Cardiology visit and more

Dan brought Elijah to see our beloved Dr. G today. All I got from Dan regarding the appointment was that "everything looks good!" I asked him, "No specifics?" "Nope! Everything looks good! We need to come back in April." So we will go back in April. We are extremely thankful that everything looks good with our steadfast boy. :)

Life has been an absolute whirlwhind lately, and thankfully the end is in sight. Another week or two of this madness and we will be able to breathe a bit. I am looking forward to organizing our kitchen (again) and doing some baking for my food blog and thinking ahead to Christmas for the first time in years. I had another fun opportunity come up for work, but that won't start until the end of November. More on that another time!

The boys have kept us very busy. Elijah has Art Class on Mondays, PT/OT on Wednesdays, swimming lessons on Thursdays, Not to mention kindergarten every morning. Potty business has been going better overall. Accidents are fewer and farther between, and spontaneous toileting (no prompting from us) occurs on occasion. This is an improvement. We still deal with challenging behavior from Elijah at times, but it is almost always when he is overly tired. We are back to having him take naps on days when it fits our schedule. This helps his behavior tremendously. On his good days, we have noticed some maturing. For the past few days, when I say, "Elijah, please go potty," he will occasionally say, "YES! Ok! Yes, Mom, I will!" Of course, he knows this will get him major praise, and perhaps a treat, but that works for me. Slooooooowly but surely, we are getting there.

With Sammy talking so much right now, I have been thinking about how totally different Elijah was at his age and in so many ways. He was just starting to utter his first words at two-and-a-half years old, whereas Sammy is talking in complete sentences. The only reason I make the comparison is to remind myself that Elijah's timeline is way out of the "normal" range, and for very good reason. He has endured his fair share of challenges! This helps me have major potty patience, and overall patience with him when things get rocky. I know I've said this before, but he and Sammy are going through similar stages in so many ways. Being three years apart in age, this is kind of crazy but it really does help me to keep things in perspective.

Speaking of Sammy's speech, this is what he said to me as I got him out of bed this morning: "Hi Mommy! I like your hair! It's really shiny!" :)

There are so many things our boys do and say every day that make me smile and that melt my heart into a huge puddle. I hope to always remember this precious time because I know one day I will miss it. Even amidst the chaos, I love it.

Tomorrow is Halloween, so I am sure we will have some fun photos to share. We carved pumpkins earlier this week. I got Elijah's choice finished on Sunday and Dan got Sammy's done yesterday. Elijah is excited about wearing his Spiderman costume, but Sammy has not allowed us to put his robot costume on him yet. We will see how he does with it tomorrow.

Thanks for checking in! Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Sleepers, talkers, readers and a miracle!

Dan has been home a bit more this week due to the weather. He has been working most of today. The little boys and I stayed close to home today, making an Angry Bird pizza and homemade ice cream. Both were firsts for us! I will share pics tomorrow!

I snapped this photo earlier in the week. Isn't it precious?? Don't tell Dan it's here or he will make me take it down! :) Today was the first day I can say that Elijah was caught up from missing out on so much sleep last weekend, being with his Auntie and cousins. That boy needs his rest, much like his mother.

We were able to squeeze in a trip to the boys' favorite park before Dan left for work this morning.

A few highlights from our week so far:

Tonight Elijah once again showed his scary yet impressive memory. We were talking about how we might get to go to Uncle Phill's house later this summer, which is a very exciting thing for all of us (especially Elijah). He said, "Oh! Mom! Remember when Uncle Phill gave me a popsicle?! It was purple!" Mouth hanging open, I said, "Elijah, that was TWO YEARS AGO. How in the world..." And the color of his popsicle is a detail that I happen to remember because it was the first time our boy with major textural issues (especially at that time) allowed a popsicle to touch his lips. It WAS purple. Unbelievable.

Sammy is talking sooo much! He is now speaking in 7-8-word sentences, and he repeats pretty much everything that is said to him. Of course there are the handful of words that are so cutely spoken incorrectly, like "beddy bubbon" for "belly button." :) I love it. And I never correct him.

Elijah has been reading small words since about a year ago, but recently I have noticed that he will sit down with a book and read just about every word. He is officially a READER! I caught this on video tonight because it has great meaning. This is the same book I first read when I was a little girl! I have vivid memories of feeling so proud, reading through Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop. Or as Elijah calls him, "Dr. Seusser." :)

We have a fun weekend ahead of us! We hope you all do, too, and that you are doing well. Thanks so much for checking in on our family!

Oh, and THANK YOU for praying for Lucy! Check. Out. This. MIRACLE! UNBELIEVABLE! A few weeks ago her parents were planning her funeral. Today? Lucy is cancer-free and as strong as ever! God is GOOD.

More Sammy words

I thought of some more Sammy words today..

"Doo-dah" is "step." I have no idea where this came from, but it's cute! "Bee doo-dah!" is "big step" and "Doo-dah book" is "I stepped on the book."

He is so polite, and always says "please" and "thank you," which sound more like "peace" and "eek-ah."

He is much like his brother in the way that he loves to make people laugh by using nonsense words. A few of his favorites are: "dee-dah-bo," "go-gee" and "vu-fuh." I love when I catch him making Elijah laugh with his silly words.

"Gar-gar" is anything that is too tough to say, such as "helicopter" or "garbage."

"Bah-boo" is "buckle." Buckles are on Sammy's list of Things I Must Do All By Myself Or I Will Scream.

The little boys and I had a good day today! We took a lot of trips to the park, which meant a lot of screaming-off-of-one's-head-and-flopping-around-like-a-slippery-fish when leaving the park. Tomorrow will be more of the same. Elijah has his 3-month follow-up with the opthamologist in the afternoon. Hopefully the weather will stay nice so we can spend some more time outside! Thanks for checking in!

Blab-blab-blabbing boys

I thought I had photos to share, but I do not. Sorry! It has been a crazy past few days. The boys have been pushing me to my limits! Elijah's behavior has been off the charts, and Sam now likes to do the back-arching and screaming thing any time we leave a fun place. Today was better, though. We got out of the house and I kept the boys active until bedtime.

Sammy's independence has reached new heights. He will not let us help him with ANYTHING. Not even things that he is physically unable to do, such as buckling himself into his car seat or zipping up his coat. If I try to help him with any task, major screaming occurs. And he suddenly has a dislike for socks and wearing his own shoes. My shoes are preferable. This boy has his own ideas!

I wrote down a few things over the course of today that Sammy says. Here are my favorites:

"Boom-bee" is "blueberry" (still his favorite food).
"Deet" is "grape" (his second favorite food and the only thing that keeps him from screaming in the grocery store).
"Beet" is "play-doh" (in his top three favorite activities, along with drawing and playing legos, aka "wee-bos").
"Boo-dair" is "blue chair." We have a blue chair in our living room that he likes to sit in, but now every chair is a blue chair. Any chair he wants to sit on is "boo-dair!"
"Bebe-up!" is "Give me my blankie!" "Bebe" means "blankie" and he loves his blankie more than anything in the world. It must be in the same room with him at all times, or he will start groaning, "BEBE?! BEBE?! BEBE UP?!"
"Eye-faaa" is "My eye itches." He has it in his mind that if something hurts, it has "fallen."
And the best of all.. "I-yo" is "I love you." He says this to all of us, and often. "I-yo, Mama!" "I-yo, uh-YA-YA!"

He loves to giggle a super high-pitched squeal when is really happy, and I love that squeal. Our little Sammy is such a blessing to our family.

Dan is still working hard at getting his AFF rating for skydiving. Say a prayer that he passes in the next few days! Thanks for checking in. The next post will involve photos, I promise!

Boys boys boys

Hello everyone! It seems like it has been a while since I have posted a "normal" post. First, I want to ask you to please have patience with the appearance of this blog. Blogger is in the process of making changes, so that affects the way the graphics appear. We are trying to get everything looking great again!

These sleepy photos are from a few nights ago when we went to visit Elijah and Sammy's cousins. Elijah likes to sleep in the car and Sammy likes to chill on car rides.

For the past few weeks we have been lucky to have my cousin Trevor stop by our house on his way home from work on occasion. We are happy that our house is on his way home! Last week he brought his beautiful and sweet daughter along with him, so our boys had somebody new to play with. We love having him and Veda here! Please come back soon, guys!! Elijah and Sammy are loving the boat you left here for them to play with!

Elijah has had a VERY good past few weeks behaviorally, EXCEPT for today. We had some major upsetting incidents today, and therefore had no tv, Wii, toys or privileges. I am thankful that Dan was here to help me with everything that went down today. He will be training to help people become licensed skydivers for the next 4-5 days, so the boys and I will be solo! I am praying for continued good behavior from our oldest boy.

Sammy is quite the little talker these days. His speech improves every single day, as long as there are no "strangers" around. He is now saying 3-4-word phrases, and he knows which words make Elijah laugh and which ones make him mad. Depending on the mood, he will get right in his face and say choice words to his brother. Both boys love silly nonsense words, so that is one thing that keeps us all laughing. We hold onto anything that keeps our boys interacting.

After a rough behavior day for Elijah, we also ended the day on a rough note. While the boys were wrestling, Elijah bit Sam's butt so hard that he left a huge bite mark on his left butt cheek! Needless to say, he went to bed very early. Biting butt cheeks?! Ugh. Whatever will be in store for these two??

We are attempting to get Sammy away from sucking his thumb so much. Suggestions, anyone?

Thanks for checking in!

Notice in most of these photos that Elijah is being a ham, Sammy is being shy and Veda is as beautiful as ever! :)

Easter weekend

These photos are about a month old, but they are the only ones I have to share! Sammy loves to sit at Elijah's computer and pretend like he's playing games like his brother does.





Elijah has been a little bit sick for the past couple days. He acquired a mysterious rash that turned out to be a possible virus? We weren't sure, but Zyrtec wiped it out almost immediately. He has had a bit of a cough for the past few days, but has otherwise has been his spunky self. I hate to even put this in writing for fear of jinxing anything, but potty issues have improved a bit. We still have accidents, but he CAN keep his pants dry all day if we stay on top of asking him to go to the bathroom. He still does not EVER tell us when he has to go, so if we let too much time pass he will go in his pants. Baby steps!

And his behavior has gotten better, too. For about a week straight he wasn't able to play the Wii because of his "bad" words. We have not heard CWAP in almost a week! I think he is finally figuring out that C-word equals no Wii! I have been using the Wii as a tool to get him dressed and pottied in a timely manner in the mornings, which is working great. I can't even tell you how wonderful life is on the mornings when there isn't any whining or complaining!

We have Elijah's kindergarten round-up this week! We are excited to see his school and meet his teacher and new friends. Our big boy is growing up!

Sammy is sooo stinkin' funny lately. He has started putting 2-word phrases together, which is fun. When we walk outside to get in the car he says, "Mama dar?!" (Mama's car) and when we are getting ready to leave the house he says, "Goat on?!" (coat on). When we see a truck on the road he says, "Bee vru!" (big truck) and when we pull out of our driveway he says, "Bye bye, mome!" (bye-bye, home). He is a smart little boy! He can follow multi-step commands, which seems just crazy to us. He has a very strong little will, especially about certain things, but he can also be such a VERY laid back and totally chill little person.

Elijah and Sammy have shown signs of actually enjoying one another in the past few days. It is nice to see those rare moments when they interact positively. Of course we have plenty of the other kinds of moments, too.

I am leaving for California on Thursday morning for five days, so the beginning part of this week is going to be busy. I hate the thought of being away from my boys for that long, but it will be a very fun trip. Dan's sisters and I are taking his mom on a girls' trip! I can't wait to be on the beach, enjoying the California sunshine. I also get to see my mama!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Thanks for checking in!

Random doings and sayings

I love this photo of the boys snuggling, despite Elijah looking quite wiped out.



Sammy loves his new orange Crocs that I got for him in Colorado. He wants to be wearing them constantly. If one happens to fall off, he yells, GOCK! GOCK! GOCK! until we put it back on.

Elijah has always had little quirks and unique sensitivities. Since he was a tiny baby he has absolutely hated the sun shining in his face while riding in the car. He still hates it. So every time the sun is shining in his face, which happens often because that's what suns do, we get to hear, THE SUN IS SHOOTING ME! (Repeat until the sun is no longer "shooting" him.) Just recently he has been extra sensitive to wind, as well. If we are walking outside when it is windy, he says, THE WIND IS BLOWING ME AWAY! (Again, repeat until the wind has stopped blowing him away.) No drama or anything!

That leads nicely into this topic. We have decided to put Elijah into occupational therapy, as well as physical therapy. We are hoping that will help him with some of his fine motor skill delays and also self-care and some sensory issues that still linger from when he was a baby. He will hopefully start that next Monday. I hear that his new OT has all sorts of activities lined up for him!

Lately Elijah has been asking me about his scars. He points to his big one and asks what Dr. Moga did. I explain that he had to cut an incision to get into his heart, and he seems to understand that. Then he points to his chest tube scars and asks where they came from. Those are a little more difficult to explain, but we are honest about why they are there. We have talked a little bit about his upcoming heart cath, and he seems to know what to expect.

The boys have a game they play with me lately that makes us all giggle. When I ask for a kiss or a hug they will say, "NOOOO!" and laugh and run away. I chase them and say, "You can't deny Mama Kisses!" Once I get my hands on them they get assaulted with Mama's kisses! Thankfully they both love getting smooched by Mama.

The potty troubles are still present. I would say there is a teeny improvement in that arena. Just teeny. At least now we see him trying to hold it instead of just going wherever and whenever. We do still have our share of accidents, though. And we still get sassed when we ask him to go. Overall, the sassing has made slight improvements, as well. Dan and I have stuck to our guns and have not backed down ONCE with discipline/consequences. He is learning that we aren't tolerating manipulation, which is good!

Sammy has this funny thing that he constantly does where he will take family inventory. MAMA? Yes, I'm Mama. DADA? Daddy is at work. UH-YA-YA? Elijah is at school. Then he will pat the top of his head. (This is a funny thing because he has never once attempted to say his own name. It's always a head-pat when referring to himself.) Yes, you are Sammy. He does this about 900 times per day. Then he will point to his toes (or any body part) and grunt (grunting is his way of saying, "Look!"). Yes, those are Sammy's toes. Then he will point in Dan's direction and grunt. Yes, Daddy has toes. Then he will point at me and grunt. Yep, Mama has toes, too. Then at Elijah. Elijah does indeed have toes. And on and on.

My favorite recent word of Sammy's is his word for JAMMIES. He calls them BEEZ-BEEZ. :) He has also been saying a string of nonsense words that never fails to make Elijah and I laugh. It sounds like blub-blub-blub-blub-blub-BOP!

Last weekend Elijah got to spend a night with Auntie Lissa and Uncle Dan and two of his cousins! He adores Auntie Lissa's house, and he had a blast with them, as usual. I love this photo of him and his cousin (and puppy) sleeping. Sshhh, please don't tell Emma I posted this!



And he even got to ride the lawn mower with Uncle Dan!



Elijah woke up this morning with a tiny cough and runny nose, so we will be on croup alert tonight. Other than that, and our boys' silly antics, not much is going on with us. We have been outside a lot, enjoying this beautiful Minnesota weather! Which reminds me, happy spring! Thanks for checking in.

Good words bad words

Sammy is napping, Elijah is having quiet-time with a computer game and Dan is at work, so I am going to write some things down quick! Gotta make the most of my "free" time with a house full of boys!

I cannot BELIEVE Elijah's memory. Lately he has said a few things that make me scratch my head. The craziest one was from the other night while the boys were taking a bath. Elijah was pretending like he was swimming and I said to Dan, "We should get him back in swim lessons." Elijah said, "Oh. With Cindy?" I wondered who the heck Cindy was, and then was distracted by Sammy peeing on the floor. A little while later, it occurred to me. Cindy was the name of Elijah's swim therapist BACK WHEN HE WAS STILL TWO YEARS OLD. I'm not kidding. He only went to four sessions since it was such a traumatic experience, and we have not mentioned her name since. I looked up the posts about it on this blog just to be sure, and I looked up her name on their website. Sure enough, he remembered that detail from way back then! I asked him if he remembered anything else about swim therapy, and he said, "I remember you standing by the side of the pool and watching me. It was a wittle bit scary." Wow. Dan and I are in serious trouble. Someday he will be reminiscing about how his mama lost her cool EVERY SINGLE DAY. Great!

Sammy Jammy is in a language explosion right now! He is saying so many new things. He says "chase" (dees) when he wants to play the chasing game with Elijah through the house. He says "fall" (faa) when he wants to play Ring Around the Rosie with Mama. His newest and cutest word is NO. It sounds so darn cute coming out of his mouth. Ask me what I think of it in a week and I may have a different opinion!

Sam is already WALKING up and down our stairs (holding onto the wall for help). Elijah just started doing this a few months ago! Sam's progress in some areas makes our heads spin. We were so used to Elijah doing everything in Elijah Time. Here's a fun fact: When Elijah was 20 months old (Sammy's current age), he was just starting to crawl!

The "bad" words continue to spew out of our oldest boy's mouth. It's a never-ending battle. If it's not one word, it's another. His latest trick is saying under his breath, "Shush, Mom." UGH, this makes me crazy mad! "Dangit" and "cr*p" are still choice words, as well. For a while, when we would ask him to do something, he would say, "Neh-vah!" Or he would point his finger to his lips as if to say, "Sshh," but not let a single sound come out. Or instead of pointing his finger at me, he will point a pinky or thumb my way. Clever! He's always thinking of new ways to bend those rules! He also does what I call word-testing. He will rattle out a bunch of nonsense sounds until he gets a reaction from us. A-ha! That must be a bad one! Then he will repeat that string of sounds. We have stopped reacting, though, so he's having a tougher time. The other day one of us must have had a slight reaction to something he said that rhymes with "bucket" (I know, lovely, right?), so he has been saying it on occasion when he's playing and reciting his nonsense words. Every single time, he will look up at us to see if we react. It is HARD not to react to that one! I'm hoping it goes away if we continue to act like it's not a big deal.

Sammy is still sick. The poor kid has some sort of cold or cough or runny nose for months (it seems). We are hoping for a reprieve for his little body!

We have a fun hotel-waterpark night coming up, so we are all getting excited!! Thanks for checking in. Have a great weekend.

Cuteness

I'm playing catch-up again. I hate neglecting to write down all of the cute things the boys are doing and saying.

Elijah has been Mr. Inquisitive. Here is a typical conversation:

"Mom, remember that guy's name?" (referring to a guy driving a truck next to us at a stop light)
"I'm not sure what his name is. We could make one up for him."
"Remember his name?"
"How about Ralph."
"Mom, where is Ralph going?"
"Hmm, maybe he is making a delivery?"
"What delivery he gonna make?"
"It looks like he's driving a truck with groceries."
"Where is he bringing the groceries to?"
"Probably to the grocery store."
"Then where is he gonna go?"
"Probably home."
"Where's his home?"

And on and on... He's curious about the world! The funny thing is that everyone is "that guy." The little girl at the park? That guy. The puppy walking down the sidewalk? That guy.

The only tv show that Sammy seems to enjoy is Yo Gabba Gabba (Isaac would be so proud!). Every time I turn on the tv, Sam attempts to say "Gabba Gabba" in his cute little Sammy way. Imagine saying it while sticking your tongue completely out of your mouth for the Bs. It sounds something like GLAUHHLA-GLAUHHLA.

Last night we stopped by Elijah's school for open house. He is sooo excited to start school again. He played for a bit in his classroom, said hi to his teachers and was not at all happy when we had to leave. I am not kidding when I say that he asked at least 100 times on the drive home when he could go back. The boy loves school!

Sam has been obsessed with two things lately. Balls and shoes. Well, he has always loved balls, but the shoe thing is new. He asks for balls ALL THE TIME. He opens his palm to the sky, as if to say, "Where could all of the balls in the world be?" When we are at home, he walks over to where our shoes are by the door and points and says, "ISS." "Yes, Sammy, those are shoes." First he picks his shoes up and shoves them toward his feet, continuing to say "ISS" until I put them on him. Then he will bring me my shoes, one at a time, and point to my feet until I put them on.

Sam also says UP now, but it comes out MMP. Every time he hears an airplane, he makes the sign for airplane and says BRRRM BRRRRMMM. I'm convinced that he is mad at me for leaving him last weekend. He has not been the same with me since.

There's more, there is always more cuteness to speak of, but I'm out of time. More later..

Elijah goodies

I am constantly storing things that Elijah says and does in the back of my brain so I don't forget about them. Here are some cute things from the past few weeks:

With his speech constantly improving, he says so many things that make us laugh:
- I think my new favorite word of his that he says is "delicious," which sounds like "dee-wish-us."
- He adores preschool, so if he meets someone new he will say, "Fee-gool!" like he wants to talk about it.
- He will walk into whatever room Dan is in and say, "E doin', Dad?" It's his way of saying, "Whatcha doin'?"
- He will point to something and say, "E cool!" Translation: "Pretty cool!"
- He has started saying, "I huggy!" when it's dinner time.
- He asks for hugs a lot, especially when he is scared or when he knows he is about to get tickled or when he doesn't want to do something that we're asking him to do. He draws out the H sound, like he is speaking a throaty German word: "HHhhhhhug!"
- Yesterday he was doing his impatient screaming that he is so good at lately when Dan said, "Elijah, that screaming is unacceptable." Elijah stopped screaming and said, "Unsuseptamole!"



One of Elijah's favorite things to do when we are at home is to sit at the computer and look through our old photos. For the past two months, his favorite pics to look at have been of he and his friend Olivia, from when we went to the Children's Museum with her and her mom and brother. DAILY, he walks around the house and says, "EEEvaaaa!" (His version of "Olivia!") It sounds exactly like Wall-E calling out for his girl, if you have seen that movie.



He definitely has the little boy wrestle gene. There is nothing better in the world than wrestling with Daddy, and now he loves pillow fights, too. "Peee-ohhhh fiiiiiight!"

Last night Elijah's speech therapist of almost two years had a graduation party for him. He got to have a cookie and juice and we said goodbye to speech therapy for good!

He is still such a little snuggle man. I am so thankful for this! (And he has me wrap my arms around him extra tight during scary parts of a movie/tv show.)



He says, "HI!" to absolutely everyone he sees. I think he actually startles some people when we are out in public. He is such a friendly, outgoing little person.

Singing is very much a favorite thing of his lately. I have never sang so many songs out loud in my life as I have during the last few weeks. Elijah has a renewed interest in Veggie Tales, so "God is Bigger Than the Boogeyman" and "The Bunny" are sung about four thousand times each day in our house. The cutest is when we hear him singing songs on his own.

He has started shutting his eyes super tight whenever he knows he has done something wrong. I think he is hoping we will be gone when he opens his eyes back up.

On my good contraction days I have been sitting at the table with Elijah and Dan for meals, so we always say a prayer before we eat. Elijah is so sweet with his prayers. He folds his hands nice and tight and starts off, "Dear Jesus," which actually sounds like, "Daddy sauce," and then he repeats Dan's key words: "Good day, good food, Mommy tummy, Elijah sleep, AMEN!"

He is in a stage right now where he wants everything INSTANTLY. When that doesn't happen, the yelling and/or whining fills our ears. Patience is something we are constantly working on (all of us).

Elijah is still calling his little brother "Zooter." We are getting excited to bring Not-Zooter into our family and to watch Elijah become a big brother. I know that once the baby is born things will never be the way they are now again, so I am trying to savor every moment of this chapter of our lives.

Our munk-is man

Elijah has been LOVING his little computer that Dan's mom gave him for his birthday. He can sit with this thing and go through each letter and each day of the week and each little game. He has such a great attention span and I love that he is learning while playing.



I had the chance to go with Dan to pick Elijah up from preschool this week. There is not anything cuter than seeing my little boy walk around the corner with a giant smile on his face and as the leader of the line. As soon as he saw us he yelled, "MOMMY-DAD! MOMMY-DAD! MOMMY-DAD!" We had a chance to talk with his teacher briefly and she said that he is doing wonderfully in class. He already knows the routine to a T, so after each activity he will exclaim what's coming next: "Circle time!" "Play time!" "Snack time!" She also said that during gym time he has a favorite little car that he likes to drive around the gym. If someone else is using it, Elijah will follow the car around until the other child gets out. :)

Dan and I just played a little bit of Wii (archery is fun from the couch!) and while we were doing that, Elijah took the nunchuck controller and draped it around his neck and said, "DR. GREMMELS!" He is right! Dr. G does always have a stethoscope around his neck. :) I just can't believe that he remembers things like that.

I'll end with some funny new Elijah translations:
backpack = "bock-bock"
tummy ache = "tummy-cake"
picnic = "pick-pick"
knife = "wife"
munchkin = "munk-is"

First day of preschool

Elijah had a great first day of preschool! His teacher said he did great, with the exception of a few seconds between each transition time. Any time they switched activities, Elijah would start crying for "Dad." (Yes, it breaks my heart a little bit that he wasn't calling for me.)



I cried for the first 30 minutes he was at school, but eventually found peace about it. I'm glad to have Day 1 behind us and I'm sooo very glad that he enjoyed the majority of his day.



The cute Elmo backpack we got for him is too small to fit his folder in, so we will have to find another one. And, can you see his medical ID bracelet? Having this on while he was away comforted me somehow.



Our little boy came home exhausted. We are hoping for a good, restorative night of sleep for him tonight. He needs it!



Can you hear my big sigh of relief about having this day behind us? I've literally been dreading it for months. It's good to have lived through it and to know that Elijah is going to be just fine. No, more than just fine. School is going to be great for him!

Some new favorite Elijah pronunciations:
ask = "axe"
cactus = "tackus"

Tomorrow morning is my big doctor's visit! I have absolutely zero idea what she is going to tell me. My contractions have been extremely unpredictable (really good days and some bad days, too) for the past couple of weeks, and I don't know if that is good or bad. We will see!

Potty chair

Don't tell Elijah I'm posting these photos on the internet!



We haven't made much progress lately with potty training, but I feel good that we've gotten the process started.



I'm not sure why he was wearing boots as part of his potty attire, but he could not look any cuter, in my opinion.



Although we're not necessarily making progress with potty training, progress IS being made in other areas.

Elijah had a VERY exciting physical therapy session last night (once the initial standard drama ended). He initiated independent walking repeatedly and took up to TWELVE steps completely on his own each time. He is getting so so so so close!

Things I have heard E say in the past few days:

"Let's go find Daddy!"
"Let's go look!"
"Here comes Daddy!"

I'm so proud of our little talker and almost-walker!!

Happy tears are flowing

Recently at the place where Elijah receives outside speech and physical therapy, his therapists tested some of his adaptive skills to see how well he knows how to do things like get dressed and wash his hands. And, well, he just didn't know how to do any of these things. At first I felt like a pretty terrible mother for not having taught him these skills. I carried this weight around with me for a couple of weeks before I talked to Elijah's wonderful ECSE teacher about it.

She reminded me that we have not had the opportunity to teach Elijah a lot of adaptive skills because of his delayed gross motor development. Think about how difficult it would be to pull up your pants or go to the sink and wash your hands without being able to walk or stand independently. He isn't able to do lot of the tasks that fall into the "adaptive" category because not being able to walk greatly hinders him.

In order for Elijah to have qualified for the ECSE preschool that he will be going to in February (yay!), it was required that he need assistance in two main areas. A few months ago, those two areas were clearly gross motor and speech. Now that he's talking like a superstar, his two new areas are gross motor and adaptive skills.

We sat down and chatted with a team of amazing ladies yesterday regarding Elijah's IEP (Individual Education Plan) for special education. I choked back tears throughout the entire meeting because I just could not believe the amazing things that were being said about him and the positive things that were written on the report lying on the table in front of me.

The speech pathologist spoke first and she said that Elijah falls well within the normal range for speech (minus articulation), so her services are no longer needed. WOW! The occupational therapist said that, again, Elijah falls well within the normal range and that HER services are no longer needed, either. WOW again! The one therapist he does still need is his physical therapist (she will help him with both his gross motor and adaptive skills delays), so his PT wrote out some great objectives for him to accomplish while he is at school.

Elijah will start preschool on February 23rd! He will go for 2.5 hours, two mornings a week. His teacher and PT set some challenging yet attainable goals for him, so they will be working with him on his specific needs each time he is in the classroom. A lot of his goals have to do with him using his walker and this makes me smile. I love the thought of my little Elijah cruising down the school hallways in his walker! I asked him yesterday if he was excited about going to school and he giggled like he was the happiest kid on the planet. I don't know if he truly knows what "school" means, but he will get to find out soon enough!

I am so happy that he qualifies for this preschool program. I believe it will be extremely beneficial for his development in all areas. I think he is a kid who will really thrive in school. We met his teacher yesterday, and we already know the speech therapist who will also be in the classroom, and we love both of them. I am also happy that Elijah is doing well enough to get rid of speech and occupational therapy through the school district! (He still gets speech every other week through his outside therapy and will get assistance with articulation from the ST in his classroom.) Six months ago, we never would have dreamed that all of this could be a possibility before he turned three!

And, I keep thinking about the dream I had about one year ago. That pretty much sums up the rest of my happy tears.

I am so so proud of my little boy.

Snow, sickness and other bits

I was having fun playing around in Lightroom, so please forgive my repeat photos in this post.



Welcome to winter!! Blowing snow, cold car rides, long commutes to and from work, frozen nostrils...all the fun things have begun! Actually, I'm kind of excited to get Elijah out in the snow this year, once he is feeling better. We haven't really ever introduced him to snow (even thought we've had plenty of opportunity), so this will hopefully be the year for that. It has always seemed a little bit pointless (and unenjoyable?) to just set a non-walking baby down in the snow. It seems like it would be more fun if he could run around, but maybe crawling around with a bulky snowsuit on will work this year.

Well, Elijah has officially caught his first legitimate sickness of the winter. He is coughing and sneezing and a little bit congested and just doesn't feel well overall. We even had to get out the nebulizer for the first time in a while. Dan was home with him today giving him some extra love.



Our spunky boy has not been sleeping well lately. Even before he caught this cold he was waking up many many times during the night and VERY early every morning. And of course when that happens, Dan and I don't sleep well, either. At 4:30 this morning, when I heard Elijah start to make noise, I went into our closet to sleep until Dan woke me up at 6:30. It was glorious! Sorry, Elijah, but not being able to hear you in the early morning hours is kind of nice. Even if I'm sleeping on the floor of a closet.

Some unrelated stuff...

Elijah certainly has good manners these days. I hope this keeps up. He says "peeeeeease" when he asks for something, he says "ank oo" after receiving it and he even says "bess oo" when he hears someone sneeze and "suze me" after he burps. Yesterday he sneezed three times in a row and then said, "Sorry, Mama. Sorry." Silly kid, you don't have to apologize for sneezing. When I am carrying him in my arms and open a door for us to walk through it, he says, "Ank oo, Mom." :)



We have two more weeks of our It Takes Two To Talk class that we have been attending on Thursday evenings. When we signed up for this class Elijah wasn't talking much at all, so we were very excited about gaining a lot of insight from it. He has made so much progress since then that Dan and I don't feel like we have gotten as much out of the class as we had hoped. Very little content presented to us has applied to Elijah, which I guess is great. It means our little talker is doing super!

If you wouldn't mind, please pray for complete health for our little boy and for GOOD SLEEP. Thanks for checking in!

Elijah Spunkman Porta

Elijah's fancy chair and desk. :)

Apparently pregnancy equals motivation for me because I could not stop myself from being productive all weekend. Laundry, cleaning, Christmas shopping (almost done!), organizing...I was a crazy woman!

Another strange thing that appears to be happening (because me wanting to clean all the time IS strange) is that Elijah is needing less sleep and he seems to have more energy to exert by the day. We are still dealing with very early wake-up times (this morning was 4:45, woohoo!) and it really doesn't seem to affect him much. He gets a little tired and grumpy by nap time, but is otherwise the spunkiest little boy I know.



He loves to shut himself in a closet (or bathroom, or laundry room, or any room) and yell out at us, "PEEEK-A-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" That is our cue to come tickle him and have a gigglefest. Then it starts all over again and if it were up to him we would repeat this 5,309 times. Sometimes we have other things to do, though, so we get the sad Elijah face. Or the kicking and wailing and hitting.

Elijah's speech continues to blossom and we could not be happier about this. He is now saying 3-4-word phrases and he has also started including verbs in his speech. Like, "Daddy geddin' wipes!" or "Mama goin' 'a store!" Six months ago we never imagined he could possibly be where he is at now with his speech. He has totally blown us and his therapists away with all of this amazing progress.



Two months ago we had a plan to put him into a special education pre-school program once he turns three. Back then it was almost certain that he would qualify since he would need obvious assistance in two areas: gross motor and speech. Now that his speech is developing so rapidly, we don't know that he will be eligible for pre-school anymore. This is GREAT because it means he is doing really well. At the same time, we would really like for him to be a part of the pre-school program that I believe could really be good for him. We will find out for sure on December 17th when we get the results from all of the testing he has been going through lately.

This week is a busy week at work that concludes with our winter company sales meeting on Friday and Holiday Party on Friday night. Elijah will be spending the night at Grandma's house on Friday night so Dan and I can (hopefully) sleep in on Saturday morning after a long week. Yeah right, I'll be awake at 5:00!

I forgot to mention that Saturday was Dan's birthday! He turned 31! We did some fun things and even got out for a Dan-Megan dinner while Elijah had a blast at Grandma's house. I will have to write more about that later. Elijah has a new appreciation and love for Dan's parents and I LOVE THAT.

Ok, enough for now. Have a great week, everyone, and thank you so much for checking in on our spunky little boy.

Exciting news from the bathroom!

We try not to ever push anything on Elijah unless it is a matter of life or death, or unless it is necessary for disciplinary purposes. Crawling, talking, eating, almost anything, really...we have mostly allowed him to take the lead (while sneakily helping out when he's not noticing). We learned quickly that pushing him, or even strongly encouraging him, to do something rarely motivates him to make progress. We have learned to sit back and be patient and let him tell us when he is ready to go forward with something. This same principle applies to potty training. We have not pushed the issue because up until recently Elijah has shown ZERO interest in it, which we know typically means that we will get nowhere.

Before putting Elijah in the bath I always ask him first if he would like to sit on the potty. He always adamantly says, "NO!" I try to consistently ask, though, in hopes that one time he will say yes. Well, last night before his bath I asked the standard potty question and he said no. Again. A second after I put him in the bath, he said, "Potty in potty chair!" So I scooped him out of the tub and set him on his cute little potty chair (he could not possibly look any cuter sitting on that thing..would it be wrong to take a picture?). He sat there for a good five minutes, reading books and singing and talking. After I put him back in the tub, I noticed a little bit of PEE-PEE IN THE POTTY!!!!!

I freaked out, screaming and hollering like a crazy woman, making sure that Elijah knew I was overjoyed about this huge step. I called Dan upstairs and we both did the potty cheer/dance and I'm pretty sure Elijah felt like king of the world. I'm so proud of him! I realize we have a long way to go, but the first step is deciding that he is ready for it, and that step is done! This morning he was excited to sit on the potty chair again while reading his Moses book. No pee this time, but it's good to make a routine out of something that he is willing to do.

It is always so exciting when he decides that he is ready to do something!

••••••

I'm posting this photo again because I love it.



••••••

Here are some more of my favorite Elijah words/sayings:

"Boggle boggle!" is his version of "Gobble gobble!"

"Pee-pop" is his word for "lollipop."

He has started saying, "Hiya, Mom!" and "See ya!" [pause] "Later!"

This morning he said, "Dah-shaur book. Upshairs. Mama. Ok!" Translated: "Mother, go get me my dinosaur book. It's upstairs."

Last night I was wiping up a huge glop of yogurt from his lap after dinner. He watched me wipe it up and said, "Sorry, Mama."

He loves to look at one particular photo of himself that was taken just after he was born. He studies it long and hard every time, and then says in his cute little sad voice, "Baby cwying. Baby saaad."

••••••

Last year at this time we were preparing for Elijah's fifth heart cath. We spent the day before Thanksgiving and part of Thanksgiving Day in the hospital with him and we spent the rest of the weekend helping him recover at home. I am SO THANKFUL that we have a hospital-free long weekend ahead of us. We have had an AMAZING year. 2009 has treated us well and I feel so thankful and blessed. More to come on that thought.

I hope you all are having a great week. Thank you for checking in on our little boy (and for enduring so much potty talk)!

Kickus!

We have been in partial Christmas mode this weekend. We got out our lights and have been playing some festive music and Elijah can't stop saying, "Kickus tweee!" which is his way of saying he wants a Christmas tree. :) Next weekend, little one! We also put our Operation Christmas Child boxes together, which is always so much fun. I can't wait until Elijah gets excited about doing these. Maybe next year.



An exciting thing happened today. Considering we have not been working on potty training at all with Elijah, it's very exciting, actually. He went poopy in his diaper and then said, "Poop, Mama! Potty chair!" So we went and sat on the potty chair. Granted, the poop had already happened, but at least we know the potty-toilet connection is being made. I guess it shouldn't be a huge surprise to me that Elijah has just decided to start this process on his own.



"Kickus" is one of my favorite Elijah words right now. I also love that he says "coco-gut" for "coconut" and "hack-ock" for "hammock."



We are going to enjoy what is left of our evening before the week begins. At least this week is a short week! It's also a week for being thankful for the many blessings in our lives. Have a great week, everybody.

Where's Elijah?

Can you spot Elijah in this calendar spread? This is something Saving Little Hearts puts together every year to honor people with Congenital Heart Disease. Elijah made the January spread!



Elijah caught a teeny tiny little cold this week that I wouldn't even classify as a sickness. He has a very mildly congested nose and we hear maybe 2-3 little coughs per day. Nothing that has disturbed any of his sleep, thank goodness.

He has had a particular fondness for books this week. The second I get him out of bed in the morning, he says, "Go see books!" So we head out to the loft and read/flip through his favorites: his Moses book, his Froggy books and his Jane in the Jungle book. Usually when I get home from work, this is also the first thing he wants to do with me, which I love!

His speech is improving by unbelievable leaps. He can pretty much verbalize anything he wants, and this is WONDERFUL. He has even started saying some funny things, like, "EEewww!" when he doesn't want to eat something, or "'Ank oo, Mom" whenever I hand him something. MOM?! That sounds so grown-up! At least he is being consistently polite.

I noticed an unsettling popping noise that Elijah's right knee makes when he is sitting with crossed legs and pushes down on his knee. It doesn't seem to bother him, so I am going to put it on the back burner until the next time we talk to his ped. Please God, BE NOTHING!

That's all for now! I wanted to get a quick midweek update out before the week got too busy.

Quick week!

Elijah got his H1N1 vaccination on Tuesday! YAY!

He is almost completely back to his usual spunky self after having a heart cath on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were sluggish, still-puffy and fluid-eliminating days for him. He woke up both of those mornings with saturated pajamas and bedding. I felt like a horrible mom, but he did not complain once through the night and this has never happened before. We checked him a few times throughout the night last night and he was dry this morning, thankfully. I guess his body had some extra fluid to eliminate for a couple days!

We are heading to our "It takes two to talk" class tonight. Elijah gets to hang out in a room full of toys and kids while Dan and I will be next door learning about ways to effectively communicate with him. Every time we leave at the end of the night, Elijah yells, "BYE FENZ!" about 97 times. He's saying goodbye to his friends! :)

Remember my story about Bobby the Bird from Jungle Junction/physical therapy? Well Elijah's awesome therapists ran across a miniature Bobby the Bird beanie bag and they gave it to him yesterday to take home with him. He was SO EXCITED. He looked at it and said, "BABY BOBBY!?" and then looked down at the big version of Bobby (who still comes with him wherever he goes when he's at therapy) and said, "DADDY BOBBY!" Baby Bobby slept with him last night and this morning when I got Elijah out of bed he gave me a concerned look and said, "Daddy Bobby." I wonder if Baby Bobby is missing his daddy?

I almost don't even believe what I'm about to say because it seems like it just cannot be true, but we get Dan ALL WEEKEND! It has been a long summer/fall of him working most weekends, so I plan to cherish my weekend time with him for these next few months.

That's all for now! Thank you a ton, all of you who sent up prayers for our little boy earlier this week.