Update On the Boys

I haven't done an update on the boys for a while so here goes...

Zak: He is a social butterfly at school and at home. When ever we are outside playing he will talk to anybody that walks by and asks them to play with him. He really likes school and seems to be doing well academically. He is very excited about having a baby brother coming soon and is always talking about baby Tyler. I am not convinced he really knows or understands what a baby is since he calls most toddlers we know babies. We recently measured both boys and Zak is now 41 inches tall and weighs about 35 pounds. He still looks so small compared to everyone else in his class, but he is also the youngest in the class. I took the boys shopping yesterday to start getting their warm weather clothes and was shocked to see what size shirt they needed! Right now they have been wearing 3T and 4T tops, but after trying on various sizes we ended up getting the 5/6 in the boys section. They are growing up so fast! He is still wearing 3T shorts unless they have the adjustable waistband then he can wear a 4T in those. Zak is definitely an athletic kid who loves to play all kinds of sports. We signed him up for t-ball which starts very soon. He is extremely excited about it. This Fall he is going to play soccer even though he would really like to play football. His favorite things to do are play on his Leap Pad, play video games (mainly sports themed ones), and run around with the dogs.

Ryder: Ryder is doing good in school. He enjoys going and has started to become more social with the other kids. We had his IEP meeting a few weeks ago to discuss his progress and next year. He will be getting speech therapy over the summer which is good. We have no idea how he will do next year with full-day school and a larger class with a faster paced academic schedule. But everyone is on the same page and will be watching out for any issues that might come up. He is not excited about having a baby brother on the way and makes it very clear to just about everyone. We are trying to keep him involved with preparing for the baby, but we are already seeing regression in some areas. Potty training has become an issue once again along with more tantrums and he is wanting me to do things for him that he used to do on his own (putting shoes on, helping with jacket, etc). Ryder is now 42 inches tall and weighs about 35.5 pounds now. We have stopped all of the ADHD medications because of bad side effects and now he has lost a little bit of the weight that he had gained while on them. We are still going to behavior therapy twice a month to work on various things instead of trying more medications. He recently went to an ENT who wants to do surgery. She will definitely take out his adenoids and do a scope of his sinuses, but he has to do a sleep study before they decide if his tonsils will come out too. The sleep study will be in a few weeks and his surgery will probably be sometime this summer. Ryder is also going to play t-ball this summer and do soccer in the fall. He is not as athletic and does get very frustrated when trying to keep up with other kids, but we think it will be good for him to play some team sports. He also loves to play his Leap Pad and sports themed video games.