Tree Cutting

Yesterday afternoon we had some visitors at the house. Nanny, Poppy, Dani, Haleigh, and Sam all came over. Sam had fun playing with Robin and the kids all had fun playing together. Rich came to help Ben cut down the tree in our front yard. We wanted to cut it down for many reasons and the HOA said we could do it.

There were a few times that I had to look away because I just didn't like what I saw. Ben and Rich both seemed to have fun with the whole thing and in the end nothing was damaged and nobody got hurt! Some of the craziest moments included the ladder sinking into the muddy ground causing it to sit at awkward angles until they decided to put a piece of wood under it and then bringing down the biggest branch which fall within inches of the neighbors motorcycle (they moved their cars, but the husband wasn't home to move the motorcycle).

I am glad to have it down now although all of the kids in the court were upset and repeatedly asking why we did it because they would all climb on it (one of the reasons we wanted it gone). We also need a new roof and the roof person told us we would have to get rid of at least the top half of the tree in order for them to get to the roof and do the work.

4-Wheeling with Poppy

On Friday I took the boys to story time at the library. As always, Zak loved it and had a good time. This time I was very surprised with how well Ryder did. Normally he wants to sit on my lap the whole time and not participate at all, but this time he sat next to Zak and danced and sang with all of the other kids. They did books all about the circus, had an animal parade, and got to try on some clown stuff.

Saturday morning Ben and the boys left the house at 6:45am to head to Green Ridge and go 4-wheeling with Rich (aka Poppy). They had a blast! The three of them didn't get home until around 8pm on Saturday night.

While the boys were away for the day I was busy at home getting stuff done. I got an oil change done for the car, went to the grocery store, got tons of laundry done and put away, cleaned up the house, finished going through clothes and a bunch of other random things. Then I went to dinner with Mandy and Mya which was so much fun. We used to hang out all the time in high school and it was so good to be able to hang out for an evening. They were still at the house when the boys got home which the boys thought was very neat. Zak continually said "mommy you have friends at my house"!

On Sunday morning we did Ryder's infusion which went pretty good. No major issues, but he did seem to have a lot of pain the whole day which is not always the case. After his infusion we went to drop off Laura's car to her since Ben had borrowed it to. Then we went to the store to look at paint colors for the boys' bedrooms. For the boys' birthday gift this year my mom is going to pay to have us paint their rooms. She knows that they have so much stuff and don't really need anything so she figured they would like having their rooms painted and getting to pick the color. I figured Ben would choose some colors and then let the boys pick from those, but instead he just told them to pick a color. We did say no to a few extremely dark colors that we really didn't like. So the colors they have chosen...

Zak chose Gamma Sector Green

(Disney colors by Behr)

Ryder picked Orange Blast

(Disney colors by Behr)

Stuff

On Thursday night I ended up taking Zak to an after-hours doctor because his pediatrician was all booked up and he just sounded worse than before. He was having horrible coughing fits and the sinus stuff didn't seem any better either. The doctor there checked him over and decided he still had a decent sinus infection going on along with croup. So he put Zak on oral steroids for 3 days and another round of Zithromax. He is no longer having the bad coughing fits, but he is still coughing a decent amount. Most of the sinus issues seem better other than a constant runny nose. I think I might give the pediatrician a call to see if this could be the start to allergy issues and if we should start giving the boys Zyrtec again. Ryder is doing great and just has a cough here and there and a slightly runny nose at times.

We went on a search for a new vacuum because ours was has not been working for a while now and the floors were getting really bad. After looking at a few stores I realized vacuums are ridiculously priced, way too heavy, and the perfect one just doesn't exist. So I let Zak pick out our new vacuum....he calls it "green super backroom"...for some reason when he says vacuum it sounds just like "backroom", kind of cute. The boys love this vacuum because it has different height adjustments for the handle and when it is all the way down on the lowest setting it is the perfect size for them!

On Sunday we made the drive to York, PA to visit with Ben's grandmother and Aunt who were in town visiting from NH. We met at their hotel and went swimming for a while. Zak got pretty used to the water fairly quickly and was off on his own and jumping in having fun with Jade. Ryder was not happy about being in the water which really surprised us because at the end of last summer he was also jumping in and swimming on his own. After many attempts of forcing him into the water he did finally relax a little bit. After we all got dry and changed we then went to lunch. In the early afternoon we made the drive home.

On Monday the boys went to their first sports class at the YMCA together. It is a class Zak did a few sessions ago, but we thought it would be great for Ryder also. They played soccer and did pretty good. Ryder didn't like hitting the ball with his head and he didn't really understand playing an actual game at the end. At one point during the game when they were all chasing the soccer ball Ryder got to it first, picked it up, and handed it to one of the other kids then ran off. All of the other parents thought it was cute and I just reminded Ryder that he can't use his hands in soccer. Maybe he would be a good goalie?! They both had fun though!

Now for pictures....

Both boys sitting waiting for their turns

Ryder in red, Zak in orange

Zak playing with the chalkboard at the after-hours place

Zak with his new vacuum

Ryder vacuuming

Zak swimming

Ryder was not happy

Zak had just jumped into the pool right in front of Ben

Ryder a little more relaxed

Zak, Ryder & Jade

Zak in his Buzz Lightyear towel

Ryder in his Woody towel

Today after lunch I spent about an hour with the boys trying on shorts from last year to see if anything still fit them and what we needed to buy for this year. Much to my surprise I only had to get rid of a few pairs and there were still some that were too big which they never wore last year. I have some little boys because all of the shorts that they tried on today that fit were 18-24 months! I am glad to know we are set for shorts this summer so I will really only need to look for tank tops at the Moms of Multiples Spring sale with is April 2.

IEP Meeting and Other Stuff

I have a good amount of things to talk about and I wanted to post some pictures. Things will be a little out of order because of the way I uploaded pictures.

The boys have been waking up early in the morning, before Ben's alarm even goes off, and we think it is from so much light in their room from the sun. They have a bad history of breaking blinds and pulling down curtains unfortunately. They also no longer nap and won't even lay down to rest anymore and we once again think it has a little to do with too much light in the room. The other day Zak got a little too crazy in his room and created a hole in his wall! After that we decided we needed to try something to block the light out. We talked with the boys and told them they are big boys and need to behave and not play with their new blinds. So, we put up room darkening blinds which seem to do a good job of blocking the sunlight. Here is a picture of the hole in Zak's wall along with a picture of Ryder carrying his new blinds in the store...

Next, I want to do a health update about the boys. On Thursday I kept Ryder home from school and ended up at the pediatrician with both boys for some really bad coughing and congestion. The pediatrician checked them both out. Zak ended up having a sinus infection which is probably still lingering from the one he had at the beginning of February. She said his lungs were clear which is good. They put him on Zithromax hoping it would kick out the infection since the Omnicef didn't before. Then she looked over Ryder and said his lungs sounded junky. Ryder had pneumonia along with possible strep throat (didn't test since she was going to treat him for the lungs anyway). So he ended up on Zithromax and Orapred. Ryder is sounding a lot better and seems to be acting much better as well. Zak's cough seems to be lingering and possibly worse so we will keep a close eye on it. I am keeping a journal for both boys to track infections, illnesses, antibiotics, and anything else health related to show the Immunologist.

Now I want to share some random pictures from the last few days...

Ryder in the shopping cart at Target today

Ready for baseball

Ryder gets a backpack sent home with him each week filled with activities to do at home. This week his backpack is all about writing. Here are a few of the things he worked on with Ben the other day along with a few of Zak.

awesome face!

VZ got in the cage with Robin

Zak tracing the monster

using the proper grip on the pen, a new emerging skill!

This morning Ben went to school with Ryder to observe him. I was shocked at how different Ryder is at school and wanted Ben to get the chance to see this as well. I then met him at the school for Ryder's IEP meeting at 11am. Once I got there Ryder's teacher told me that Ryder was very quiet and did not participate in much this morning with Ben there. Ben then explained to the teacher that what she saw today in school was just about how he is at home. She was happy to get to see the other side of Ryder, but also baffled just as we are!

The IEP meeting went well which is always a good thing. He will no longer be receiving OT sessions which I am not happy about, but nothing much we can do about it. He has achieved his OT goals in school even though at home he is not doing well with the feeding aspect. The OT talked with us for a while giving us helpful ideas and suggestions. She also said I can e-mail her anytime. I do have Ryder on a waiting list to have an OT evaluation done by a private therapist so hopefully that might get us some more useful information. The speech therapist went over her current evaluations which we pretty much agree with. He will continue to receive two 30-minute speech sessions per week to work towards his new goals for expressive and receptive language. The special ed teacher then went over her current evaluations which show him to be at age level for most everything. We did voice our concerns about a few skills so she will continue to work on those and observe how he does in school with them. She did find him to be at a 2-month level for self-help skills as well as being delayed for social skills still. He will continue going to the special ed pre-k three mornings a week to work on his goals in those areas as well. The school nurse was also at the meeting because she prepared a Health Care Plan to attach to Ryder's IEP which outlines guidelines and needs for Ryder regarding his CVID. We will end up adding actual goals to his IEP once he is in elementary school. They then went on to discuss Extended School Year (ESY) which is services that occur over the summer. Th teacher went over the guidelines and felt Ryder didn't qualify for it, but then asked how we felt. I voiced my concerns about how he shows such a large gap between skills at school and at home. I explained that I was worried he would regress over the summer with no therapy and start back at square one once school started, I also said I would be looking into private therapy for the summer because of this. I was surprised how quickly the speech therapist spoke up and offered speech services for ESY. She set it all up so Ryder will receive two 30-minute sessions per week during the ESY time. I am so excited about this!

Ben and I decided to start with many of the ideas the OT gave us for Ryder's feeding at home. He eats so well at school so we plan to bring some of those skills home! In school he usually eats out of a cup using a spoon or fork because it helps the food move around less. So we went to Target and bought some small bowls to try out along with some divided dishes with high walls. I know it will look strange and probably complicate things for a while, but we are hoping allowing him to eat out of these small bowls will help give him confidence using a spoon and fork. Once he has mastered this we will start to move back to regular plates. We are willing to try anything in order to get meal times less stressful and more successful!