Happy Birthday Eli!

Eli turned 4.  I can’t believe how big he is getting.  He had a lightining McQueen party.  Josh, Margene and Naomi came down to celebrate with us.  Eli loved all the attention and gifts.  At his camp on Monday I took cupcakes and some gluten free doughnuts and they sang Happy Birthday to him there and let him blow out some candles.  He had a great birthday.  I love you Eli!

 

Eli loved his cake.

Aubrey, Naomi, and Jaxon helped to decorate it.  At first I was nervous but it turned out really cute.

Fun with the Campbell’s

There is always a project or two when you go visit the Josh Campbell clan.  They always make it fun.  Josh and James ended up hauling 2 ton of tree stumps and then we had fun eating smores and letting the kids run around. 

A cute picture of the cousins together.

Summer Fun!!

Of course Eli always loves water no matter what time of year it is.  They had a lot of fun playing in the pool in the back yard.

Anyone who has spoken with Jaxon over the past few months have probably heard the name Everett or “Ebert".”  Everett is Jaxon’s best buddy and Jaxon is always talking about him and wanting to go to “Evert’s house.”  

Okay, so it was mid-July and Jaxon insisted on wearing his coat to take Eli to camp.  Poor kid took it off pretty fast after we dropped Eli off.  It was hilarious!

A Busy Summer

Man, I have a lot of catching up to do. If my life wasn't so hectic through the summer and I wasn't dealing with being large and pregnant I would say that I am just lazy. I apologize for my forgetfulness and hope that people are still looking at our blog every once in awhile.

My last post was about Eli's IEP, in May. Well, instead of putting him in school we put him in a summer camp. It was the Autism Foundation of Tennessee's summer camp. We were very excited and besides him coming home with a few mannerisms from other children with Autism, it seemed to work out great. Our gas bill went way up since I had to drive him there and pick him up. It took about 1 hr. and 20-30 minutes out of our day to drive him there and back. They met in a little presbyterian church and his teacher was Christine, who is a behavioral therapist. Also at the camp was his teacher, Ms. Carrie from his school. Of course seeing the same people every day I got a lot of, "When are you due again?" "You haven't had him yet?" "I thought you would have popped by now." I guess I looked pretty bad. Also with this pregnancy I swelled up really bad. Good thing Eli doesn't get embarrassed yet. Eli regressed with his eating while at this camp and we are still working to get him to feed himself again. They made the mistake of feeding him once and now he has to be prompted or fed for him to even try his food. Very frustrating! We are also trying the Reliv vitamins and hope that will help. Haven't seen much yet but we will keep trying. He counts to 10, says his abc's and recognizes his abc's. He also signs and says, "More," "Help," "drink," and "food." His communication is coming. He also recognizes his shapes. He is smart and are excited to see the progress he makes during the school year again at Shayne Elementary with his awesome teacher, Ms. Carrie Lunsford. Yeah, Eli!

Eli Update

James and I went last Friday to Eli's annual IEP (individualized education plan) meeting. His teacher and Occupational therapist just kept on praising his progress and told us several things that he does that keeps them laughing. He has quite the personality, even though he can't communicate very well yet. He does have some communication but it is very, very limited. That is our goal for this next year. His teacher, Mrs. Carrie, said that every day after naps he points to her and says, "you fired." We discovered he got that off of the movie, "The Incredibles." She said he is the king of circle time; he recognizes his name said aloud and written; he sings and does the moves to a lot of the songs. He still thrives on routine and any change in his routine causes a tantrum but he has learned to calm himself down pretty fast. He understands more words and does say "NO" when he doesn't want something. He loves the assistant principal, Mr. Peoples and Mr peoples even takes him around to other classrooms sometimes with him. So when we were there other teachers would say how much they love Eli. He rules the school, they say!
They want to keep him in school for 3 hrs. a day during the summer. We are trying to find what else we can do for him this summer. They also want him back in the same classroom (CBIP-Communication, Behavioral intervention program), at the same school, with the same teacher in the fall. I think this is the best thing for him for now. Please keep him in your prayers and pray that we will know what avenues to take to try to help him.
While we were discussing his IEP i heard yelling down the hall of the school and knew it was Eli. They weren't putting him on the bus since we were there so he threw a little fit because it was a change in routine but when he saw us he gave us his biggest smile and ran to his Dad. He looked at the teachers aids and said, "all done" while signing it at the same time. He was done with them, he had his dad. He loved being in there with us and loved the chocolate on the table. He at one point went and played with the magnetic letters on the teachers desk and brought some back to the table with him. He then proceeded to put them back in the same exact order he found them on the teachers desk. James would then mess it up and then Eli would put it back together exactly the way it was before. So it seems he has a photographic memory. We are going to try a few things to see if that is true and what else he can do. In other words, the progression is slow but there is progression and that is what's important. I love my sweet Eli!

I'm sure everyone knows by now!

Okay, so I am really slow at posting on my blog. NO wisecracks please! I am sure most of you know what gender our baby is going to be by now but for those who have not heard I am now going to tell you. We went, very excited to find out. The baby was hiding, trying to not let us see and then we got a good look. Can you guess? IT'S A ...........(the suspense it killing you right)...............(Okay I'll let you know after I stretch for a little bit).............. (I'lll let you know after I use the restroom).................(uh-oh kids are screaming)....................(gotta check on who got booted off on American Idol)...........................(I missed "Lost" last night, so I better watch the episode)...........................................................................IT'S A BOY!!!! Man it took you long enough to find out. Silly people! We thought for sure we were having a girl so I even bought a few girl things; good thing Margene is having a girl. I went to the Doctors appointment after in tears. We are excited to have a boy, but hesitant on what challenge this little boy is going to bring with him. We are praying that he won't have any problems but also praying that we can handle whatever happens. We just want him to be healthy and happy.
Aubrey was very sad too. She didn't want the boys to outnumber the girls anymore. After we came home she cried for awhile. She said, "boys are too bossy!" I said that girls are bossy too and she said, "no way, I've never been bossy!" Now she is very excited and even felt the baby kick her in the head the other day. She keeps asking me when I am going to have them take him out. She said she "can't wait to be a big sister." I told her she already is and she said, "no way!" We can't wait to welcome him into our family and are excited about the names we have come up with. Thanks for all your prayers and love.

Yeah Warmth

I love when the weather gets warm and the kids can play outside for a little bit. We pulled out our dora sprinkler, and let the kids run through it. Eli would have done it all day if he could have! Of course Jaxon is once again wearing Spiderman. That is all he wears. We finally had to force one of his shirts off him since he wore it for 4 days; he didn't like the replacement spiderman shirt we gave him. He threw a big fit! Poor kid!