Drew and his imagination

He cracks us up! Never a dull moment around here...

He crossed one leg over the other that was straight and looks at me and says, "T"!
Later that day, he got the little kid shopping cart, filled it with his play cones, and lifted it up high in the air. We asked him what he was doing and he said, "It's a garbage can..." Then he empties the cones and lets the "can" down roughly like the garbage man does! HA HA his imagination is fantastic!!

ALEX ROLLED OVER!!

WOOHOO! Our big boy...he rolled from back to front 3 times!! He is truly the happiest baby ever! You talk to him and he laughs and giggles from his toes. He chomps on his hands and sucks randomly on his first finger and ADORES Drew. Anytime Drew is near Alex lights up! He'll be 4 months in a few days.

Drew's scooter

He got a scooter for his birthday from Auntie Shelley and has been practicing every day diligently to push with one foot and bring the other on the board and steer at the same time. He can go a few feet before losing it, but he's proud. He always wants us to watch him "go" and smiles big when we clap for him! I need to update with pictures soon.

The outdoorsman

Alex! He loooooves to be outside looking at trees and birds any chance he can get! If we ever went camping he'd be entertained by nature, that's for sure. He still hasn't rolled over, but gets to his side. His favorite position while awake is completely sitting up with no recline - can't miss anything! His hands are his prized posessions lately...he slobbers all over those things like they're candy! When just talking to him, he laughs and laughs - such a sweet and happy boy!

Livvy's new words!

I've been trying to keep track of her new words (or at least attempt since they're not very clear, but words nonetheless!) so here goes!
* pig
* cat
* meow
* frog
* help (used frantically over and over when she wants something Drew has!!)
* dance
* toes
* mouth
* eyes
* she also tries to use a sentence: "where is the ......" - "there's the ....."

And the finale tonight while looking in the mirror as we do nightly to get her to name body parts, when asked to say "Livvy" she said, "Wivvy"!!!!!! woohoooo our little girl said her name!! We were ecstatic and very proud of her.

13th Annual FSP Awards/BBQ

This past Saturday (16th) was the event held at the Oakland Colliseum! We all gathered on a patio at the Colliseum and had great catered food, held the awards ceremony and watched the A's play the White Sox. Kenny, Dustin, Drew, and I went with all of the brothers from Dick's Automotive. Kenny won Contractor's Choice award, got his 5-year FSP service award, and Dick's won the Contractor of the Year for the second time....woohoo!

Drew seemed to enjoy the baseball game and we stayed for 2 hrs of the game. Grammy watched Livvy and Alex at home and they were good, too! It was a fun time had by all. I'll update with pictures when I get them.

*sniff* Drew and strep throat

Poor Drewbie...last Sunday he complained of a headache and within a few hours he had a fever. He was down for the count the entire week with fevers ranging from 101-104.3 at the highest (and usually at night). Finally on Wednesday he said his throat hurt and I took him in and he had strep. He was given amoxicillan for 10 days and Motrin for the fever. Now he's doing pretty well...no fever just sore throat. He will be going to school tomorrow.

Alex...

Phew - time is flying by! He turned 3 months on August 31 ~ how can that be?? He really is cute! The way he giggles while throwing his little head back is infectious! He hasn't rolled over yet and LOVES chewing on his fists...teething? He enjoys laying on his playmat in the playroom looking around at the trees and listening to the birds. He can hold his head up with great control and prefers to be sitting upright and not reclined. He smiles wide and mighty whenever he sees Drew. :) awwww I'll be making his 4 month checkup appointment soon.

Liv's latest speech update

Since she sees 3 therapists almost weekly, I thought it would be good to keep track of them here.

Her latest was Friday...Lisa....she is GREAT! Such a wealth of information. She is fun and Livvy loves her. She still building trust (2nd meeting) then the "work" sets in. ;)

She gave her some feathers to teach her how to blow and since with feathers it doesn't take much effort to blow, it would be a successful tool. Livvy didn't want to blow the feathers so Lisa did and she laughed and laughed. We'll work on that here as well.

Lisa also described her diagnosis of apraxia/dyspraxia in greater detail. It seems Livvy only has a mild version of it (speech/language vs. entire body) which is great! The basic version is she hears the correct word spoken (DOG), wants to say it, but her mouth can't produce it since the signal from the brain to the mouth gets interrupted. Researchers don't know why or how yet. She explained it's better to just repeat a word you want her to say rather than ask her to say it. It puts a huge amount of pressure on her and since she knows she can't say it correctly, she gets very frustrated.

The other observation (which the Occupational Therapist witnessed as well) is she jumps up and down often, spins around in one direction sometimes, and crashes into the couch. These activities imply a sensory need; her brain is telling her body to do these things to gain sensory input that is necessary to concentrate on a given task. Lisa recommended 3-4 times a day to rough her up by jumping high and hard, spinning in BOTH directions to turn the brain "off" instead of getting dizzy by spinning in one direction, and squeezing her arms, trunk, and legs somewhat hard. She LOVES it! The more the better. It was interesting to see how after those are done for about 10 minutes or so, she is able to sit and do a puzzle or blocks without interruption.

This is all so facinating to Kenny and I - the more we know, the better. Lisa said her speech would be normal (didn't give a time frame yet) and worse-case scenario she might be asked where she's from because of a slight "accent" with certain words. She also mentioned that since this program we're in ends when she's 3 yrs old, the school district would pick her up and further her treatment while in school starting with her preschool years. We meet with the District in January for an eval.

She is babbling up a STORM and ending her "sentences" with a question mark at the appropriate times with a word she knows...example..."(babbling, babbling, babbling, toes?" Which means "where are your toes?" :)

She also just started a MyGym class once a week for 1 hr. She loved it - except sitting in the circle for a few minutes to sing a song and do introductions! It's still good for her to sit there even when she doesn't want to and the main point is socialization and physical activity since she's so active. So far so good! When the MyGym class ends (8 sessions) we'll enroll her in our local community center tumbling class.

"What's that thing?"

Ah, Drew...he's so funny!
I had asked him to go potty before nap and he was taking a long time so I went in to check on him. He was looking down and asked me what this thing was called and I said scrotum. Just then, Daddy walks in and Drew asks him, "Daddy...what's in my basket??" We were laughing so hard and even Drew knew that wasn't the right word and was laughing too! Such a cute mind!

OUCH!

We just got back from the grocery store....picture this.....
A car cart (AKA Mommy needs a special license and mirrors to go along side of it) with Drew and Liv in their seats "driving" and Mr. Alex in the bjorn (me carrying him) while pushing the cart that is overflowing with items! I was doing record snail speed ;)

So we're loading up the car with groceries and kiddos and I asked Drew to throw something away in the nearby garbage can and as he's approaching it he trips and skins his knees pretty badly on the can that was rocked. Poor Sonny!

As we're driving home he says, "I have to tell Blankie (his fave blanket) that I hurt my knees." I said okay you can. He asked when it would get better and I was explaining that new skin would grow in a matter of days. He says, "I have to tell Blankie that the new skin will grow over my knees like a piece of paper (demonstrating with his hands the new skin) and that my knees are broken." And then more tears fell. He's so sweeeeeeet!

Drew's new year at school!

Drew will be starting Wednesday, Sept. 6th at the same school he went to last year - Cathedral of Faith's My School - in pre-k! We went on Friday to sign papers and caught up with his teachers last year, Miss Rose and Miss Terri who hugged him and loathed on how much they missed him over the summer! He was teary-eyed and touched they remembered him. It was sweet.

His new teachers are Miss Juana and Miss Lan who we also were able to meet in his new classroom. They seem very nice and organized, gave him a hug, and went over the basics of his curriculum. He will be going Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9am-noon and since most kids in his class go M-F, he'll have "homework" to make up for those 2 days he is gone. I told them I was prepared for that and to make sure we're all on the same page so he'll succeed.
They do a lot of academics in this class to prepare for Kindergarten so a lot of how to hold a pencil, writing his name, and learning phonics is the majority of the work.
He got to sit in his assigned chair, knows where to put his jacket and pick up papers from his cubby. He seems excited to go - we'll see on that first day! :)

Livvy Lou

She had her first speech lesson with Lisa (Early Start program with CA) and she took to her really well. They got to know each other and we went over our concerns and goals. Lisa seems very knowledgeable and energetic. We will see her on a weekly basis. She recommended making a PECS board (basically any form of background like a manilla folder and taking pictures of things she likes to do/eat.) For example, her cup, an apple, playdoh, backyard, etc would be laminated and stuck with velcro to the background. When she wants/needs something, she will go to the board and take it off and hand it to one of us. If our answer is no because we're eating dinner and she can to playdoh after dinner, then it would go to the side reminding her that it will still be honored but at the right time.

This is just a communication tool for now - not a way to teach her how to say it right....at this time at least. It will minimize the frustration levels dramatically which we're all for! This weekend I'll be taking pics of her favorite things.