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