1st heart anniversary!

Today is the 5-year anniversary of Elijah's first open heart surgery! We are so proud of how far you have come, our brave boy! I will never forget that day, and the days to follow. Daddy, Sammy and I love you so very much.

Sammy and Elijah are drawn to each other. They always want to sit in the same chair together, even though they start swiping at one another's faces after 60 seconds. They are becoming more and more interactive, but usually things don't end well. Dan and I have to be ON those two so they don't harm one another! But we know they love each other very much.

Sammy is constantly letting out a stream of sounds that don't always make sense. Elijah, with his obsessive/perfectionist tendencies, has to know EXACLY what Sam means to say every time he speaks. "What does DAH-DERRR mean???" This is seriously a constant stream, and it can get rather annoying. We have to remind Elijah all the time to be patient with Sam and his speech. One of the words Sammy says a lot is his word for CRACKER, which comes out STATUE. Elijah gets almost mad at Sam, saying, "He's saying STATUE! WHAT is he saying?!" This goes on and on and on. "Elijah, please be patient with your brother." "Sammy, please stop screaming the word CRACKER."

Sammy has a few fears that have been existent since he was a baby. He does not like loud noises (cars, motorcycles, airplanes) and there have been a few balls that he has been truly frightened of (??). For the past few days he has been TERRIFIED of the bath. I'm talking exorcist-like screaming and thrashing, and I am not kidding one tiny bit. I put him in the bath tonight, and then started fearing that he might drown himself. This lasted just long enough to get his hair barely wet. It was terrible! If our neighbors were anywhere near our windows, they must have thought an exorcism was taking place! I have no idea what is going on with that.

I have been trying to teach Elijah appropriate behavior lately. He sooo likes to be silly and say silly things, but those silly things are not always appropriate. He and Sammy like to make animal noises and call each other different animals, but he has to learn that calling a girl at the park a "cow" isn't necessarily nice. So we have been going over all of that. He started calling me "old lady" a few weeks ago, just because he doesn't know any better. I have started telling him that that isn't a nice thing to say to people (after hearing him call his OT an "old lady"), so we are working on alternative phrases. Tonight I taught him to call me, "Pretty lady!" :) I'll take it!

And here is when they start to get annoyed with each other...

We are also working on NOT POINTING FINGERS.

This week flew by! We have no idea what is in store for the weekend since our lives revolve so much around the weather. Have a fun, safe weekend, everyone! Thank you so much for checking in!