Well hello again!

Good grief, a lot has happen since 2014. I have missed blogging and after being at an amazing conference with Keep Collective this weekend, I have re-evaluated doing what makes me happy and blogging was one of those things I will be returning to.
So lets see, what are the major highlights of the last 2 years? Well for starters, we have added a Mr.. Nathan Graham to our family. Eli adores his baby brother (until Nathan knocks down his super amazing block towers).
- We bought our first home
-I became my own boss and started working with Keep Collective
- We took our first out of the country vacation
-We have overcome sickness
- DISNEY WORLD WAS AMAZING
- We overcame some difficult times as a family and grew closer because of it
- Andrew and Eli got baptized ( probably my favorite thing EVER!
- Eli no longer needs Occupational Therapy and has almost tested out of speech! (Can I get an AMEN?)
- Eli will be going to kindergarten this month
There are so many amazing things that these last two years have brought me. I have learned how to be a mom to two beautiful/messy/silly/ happy little boys and am learning to spend time focusing on what brings true happiness.
So this is just a fun overview and starting place of more fun blogging about life in the Thomas household.
 God Bless,
Brittany

Its been a while

Things have been so busy that I haven't had much time to write about Eli's progress. We have come a long way since the last time I blogged. We started seeing Katie and Cindy in one session for one hour instead of spending and hour with each therapist. Two hours of work was not working out for Eli and after an hour he didn't want to try anymore. The 1 hour sessions with speech and OT has been wonderful!! He is able to focus for so much longer. Each session we have been amazed at how much progress we see since the week prior. When Eli started speech he had 48 sound errors. He was reevaluated last Thursday and now only has 13 sound errors!! He has fixed 35 articulation problems in 8 months which is incredible. Most people can understand 80-90% of what he says now versus only understanding 20-25% 8 months ago. OT is going well too. He still gets aggravated at times and still loves aggressive play but his play has been so much more appropriate for a 3 year old than it was 8 months ago also. He struggles with fine motor skills still but almost everything else he is testing at his age level.  The speech teacher that has been coming to his school every week is also very impressed at how hard he tries and how far he has come. Eli is starting to ask lots of questions and have real conversations with me which makes my heart so happy. He is a totally different child now that he is figuring out how to communicate and people actually understand him! We are going to take a break from therapy for 4-6 months and reevaluate again after we have the baby. I feel like I have learned so much about the way his little brain works and am learning new ways to teach him things that work for him. He is such an incredibly sweet and smart little boy and I am enjoying so much figuring out his little personality now that he is able to communicate. I appreciate all of the prayers for both of us through this process. I am looking forward to giving him a break from therapy and just hanging out for a while.

-Brittany

thankful

I am very behind on Eli progress but there is a reason for that. Two weeks ago, we skipped therapy because I was off work at it was his school fall party and I am not able to go to most parties and field trips because they fall on days that I work. I enjoyed spending the day with Eli who was dressed up as Mickey Mouse. The following week I had a lunch to attend at work so Andrew took the day off to take Eli to therapy so I could go enjoy the lunch.

We divided the speech and OT up this time. He came in for speech at 10:00, went home and took a nap, and came back at 1:00 for OT. Andrew seemed to think that that worked well for him. I am going to talk to the therapist this week to figure out if that is the best route for everyone. Andrew was amazed at the way the OT was able to keep Eli's attention and focus on one object at a time. Surrounding objects that used to make him go crazy are seeming to fade to the background and we are able to stay on task a lot better. We still have some melt downs but over all lots of improvement. I took him to target yesterday to start shopping for Christmas ideas and look for items for his new big boy room and we were in there at least 45 mins. I bought him some popcorn and an ICEE and he sat in the cart the whole time and I hardly heard a peep out of him. He was so content. After we went to Target, we went to Walmart to pick up a few more things for his room. We were only there for 15 minutes but he was still very good. The last 5 minutes he started getting a little grumpy but what child wouldn’t after 2 grocery stores and getting close to nap time.  

His speech is growing so much. He is coming up with words and sentences that blow me away. Some things are still very tough to understand but we are making a huge improvement. He talks NON-STOP! I love it most of the time. I also love the fact that I can joke with him about things and he seems to understand me and joke back. The play for his age is becoming much more age appropriate. Toys are being used for what they are made for.  He is starting to play pretend and that makes my heart happy to watch his little imagination at work. This week he has decided he is a cat named Figaro. If I call him Eli he tells me that is not his name he is Figaro. He also loves to pretend that he is a super hero.


We are starting to plan for baby number 2 which means converting Eli's current room into a nursery and making our guest room into his new big boy room. I am having so much fun shopping and planning for it but not so much fun making room for everything in our house. We have very small closets in each bed room and no extra closets in the house so finding room for everything that is stored in the guest room is going to be a long progress. Andrew and I are trying to work on it at least 20 minutes a night until we finish the room.

That is about all that is going on these last few weeks. As far as my pregnancy goes, everything is going pretty well so far. Just lots of morning sickness that I pray will calm down in the next few weeks.

I am so thankful for the support I have from mine and Andrews family and friends with everything that goes on. I always know if I need something, advice, help with Eli, or just an encouraging word, I have someone to call. I have had days where my patients gets worn thin. I have to remind myself that he is 3 sometimes and not 20. I have days where I feel like I have completely blown it as a mom but those same days he still hugs me at night and gives me a kiss and says "I love you night night mommy". It reminds me of God's grace and no matter how much we think we blow it sometimes, God is still always there to tell us he loves us. I am thankful for the good days and the bad ones because the bad ones just make the good ones that much better!

-Britt

Very Exciting Last Few Weeks

These last few weeks have been insane and have called for much needed mid day naps. Lots of things going on in the Thomas house hold these last few weeks starting with me finding out I am pregnant. We are very excited/ nervous for the new adventures ahead. Eli is happy to be a big brother. He says there is a baby in mommy's belly and his too. We are expecting a June baby. I have lived off of a 3 year olds diet because it is all that sounds good to me. Foods like, PB&J, chicken nugget,s and macaroni and cheese. All in all, everything with that seems to be going well.

I finally had the meeting with the school to go over Eli's progress. He had been tested for speech and other special education classes. (Some special classes such as group play and appropriate age play) He passed the special education classes and basically got the same review for speech that we had received at the other speech office.  We will have a speech therapist meet him at school 1 day a week and work with him. After one year he will be re-evaluated for his IEP (individualized education plan). Im glad to get the extra opinion and extra help while he is young so hopefully we can catch on quickly.

Speech and OT have been going pretty well. We are still working through a few melt downs but getting new approaches to work with him is very helpful. We are working on 'G' 'SH''K' & 'F' sounds right now. All sounds that come from the back of the mouth are hard for him. It is easier for him to use the front of his mouth and substitutes his sounds that are harder with the sounds that come from the front.

Andrew had me listen to some old voice mails that Eli and I had left him on his voice mail from work. They went back from when he was about 18 months old to just last week. WOW! We have come a LOOONG way in the last few months. He was very difficult to understand. I don’t think that I truly knew how bad it was because I knew what he was saying because I was always around him. His progress in incredible! I think that he may just be a little bit of a slower learner which is completely OK with me because I can be too. I think some things may not come as easy and fast as it does to other children.Some things he gets faster than other children.  Society puts such a emphasis on what is "normal" that is it scary when your child does not fall into that category at every landmark. I know my child is unique and created in God's image and he is perfect to me. He is his own individual and even though some things are tough, we will get there! I feel very encouraged that we will kick this speech and sensory issues to the curb before kindergarden.

So that is what is new for us.

-Brittany

Happy fall y'all!!!

Eli and I have been enjoying this amazing weather! Windows in the house open, fall candles burning (which he loves to blow out) and lots of playing outside. He has been enjoying walking out to the bottom of the woods with his daddy and checking the deer camera and looking for deer tracks. He has a field trip again next week to the corn maze. I am working so Andrew is going and I am slightly jealous that I wont be there. They are going on a hay ride, rubber duck race, corn maze, and pig race. Sounds like so much fun and I know they will have a blast. The following week he has his Fall party at school. He is dressing up as super why thanks to his Mimi who is making his costume. So many wonderful things going on this fall.

I was not feeling too good today so my mom took Eli to therapy and I went to the Dr. I am feeling much better now. Eli did very well in OT today. His attention span is again getting much better. He did 2 ILS sessions and participated in the games well. Speech again was a different story. I am beginning to wonder if 2 sessions back to back is too much for him so I may move OT to a different day and just have one class per day. His patients are not there in speech and he looses his ability to pay attention and gets very worked up when he has to sit down and listen.

I have actively been working on our trip to Disney for where to eat, what to do and I am soo excited. So many choices! I will be a Disney pro after this trip. Any restaurant suggestions will be wonderful. I just hope Eli has as much fun as Andrew and I will.

Very thankful for all that God has blessed me with. I am one very fortunate mommy with one amazing boy. He is growing up so quick and becoming such a sweet little boy. He calls me princess mommy sometimes and totally melts my heart. I always knew I wanted to be a mommy but I never knew how much I would love it. As I teach Eli new things everyday I am amazed at how much more he teaches me.

 Enjoying the park!!

 I ordered a kids small ice cream cone and we got the biggest ice cream cone ever! He was happy. (and sticky!!)

 Practicing writing our name with shaving cream.

 Eli and Sadie looking for deer tracks with Andrew!

After his haircut from Andrew and I. (Not to bad if I say so myself)

I have been blessed

We finished appointment 6 of 6 this week. I am so over appointments. On Monday, we went to the dentist at 10. Dr. Trey in Fairhope was amazing. His office is very nice and he was very entertaining. Eli was not very cooperative at the dentist but he had no cavities and everything looked great! After the dentist we went out for sushi at my fav restaurant. It was delicious! I decided to bring him over to my parents to take a nap before our next appointment at 2:00 to get his tubes cleaned out. I realized my gas light was very low so I decided to stop at a gas station to fill up. (by the way my phone stopped charging and died at the dentist that morning) I tried to turn my car on and the battery died....and I had no phone... and I was at the most unsafe gas station in the area..... and the battery charger that Andrew bought me was dead.... A very nice guy pulled up and let me use his phone to call my dad and we were able to get my car jumped off. We missed nap time and headed to our 2:00 appointment. I really did not want to go back to this doctor because the wait time in there is INSANE for having a 3 year old to keep contained. We waited almost 2 hours to see the doctor. I was not a very happy camper and neither was Eli. No nap, long wait and scared of the Dr was not a good combo. The Dr started cleaning out his ear and Eli was screaming "THE DR IS HURTING MY EAR!!" It took 3 people to try to hold him down. I had never seen him like that. I broke into tears and told the Dr to stop. We went home and had a very early bedtime. After a rough Monday, the rest of the week went much better.

Thursday we had our therapy day. OT went very well. Eli practiced handwriting with all kinds of very neat activities. He did 45 minutes of ILS and did it very well! Speech was a different story. He did do his sounds better but he was not as cooperative as he had been the last few weeks.

Things are beginning to slow down and becoming a little more normal. Now that we are done with the 100,000,000 appointments, life seems a little more normal. Thankful to have Andrew and Eli both home this weekend to spend time with my boys!

-Brittany

A week of firsts

Eli had a wonderful week this week. He went on his first field trip with his dad on Wednesday. They went to the park and the library and had a wonderful time. Andrew had the opportunity to speak with Eli's teacher about how he is doing in school. She said he does wonderful, especially for being a very young 3 year old. He shares excellently. She always has to ask if kids took toys from Eli instead of if Eli took a toy from someone because he is so giving. One of the staff told me this week that she has seen a huge difference in Eli's speech so that made me a very happy mama!

We have to get his ears and eyes checked before we can begin ILS so after his field trip, Andrew took Eli to go get his eyes checked. He did very well. He has perfect vision in one eye and 20/25 in the other but we were informed he would probably grow out of the slight far sightedness . There was a light that they shined in his eye of Tigger with a birthday hat on and Eli LOVED it. He followed instructions well and left with a huge smile.

Eli did EXCELLENT in his therapy this week. He played very well with the OT and moved from each transition with ease. He was not aggressive at inappropriate times. There is a book called No No Puppy that Eli loves to read. He gives really big belly laughs with each page. His laugh puts a big smile on every one's face. After OT we had speech. Again, another wonderful session. Our G sound is still a toughie but our K's  were much better. We started on SH for this week which he seems to be grasping with ease.

After therapy, Eli had a hearing test. We sat in a room with a bucket of blocks and waited for a sound to come over a speaker. After each sound, Eli would drop a block in a bucket. I did not think he would do this activity because of his short attention span and his love of building with blocks but he was such a champion. He listened with 2 types of head phones and one with out and passed with flying colors. One of his tubes has come out and the other is still doing its job. Having 3 appointments in one day is a lot for anyone, especially a 3 year old but I could not have asked for him to be a better trooper than what he was.

Since we had such a busy day with lots of appointments, we decided to reward his behavior with a trip to the fair. My dad has so many memories of going to the fair with my sisters children that he wanted to continue the tradition of taking Eli to the fair. Andrew, Eli and I met up with my parents at the fair and talk about fun! Eli felt like he was on heaven on earth. He wanted to ride everything! No matter how fast, high or dizzy the ride made you, he had NO FEAR! He wanted to ride the roller coasters 2 times, wanted the monster trucks to go faster and wanted the bumper cars to "bump something else". We ate popcorn and lemonade, rode every ride we possibly could, won prizes and had a wonderful night with the family. Eli crashed hard on the way home.

Today we had an appointment for a second evaluation with the school system for his speech. It lasted an hour and a half so his patients were really tested today. I asked the speech pathologist if she thought he would qualify and she said 100% he does. I will meet with them again in 2 weeks to go over his results and figure out a schedule to meet with them weekly.

Eli has his first dentist appointment on Monday. He is very excited so I hope it goes well and he always gets excited about going to the dentist/ doctor. (He does not get that from me!!)

I am so beyond blessed to be Eli's mom. He teaches me new things everyday. He has such a big personality in that little body. His innocence is something I pray he holds on to for a very long time. I pray that I am always led by God in all of the choices I make for him. I am so thankful to have him.

-Brittany