I have way too much work to do and have had some problems with a medication interaction with my narcolepsy medicine which was a problem for a bit. We are working the kinks out of that right now hopefully. Eli goes to occupational therapy on Monday afternoons. I had no idea how much help Eli needed. I knew he had a lot of sensory processing stuff going on and now it's trying to figure out what it all means and how to set him up to succeed as best as we can. We are trying to get his trunk stronger and also increase his bilateral coordination. Ms. Lisa had him take his right hand and bend up his left knee to touch and it was so challenging for him. She then had him alternate to make the left hand touch the right knee and he was all kinds of backwards. We are trying to do all the therapy she gives us as homework but Eli is not near as compliant as Aiden and sometimes that is a challenge. Thankfully Eli really likes Ms. Lisa and I can convince him to do it for her because she asked. Here are some pictures from therapy over the last few weeks. Ms. Lisa let Aiden come a few weeks back and that was fun for both of them. Ms. Lisa was Aiden's original therapist and he misses doing therapy so he had been asking if he can go with Eli sometime.
Eli's trunk is getting stronger and he doesn't get as tired so soon when he's doing activities that use his core and trunk. The fine motor skills are starting to develop and he can actually do a few buttons now. He is still switching hands when doing various tasks but is starting to be a bit more right-hand dominant. Most of the time though, he just switches hands when the hand he is using gets tired or when he's forced to cross midline. He really doesn't like to hold a marker or crayon correctly so I've tried to stick with tiny pieces of chalk so he's forced to use his fingers. He's starting to get the hang of some bilateral coordination exercises but is still really struggling with doing the bicycle (see the bottom right picture in the collage above) and hopping when he touches his right hand to left knee.
We built a new car track on our rolled paper and it's been good for Eli because we can force him to cross midline as he is playing because we make him stay in one spot rather than moving all around the paper which is what he used to do. We have to get sneaky with therapy with Eli but at least we still try and make it fun.The boys have been doing a lot more chores around the house to earn money for awana. Right now, the club is collecting money to adopt a club somewhere and the boys have really gotten excited about it. They are unloading dishes, separating perler beads for me, vacuuming, and I have bribed Eli once to do his therapy for money (it is a good cause). Aiden has actually finished his Sparks book already is going back through to review it. He is very good at memorizing and he gets that from Brad since my short-term working memory is completely broken. Eli is doing well in Cubbies too. If I can put his verse to a tune he's familiar with it and sing it, he's good to go. He loves music and I'll use that to his advantage to help him memorize his verses.
Teeball has been going pretty good. Aiden is letting practicing with me some which is great so he's getting better. Eli doesn't want to practice so he's not getting any better but that's okay with him because he doesn't care. Aiden won his i9 medal in the 4th week and Eli won his in the 6th week. We will definitely not ever play i9 tee ball if I have any say about it but it's been a mostly enjoyable experience and it's been great to get the boys exposed to sports.
Eli continues to love his new daycare and says, "this is my favorite daycare and I don't ever want to move to another one" which makes my heart happy. In the picture below, he's riding around with Tortuga, the class pet. He was able to take him home for the weekend and we had to document all the things they did together and then add our page in "Tortuga's Adventure Book" which was neat.
Aiden has continued to do really well in school and is reading like a champ. The past 2 weeks have been Dr. Seuss theme and he came home off the bus like this the other day. They read Horton Hears a Who and had a blast. His teacher is just fabulous and even made green eggs and ham for them one morning when they read that book. I was shocked when Aiden told me that the liked it because I would have put money that he wouldn't even have tried a bite of it. He's world is expanding everyday and he's doing so much better with food and trying things.
We took he boys to Dairy Queen last Saturday night and we had a blast. Eli has been begging us for ice cream and we got some coupons at the Monster Jam so we decided to use them. We had a nice time sitting outside and just chatting away during dinner. It was dessert time and it also started to get cold outside so we went inside and had dessert. Eli ordered a cone and Aiden ordered a Dilly Bar. The awesome thing was that Aiden didn't get sick from it. I was nervous to let him have it but he didn't start itching or anything which is promising. We may try pudding soon for him as a dessert if he wants.
I volunteered Aiden's school for Jump Rope for Heart and he said, "can you come early and have lunch with me?" How could I turn that down? I went early and had lunch with him and then was even paired with his class (and another) as the volunteer so I went around from station to station with his class. It was fun and I wish I could have stayed for a few other classes to help out but that was not an option. Nana was nice enough to volunteer for a time slot too. Speaking of Nana. She's had to go a few months without any medication for her MS and it's wearing her down. She's a huge help for the boys and I because she pretty much packs both their lunches the night before. Here she is below playing with new flashcards that I got for Aiden. They are playing a game and adding up their cards and the person with the highest total gets the cards. It's like math war and it's great that Aiden thinks it's a fun game.
It's been very hectic and I think I am done teaching my on-line classes. I'm not being able to be the kind of teacher I want and I am also failing at being the kind of mom I want to be so something has to go. I love teaching in the classroom so I will stay with Jacksonville University and I even get to teach 2 classes next fall. I have no idea what I'm going to do this summer because I'm not sure if I can handle both boys home for the entire summer. That would be a first for me. If my narcolepsy is under control and we can find some other kids to play with, it could be a lot of fun. I think we have also finally found a church. We've tried a couple of churches but I think we've finally found one we can call home and stay at. It's called Journey and it's much different from what we are used to but ... hopefully it will work. Brad signed me up to join the softball team and we both were able to play last week which was a ton of fun. I was so incredibly sore after not playing for so many years but it was fun. We were supposed to play again on Friday night but the games were called off because of all the rain. It's the first time in a long time that I've actually looked forward to doing something because it's something fun rather than a chore or something on my "to-do" list. Hopefully I can get myself in a different gear and be able to post more. I say this is going to be the boys' scrapbook but it's not a great scrapbook if I can't write and post pictures more. Here's praying I can be better at time management or being okay at something being "average" rather than great and allowing myself more time for other things.
