General hospital twice a week.  She said she doesn't normally see kids so young but thinks with him its warranted.  She said there is little chance he will just start talking if his receptive language isn't developed.  He is now saying bye bye (buh buh) while waving, he says oh oh for uh oh, he is signing more when he wants something independently which tells me he understands the sign, he is signing his version of all done and saying ah da, says sh for shoe and making various animal sounds from time to time (owl, cat, dog, donkey and pig) and making some pretty awesome car sounds.  He has started to point a lot more, and even got me his shoes one day to put on him so we could go outside.  He is imitating a lot more and has started to let us read more books to him.  I am so pleased we are getting him the therapies he needs.  I had mixed feelings when the Speech Pathologist told us she wanted to see him twice a week and saw definite delays.  Part of me was thrilled to get confirmation from an expert that he does need help and the other part of me felt like I was being punched in the gut. I would have loved for her to say he was fine and just to be patient. I quickly let that feeling slip away and focus on the fact that we are doing what needs to be done to help our boy be the best he can be.  We have yet to hear from Seattle Children's to schedule his full Autism screening.  I will try to call them again next week.  We are feeling less and less that he is Autistic but again we don't want that for him so were biased and we want unbiased expert opinions. Oh yes I almost forgot we had his hearing tested and he is hearing great. That was not such a fun experience!

He is 100% all boy for sure! Loves playing outside, getting dirty, and has little to no fear.  He gives the best hugs and is very attached to me!  He has most definitely entered the terrible 2's and boy can he scream!  He hates being taken away from his toys!  He absolutely loves playing with his big sister. LeAnne does great with him until she is done!  One day he was screaming on the way to school and she told me we would duct tape his mouth. Oh boy... I don't think so!

LeAnne is doing very well!  It floors me that she is reading at a 4th grade level while in first grade!  She has been a ravenous reader lately!  It's so much fun seeing her excited about books and reading with her at night.  She is also a very creative writer.  Her stories are  lots of fun to read!  She has been doing gymnastics twice a week in walla walla since April.  She has mixed feelings about gymnastics. There are parts of it she loves but other things are hard for her.  A lot of things come easy to her so I think its good for her to see its not always that way and she needs to work to improve.  She also likes to be perfect and we are trying to teach her that is necessary.  We want her to be driven to be good and always try her best but perfection isn't necessary nor realistic.  She recently has her first 3 fillings at a Pediatric dentist in WW.  It was an amazing experience and I so love the dentist.  LeAnne was on gas that smelled like skittles, and playing Mine Craft so she has no clue what was really going on. She has been talking a lot lately about wanting to go to the woods.  I am hoping we can make a trip this summer to the Hoh rain forest.

I hear young man stirring in his crib so I am writing quickly.  I am doing fairly well in my journey to becoming healthier.  I LOVE the Thrive!  It gives me energy and makes me feel awesome!  I continue to work on walking as much as I can and need to work a little harder on eating better.  I haven't loss a significant amount of weight but think I am losing inches and toning a bit.  I need to keep on working at it. I know my knees would not hurt like they do if I could lose weight and I want to be able to keep up with my kids!  Unfortunately I am going to have to stop the Thrive so we can afford to pay the co-pays for Christian's speech but that is what needs to be done.  I do have a lot of extras and we will try to buy some online as we can.  I will continue to walk and eat better!

My guy just finished up Spring quarter and is now a Junior at WSU!  I am so proud of how hard he works with his school, his job and for our family.  It's a lot to balance and I know there are many times we would all like if he has more time to relax and do other things but I admire his dedication and am grateful for the example it gives our kids.  There as been a lot of police violence and controversy these days.  I have been doing a lot of praying and trying not to worry.  It's very scary and it hits home when another officer is killed on the job.  I pray God will protect my husband, give him strength, courage and help him to rely on his years of training and bring him home safely to us.

I will try to get here more often to update ya'll but in the meantime here is some pix. Little man is up so I will upload more late.