Breakfast date

Ellie had her first official daddy/daughter date this morning. They went out for breakfast and Ellie was very excited to go.  At 2, I'm sure she doesn't understand the concept of a date, but she definitely understands being the center of attention and heading out with dad while her brothers stay home!

School

Ellie wanted to do some school so we got out a few coloring pages/word finds and got to work:

Ben is always willing to lend a hand:

Zach refused to be left out:

My guys and gal

Papa

We had a visitor today:

Hair cut

Jon needed a hair cut.  Since he started going the clippers route, he thought he'd let the boys help out.  They were pretty amused by the whole process.

Zach

I know, I've done a terrible job of keeping up with the blog this month.  We've been getting back into our routines of school, play dates, gearing up for Bible study to restart next week, doctor apts, occasional exercise and family time.  

Ben has done a great job of getting back into the school routine.  We're getting through the major subjects a bit faster all of the sudden and are incorporating more side activities like shows from National Geographic, extra books on a topic we are covering, PBS Kids videos, random activities or coloring sheets.  He is still having a hard time retaining a lot of what we read about in history.  I'm hoping this will help some of the big stuff sink in a bit.

Sam is back to his school too and still loves it. Conferences are spread out over the last week of January and the first week of February.  I'm extremely interested in what they have to say.  They are recommending Sam skip the 4 year old class and go to the pre-k class.  We've decided that each kid will only do 1 year there so he wont be doing either class, but I'm anxious to hear why they think he can skip a class.  While he has made huge academic strides this year, the boy still doesn't know his alphabet!

Ellie is making small improvements in speech every week. She now spontaneously says bless you after someone sneezes.  Her Thank you's are starting to get a bit more clear, she says love you although someone off the street would have no idea thats what she's actually saying.  She's also copying random words more frequently.  She still has a long way to go and we still have plenty of tantrums because we can't understand her, but she's making progress.

Zach has his eye surgery follow up next week.  We'll find out if the stent fell out or is still working in there.  If so, we'll probably schedule another apt to get that out.  His eye is amazing.  Nothing yellow has oozed out for almost a month now.  Its awesome!  Zach is walking around the furniture like a pro.  I got a video a couple weeks ago, but he's improved so much I almost didn't want to post it. He's let go a couple times, but falls pretty quickly.  He does the bear crawl now.  Its a little odd to see that. None of the other kids did it, but its amusing.  He had his 15month check up today.  He has officially surpassed Ellie in weight.  He weighs 22.4lbs (29th %) and is 2'6" (19th %).  He is now 1lb heavier than Ellie and 1 inch shorter! He is a tiny bit behind the curve in talking.  He should have a better grasp of who is mama and dada and he doesn't yet. All the boys took their time talking so I'm not worried about him.  

Thats where we're at.  I'm hoping to get back on the blog ball very soon and have some good pics to post.

Yoga

Bounce therapy

Ellie is still working with Help Me Grow.  They come out twice a month and we work on different strategies to help get Ellie chatting.  They've given me a few helpful tips, but our last visit was the best by far.  Our speech therapist was discussing Ellie with an occupational therapist who suggested movement.  I can't remember all the technical stuff, but basically bouncing and swaying are two movements that help stimulate the brain.  The side effects are enhanced facial expressions and speech.  We started with bouncing Ellie on my lap.  We would bounce through a short song then give her a few seconds to recover and repeat for about five minutes.  Ellie exploded after that. She was initiating 2 word phrases, answering questions and following commands.  She was happy and patient and for a few minutes I forgot she had any delays.  We also put Ellie on a blanket and swung her side to side. She didn't seem quite as sure about that one, but the results were the same.  We took turns swinging Ellie and her baby doll. She told us whose turn it was, she said ready, set, go.  She told us to go up or down, when to stop and when she wanted more.  It was awesome.  We're going to keep this going for the next two weeks to see if it continues to work. I guess they have a few more tricks to try, but they are a bit more intense so we wont go there until we know this is working.  

Turn it off

A few weeks ago I heard a news story about how our brains are always "on."  Between tv, video games, e mail, face book, pinterest etc etc we always have something to focus on.  Our smart phones ensure that even that 30 second elevator ride is packed full of Words With Friends or Instagram.  Obviously this is not a good thing. Unfortunately, I don't remember all the details because I was checking my e mail at the same time!
I am guilty of always having something on.  The tv used to always be on.  No one would be watching it, but I liked the noise.  Now that the kids are older, the radio is always on. When the kids are eating breakfast or down for naps, I'm catching up on e mails, FB, blogs, forums and so on.  This has taken its toll on my sanity. Sadly, I didn't put two and two together until very recently.  
I was having very stressful days.  School wouldn't go well, kids would fight, Ellie would scream over everything and it had me tied up in knots.  Jon would come home to me telling him how terrible my day was...everyday.  One night I told him I needed 30 minutes to myself to relax.  No tv, music, phone, computer etc.  Just me and my thoughts.  It. Was. Amazing!  
I'm now making it a point to take at least 15 minutes every day to be alone with my brain.  No Jon, no kids, no distractions. After just a few days, I can see it's already making a world of difference.  I have time to process the kids issues, unwind, breathe and on good days, completely turn my brain off for a bit.  I'm even falling asleep faster. All that stuff I had to think about before I fell asleep has already been taken care of.  The kids still drive me crazy, but I think I'm handling it better.  I guess the real test will be when we start school again next week.  I might have to bump my me time up to 45 minutes!

Art wall

I saw this on Pinterest and thought this was a great idea. If you've seen our fridge, you would agree!  The boys painted the letters and Jon hung it for me.  I think this will be a fun addition to our kitchen.