The Little People

Figured I'd type up a full update on the 5 little people.

Emily~ She is doing well.  The semester is over and she got all A's like always.  We had her meeting after all of her testing.  She definitely qualifies for the advanced work but not yet for the gifted program.  We put together a plan to keep her super busy and super challenged.  So far she's been loving the extra harder work and projects.  She will be retested around middle school age.  She just finished this last round of swimming lessons and has really enjoyed it.  She is swimming fairly well and super excited for the next round of lessons to start.  She's been working on a knitting project, and spends tons of time listening to music and goofing off on her laptop. 

Jace~ He's a busy dude.  He also just finished up this semester.  He did pretty well considering.  He's still in his reading and math interventions, as well as speech and handwriting supports.  We have seen a change in his handwriting as long as he's really focused and someone is keeping a close eye.  Hopefully that continues to really improve this next semester.  He met with his GI last week and she decided to take him of his GERD medication and just leave him on his CVS med.  I wasn't super hot for this idea, but Jace insisted on giving it a try.  His vomitting hasn't returned, but he is already seeing a big change in his bowel issues.  So I'm guessing he'll be asking to go back on his GERD meds by the end of the week.  He knows his body pretty well so we try to give him leway.  His doc also said in a few weeks he could try some cows milk, but I'm not thinking that's going to happen now that his bowels are already getting out of whack.  Luckily he loves his almond milk and can even find almond milk ice cream.  His biggest complaint is missing yogurt!  Jace also just finished swimming lessons for this month and is really starting to enjoy it!

Benjamin~ He's doing pretty good.  His eating is on a slow down point, but hopefully that will rebound quickly.  He's been pretty silent in the mornings and mostly uses Brown Bear for morning communication, which is limited to head shaking of yes and no, and paw waving.  He's doing well in school, as well as speech, and his special workshop.  He got another full sticker card from speech just last week.  He's learning to read and loves pointing out words he knows as well as trying to guess the letters in words.  He enjoys reading and spends his time between lunch and the bus reading books with Randy.  Ben just finished up his swim lessons for the month and is doing so well.  You would never know that he was so scared of water not that long ago!  He is also loving gymnastics still and is looking forward to starting his tumbling class in January as well.

Ariana~  She's such the little princess.  She finished up her kids day out for the month and had alot of fun at her christmas party.  She's really enjoyed getting to meet these new friends and go each week and do fun things.  She also just finished up her round of swimming lessons and is really improving and getting more comfortable in the water.  Ari and I have been working on her signing and she's my little sponge.  She's already mastered about 15 signs and loves showing them to Eli.  I think Ari will catch on super fast. 

Eli~ He had a low grade fever for 2 days but it seems to be gone now.  His heart rate was elevated, but back down now as well.  He's doing very well with his new glasses.  He does try to take them off but not near as much as we would have expected.  He's rolling around really well, and rocking back and forth on hands and knees.  One of these days he's going to figure out that he can move and he'll be off.  His DME called and said that he is getting his new portable pump for christmas!  We are super excited to finally be getting a super tiny pump and bag that he can learn to carry on his own.  He did well with OT and speech this last week, and is working on learning to sign.  He is still madly in love with books, and it's a great learning opportunity to teach him new signs!

All of us start ASL classes in January.  We have found a class that will teach families, not just parents and we are super thankful for being able to locate such a class.  We are already working on basics at home, and hopefully the kids will catch on super fast.

We have a few things that have been mentioned for possible diagnosis suggestions with Eli and will begin looking into them this coming week.  Hoping to get the answers that we need.  One of the possibilities will not be a quick answer, and it's definitely not an answer that we want to hear.  We will obviously update with details as we know more.

Again thank you to everyone for the emails and comments and kind words.  We welcome any and all comments! It's nice to know that others are out there following us along in our journey!