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.