Look at me...the slacker!

I apologize for those of you that have tried to contact me at the e-mail address that obviously does not work anymore. I didn't check it for an extended period of time, and now I can't get in to that account. I also can't log in to the website I have on Tripod. I would love to update everything, and I actually wish I had kept all of this updated. My crazy life got in the way though.

Garrett is now 7 years old and in 2nd grade. He spends about 40% of his day in the resource room at school, but he seems to really thrive there. It is him, one other student, and the special ed teacher. He loves all the attention! It is very obvious to me how different he is from the typical 2nd graders, and while I find myself getting broken hearted about it at times, I also have to remind myself that he's able to be in a regular classroom for part of his day even though he's so different. He enjoys school and is continuing to make progress in all areas. He is signficantly behind in academics, but he is loving, has an infectious laugh, willingly eats the food that is put in front of him (even vegetables!), loves to drink water, and is usually very laid back about everything.

I'll be back later with more. I promise!

It's been a long time!! ~ Some Random Thoughts

I was thinking about this blog today, and when I logged, it I noticed that it had been over 18 months since my last post!!! Life has been crazy!

First of all I'll update about Garrett. He started kindergarten this fall. He has an IEP because he is still behind in pretty much everything. One thing I have noticed though is that he loves to learn, and right now, he is right on track with what a kindergartener should know. I don't know how he will do when they start learning sight words, but he knows a lot more than I would have guessed he would know by this age considering his disabilities.

Garrett now needs glasses because he is near-sighted, and that is ever so fun to work with him on. He hates wearing the glasses!!! I have accomplished 30 seconds at a time before he rips them off his face! I can tell he notices a difference when he has them on, but he doesn't like them. He has never liked wearing sunglasses, so I'm not surprised about this.

Garrett's little brother, Rylan, has been good for Garrett. We didn't have Rylan to help Garrett, but it has been a nice bonus that Garrett looks up to him and wants to do what Rylan does. It has been the best therapy so far! :-) I don't make Rylan do things to help Garrett. I just let them play together. I think Rylan knows Garrett is different, but he's not old enough to really understand what all is going on.

And now news about our family...I am soon to be divorced. It looks like my last blog entry was just before things turned bitter. Their dad just isn't a family man, and I got tired of it. He wanted to live the single life, and he hung out with the college crowd. It got old and obnoxious. I asked him to leave in April 2007. I tried to work things out. He didn't. It has been a long year of trying to get the divorce finalized. He stalled it several times. It's a really long story. I'll leave it at this: I am much happier without him in my life. We did not have a marriage from the point I got pregnant with Garrett. He couldn't ever come to terms with having a family it seemed. It wasn't always bad, but overall, my life is better without worrying about where he is, who he is with, and what he is doing. I am now dating a wonderful guy that does want to be a family and respects and appreciates me.

The boys have done well with all of the changes in their lives. I had to go back to work full-time and put them in daycare. That was really difficult for me. I really miss them! I also had to cut out all of the extra therapy we were doing. I only have 2 hours a night after work and before bed with them, and I didn't want to spend an hour of that each evening at therapy. I wanted to be able to enjoy my time with the boys instead. Garrett has continued to make progress even without the extra therapy. It helps that he was in therapy for 4 years and that I knew a lot of things to do with him anyway.

I think I've said this before, but Garrett's hypotonia isn't really all that concerning to me anymore. He can do most gross motor things a 5 year old can do, but he's just a bit slower. He can't jump with both feet or stand very well on one foot, but he can get around really well without help. That is HUGE!!!!! I don't really worry about the things he can't do yet because he has come so far. I really don't care that he can't jump rope or stand on one foot very well. I know other 5 year olds that don't have any disabilities that can't do those things. What I do worry about is his cognitive abilities. I hope he will continue to impress me with what he can learn. He seems to learn things more quickly than he used to, so we'll see.

I'm really happy with where Garrett is right now in terms of the progress he has made. There were times when I wondered if he would ever walk or talk. The talking still needs work, but it's coming along. He'll get there. At least I feel like he understands everything I'm saying now. He can follow through on 2 or 3 step commands. That is also HUGE!!!!

Garrett still needs to be potty trained. Ugh! That is frustrating. He seems like he is almost ready, but he can't seem to physically control it. Maybe he can and he is just being stubborn. I give it a good try for about 2 weeks every 6 months. I thought we had it this last time, but it was me that was trained, not him. I did get Rylan potty trained right before his 3rd birthday. I was hoping Garrett would want to do it do, but no such luck. There are just so many people I need to get on board with it now...daycare, kindergarten, and dad. I need a time when I can really focus on him for a few days. I think that next opportunity will be over Thanksgiving. I'll have 4 days in a row off from work, and my family is only an hour away, so we won't have any crazy travel plans. I'll try it and see what happens.

That's my update for now!

Crazy how life goes by so quickly

I'm not really sure what all has happened with Garrett's progress since the last time I posted. His language is progressing...finally!! He is talking more but still leaving the ends off most words. He now says "milk" instead of "meal" when he wants milk. Of course, it sounds like he is saying "mealk". I'll take what I can get though! He is also using a few 2 word phrases. It's not very often that he uses 2 word phrases, but it's a start. He can answer yes or no questions, but usually the answer is always no, even if he means yes. Still really frustrated with this, but the speech will come eventually.

He continues to grow like a weed. In January, I had to buy him size 4T pants. Some of the 4T pants are a little big, but the 3T look like capris on him now! LOL! I can shop in the little boys' department for him now too. Those start at size 4, and there isn't a huge difference between 4T and 4. The cut seems to be a little different.

I started Garrett on an Omega 3-6-9 suppliment to hopefully help with his motor planning issues, specifically speech. I'm not sure if it's helping or not. It seems to be, but who knows. We also take him to see a chiropractor every 2 weeks. Again, not sure if that is helping either.

In January, Garrett saw a new developmental pediatrician to address my concerns about verbal apraxia and PDD. We are in the process of getting those evals. He saw the speech therapist last week, and we'll get those results next month when he sees the pediatrician again. Such a looooong process.

That's all I have time to write for now. Hopefully I will be able to write an update after we see the developmental ped next month.

More Good Things Happening!

Let's see...Garrett has proven that he can in fact ride a tricycle! Time to dust off the one in our basement that we've had and never used for 2 years! It was just a little too depressing for me to attempt the tricycle riding when he wasn't capable. He can also climb on the play structure at school to go down the slide. He loves the slide, so I'm not surprised he's doing this. The play structure has steps (not the ladder to climb up the slide), so that is easier for him anyway. He holds on to the handrail and walks up the steps. He's really slow, but hey, he's doing it!! One day when I was picking him up from school, he came over to me but then turned around and walked back to the slide! He went down 2 more times before deciding he was ready to go. Usually he is ready to go as soon as he sees me.

Little Rylan was fighting an ear infection for awhile. I think he finally won. We had to switch to Omnicef after the amoxicillan (did I spell that right?) didn't work. That was the first time I witnessed a resistant strand of bacteria, and let me tell you that it was not fun!! He actually seemed to be better until 2 days after his last dose of the amoxicillan. The doctor told me it knocked it down, but it didn't knock it out. Makes sense.

What else? Garrett added 2 new words to his vocabulary, and I think he may be combining 2 words. His 2 new words are pillow (peo) and NO, NO, NO! I can't believe he is just now saying no. That is something Rylan started doing at 15 or 16 months. :( He also pretends to fall down and then says "uh oh. dn." (Uh oh. Down.) Whenever he falls, I say "uh oh. You fell down!" So, I know that is what he is saying. He is also knocking his sippy cup over and saying the same thing. Cute that he is pretending, and nice that he understands what I'm saying enough to use it correctly. Still, sometimes I wonder if he will EVER say a full sentence. *Sigh*

Garrett got his first "report card". The kids are rated by how much they can do with little to no teacher support. Of course, the majority of the things listed Garrett as still needing quite a bit of support. I'm not surprised. I'm hoping the spring report card will show improvement over this one. I know he's delayed, so I'm not letting this bother me...much. I've read through enough evaluations and progress reports over the past 3 years to know Garrett's reports will read as "delayed...needs lots of assistance". That's why he's in preschool and in therapy.

In other news, I am hoping to start teaching next year as a special education teacher. I think I want to be in the grade school level. This is all contingent upon me being accepted into a master's degree program that is at one of the local universities. There is a master's program for people like me that want to teach but have a bachelor's degree in something other than education/teaching. I hope I can get in to the program! I need a meaningful career. I'm just not cut out for the business world anymore. I need a more touchy-feely job, and I think this is the direction I want to go. If I am accepted into this program and secure a teaching job for next school year, I will start classes this summer to prepare me for teaching, and then I will go to school 2 evenings a week for 4 more sememsters. (I think it's 4 more semesters...something like that.) It will be a hectic 2-3 years, but it will be worth it.

I can't remember what I wanted to write.

I logged on here because I remembered something last night that I wanted to post here. I can't remember what that was! Ugh! I know I'll remember at an inconvenient time...like when I'm changing a diaper. By the time I get the diaper changed, thrown away, and hands washed while reminding myself over and over so that I can write it down the second my hands are dry, one of the boys will be in to something, I'll find him and then completely forget that I wanted to write down that thought in my head. I'll remember hours later that I wanted to write something down, but what was it exactly that I wanted to write down anyway?

Where did my brain go?

Well, I guess I'll just write something. Life is never boring around here. Here are a few random thoughts.

I took the boys to the zoo over the weekend. They always love going to the zoo. I have to admit I am a little captivated by it as well. I do enjoy seeing the animals. You just don't get the same experience watching videos as you do seeing the animals in real life. The Cincinnati Zoo is a top ranked zoo in the nation, so there is lots to see. For the first time EVER I saw the male lions. Whenever I go, the female lions are out. The females are cute, but I wanted to see the males!! Well, we got quite a show!! The lions (2 of them) were roaring and playing. It was quite a site! We were also privledged enough to see them...ahem...bathing one another, if you know what I mean. It was hilarious! I felt like such an immature child because I was giggling about it. It was just funny to see these 2 lions doing that with about 25 people staring at them.

Rylan has an ear infection. That was a fun few nights. Of course, I suspected an ear infection on Sunday morning, but I couldn't take him to the doctor until Monday. I could have taken him to urgent care, but I thought he would be fine to wait until Monday. I gave him some Motrin, and that seemed to help. He's been taking an anitbiotic since Monday, and he woke up with a smile instead of a cry this morning. He's feeling better. :)

Garrett is back to walking as if he never broke his leg! Thanks goodness for that! We have also started potty training again. I really don't think he will be day trained until he is 4. He just doesn't seem to know when he has to go until it has already started. He knows when he needs to go #2 though. He only tells me about 50% of the time for that, but it's a start. I would like to have him completely trained before he goes to kindergarten...IF it looks like he will be ready by then. That is about 2 years away, so we have plenty of time! With Garrett, he needs to do something a million times before he gets it. We have taken him to the bathroom about 200,000 times, so we should get to a million by the time he's 5. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but for those of you whose children have motor planning problems, you understand.

I think that's it for the random thoughts!