Updates

Help Me Grow came out yesterday and completely shocked me. We did an assessment to see what kind of progress Ellie has made since we started.  At 24months, she should have about 100 words.  We counted up the words Ellie says on a regular basis spontaneously.  She is in the upper 90's! I'm sure we missed some words so I'm confident she is over 100 words.  She is doing great with her 2 word phrases and is now working on some 3 word phrases like, Ellie poo poo potty, Help please mama and no baby, mine. The therapist even put her in a 27-30month range on a couple other tasks like identifying people and animals and what an object is used for.  We've known all along that she is one smart cookie!  She still needs work on her tantrums and her pronunciation.  We are also going to have an occupational therapist come out in the next month to evaluate her facial movements.  Ellie is usually pretty animated when we are at home.  However, we've noticed that when we are out she has kind of a stone face.  She wont smile, does very little interacting/ talking and basically looks peeved.  It could just be she's over stimulated, she can't respond to her environment so she shuts down or a whole list of possibilities.  We are going to start more facial stimulation with her and then see what the other therapist thinks.  It could just be something she grows out of as her speech improves or she could be up for a whole other therapy routine with another HMG therapist.  Regardless, Ellie has made huge improvements especially since Christmas and we are so proud of her.

Benjamin is my challenge.  We started off the new year doing crazy good when it came to school.  All of the sudden he has lost his ability to read and follow directions.  I don't know whats going on with him.  Its not like he doesn't understand something and needs further explanation.  He just wants me to lead him through every problem without making any sort of effort to attempt things on his own. History is still a struggle for Ben.  He will remember the most random details, but completely miss the main point even on stories we're reviewed several times.  Of course then he will happily repeat word for word a library book he read one time...a month ago!  Spelling is still his best subject.  He is good at it, asks to do it, actually makes an effort and no one gets frustrated.  This week we did words like child, shoe, lunch, couch and chop.  Ben told Jon that his favorite subject is french.  I was surprised by that, but excited that he is enjoying a new language.

I had my parent/teacher conference with Sams preschool this week.  I'm worried they got his evaluation confused with some other kids!  They said Sam LOVES puzzles and art.  He'll do one of his puzzles with Ben, usually when Ellie dumps all the pieces out.  He doesn't go out of his way to do them at home though.  Ben is more of an artist than Sam.  Sam wants to spend his time playing with dads legos or racing cars.  They said he is one of the few boys that will go into the kitchen area with the girls.  He loves story time and always participates in answering questions, dressing the weather frog and singing songs.  They said he shares well (seriously, thats not my kid!), listens well and is just as happy to play alone as with other kids.  Really?  I'm so happy to hear that.  I just don't understand why he's so different at home.  They did say they usually have to remind him when its clean up time.  He gets side tracked back to playing very easily.  Thats my kid!  He is still surprising us.  He finally said his alphabet correctly.  He used to get lost at l,m,n,o,p and would say s instead of x. Tonight he wrote the word bug all on his own.  His writing was almost better thans Bens.

Zach went back to the eye doctor 2 weeks ago.  The stent had stayed in his eye and the doctor took it out right there.  Zach did great.  No squirming or crying.  He's so close to walking.  He just needs a little more work on his balance.  He can stand up on his own (most of the time), balance for a few seconds then falls over.  He has started saying a version of yes and no.  He doesn't always use them correctly and doesn't always say them, but its really exciting when he gets it right.  Just today he started copying Ellie.  When we ask her what an alligator says, she says chomp, chomp, chomp.  Zach clapped his hands and made a chomp ish noise.  Now if he could just get mama down, I'd be one happy lady!

Jon is still working his butt off.  He is usually up at 5am and doesn't leave work until 5pm.  I'll be so glad when his project is over....in August.
Thats my family in a nutshell.