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.

Birthday girl

Our baby girl turned 2 today.  She's so little so its hard to think of her as a big girl.  Especially since half her closet is full of 12 month clothes!  

We had a quiet celebration.  We had sloppy joes for lunch, one of her many favorites.  Ben and I made a chocolate cake.  The kids also got a cupcake baking kit for Christmas (that they have been asking to use about every 5 minutes) so we had some mini cupcakes too.  Ellie sampled both and gave her approval.  

Our big girl blew out the candle all by herself!

A new skirt from aunt Corrie and shoes from Gram.  Both had to be tried on the minute they were opened!

Ellie pushing her new baby in her new shopping cart wearing some new (girly) clothes.  I think she had a good birthday.

Happy birthday baby girl!  And I have to mention Jon who did her hair all by himself for the first time ever.  Great job baby!

Christmas +

We've had a mostly relaxing couple days.  Zach recovered beautifully from his eye surgery. All the wrapping and shopping was done a week before Christmas. Gram and Jon got the grocery shopping done early.  That left us to relax at home and enjoy each other.  

After a long break from the Wii, Sam got to play a game and Ellie "helped."

Dad got to practice his drumming:

Jon kept the reading tradition alive on Christmas Eve and read, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the kids (in their Christmas jammies).  He also read the story of Jesus' birth.  

Ellie got a sneak peak at the story:

After lots of presents, our monster breakfast and some family time, Sam surprised us by writing his name for us for the first time and confirmed he was a lefty.  

We are slowly getting back to normal.  Ellie had her check up today.  She has officially broke the 20lb mark.  She weighed in at 21lbs 11oz.  She still isn't back on the chart, but she's moved a little closer to it, so the doctor isn't worried.  She is 31.5" (5th %).  Aside from her speech, she is right where she needs to be.  We are still working with Help Me Grow and are seeing some progress.  She'll be chatting up her brothers in no time!

Christmas Sunday

The kids did their Christmas program at church today.  No one put their finger up their nose (Sam) so it was a success.  Here are a couple of the songs:

We attempted a photo shoot after church.  It could have gone better.

This was the highlight of the group shots.  Not terrible, but we had the potential for several great shots.  Its usually one of the older kids (that know better) that look away at the last second.  Merry Christmas!

Big, brave boy

Zach had his surgery this morning to pop open his tear duct.  He did amazing!  Not only am I impressed with him, but I'm really impressed with the Cleveland Clinic.  We met a lot of really nice and helpful people today.  They were all wonderful with Zach and did a great job of answering our questions.  At one point we had his doctor, nurse, surgical nurse and anesthesiologist in his room going over the game plan right in front of us so we were confident everyone was on the same page and could get any last minute questions answered.   

He was given some "happy juice" by the anesthesiologist which helped relax him.  I was next to him on the bed and could see it kick in.  His eyes drooped, his tongue was hanging out (kind of limp and drooling, not fun hanging like in these pictures!).  He couldn't sit up straight and he was very giggly.  It was hilarious.  I feel kind of bad I found "drunk" Zach so funny!

I got to walk him (and his giraffe) back to the surgical room, put him on the bed and stay with him until he fell asleep.  They checked both eyes.  The right was clear, but the left was very blocked.  He had a lot of congestion in his nose so they had to leave a stent in his duct which will stay there for about 2 months--assuming it doesn't pop out on its own!  The procedure only took about 5 minutes.  He was away from us for about a half hour.

We were in recovery with him before he woke up.  He did not wake up happy.  We were warned that he could experience screaming, tremors, confusion and some other random symptoms until he completely woke up.  He wasn't that bad, but he was clearly upset and did a little screaming.  They got him some juice and graham crackers which helped calm him down.  It took close to 2 hours (and lunch) for him to get back to his sweet self.  He might have some bloody tears for a day or two and his nose has been pretty consistently bleeding.  Other than that you would never know he had surgery this morning.

Singing time

Sams school had a Christmas party/concert over the weekend.  When Ben was in school, they had the program during the school day so I got to see it.  This time, since babies would be sleeping, Jon got to go and video tape the performance for me.  Sam did a great job.  He made it through all seven songs without putting his finger up his nose---thats a first!  See the girl crying on the right?  She cried through all. 7. songs.

Sam stayed focused for the first 3 or 4 songs.  Then Sam and his friend Sammy (in the blue stripes) entertained each other with their antlers, spinning around and anything else they could think of...except singing!

All the extra fun wore them out.

In each concert they host, they ask all alum to come up and sing the last song.  Ben did a great job up there as did Hannah (the girl in the green) aka Sams dream girl!

"Wordless" Wednesday: Wrapping for mental health services

2hrs, 40ish presents wrapped, lots of chocolate consumed!

Standing

Yep...hes standing!