More Evaluations

We'll start off with Jamesen as there's not much to say...

He had an eval a few days ago. We had a few women come in and ask me a bunch of questions and see if they could get Jamesen to do certain things to show if he was developmentally on track and what not. They stayed for about an hour and then left. They told me NOTHING! I was really frustrated. They didn't tell me if there was any cause for concern or what not. They only thing they told me is that he qualifies for inhouse therapy at no cost to us which makes me concerned... I should be hearing back from them with the results of his eval in the next few weeks. I'm anxious to hear back from them. I'll update on him when I know more.

Now on to Marcus... We got a referral through Tricare to get him into speech. We had his first eval for that referral today. When we were doing the dr. appointment to get the eval, she showed some concern over his tongue tie. I had my doubts that his tongue tie really had anything to do with his speech at all since he showed so many signs for dyslexia, but not anymore... They did a test on him to see how well he was able to move his tongue. They held a sucker in certain places in his mouth while also holding his chin to keep his jaw from assisting and he wasn't able to move his tongue at all. It was really disheartening to see actually, but makes me excited at the same time because if it IS the tongue tie, it's a super easy fix. We'd get his tongue snipped and then put him into speech therapy and it would be so much easier than him having to deal with dyslexia! I'm hopeful that this is what's wrong. Now I just need to find someone who will snip his tongue...

Anyways, we're doing great here. Things are moving forward... We put in our application for on post housing and should be hearing back from them in a few months. There's a 3 month wait. Sabe should have his deployment orders by then, so we'll be able to break our lease with the worst realty company in the universe and move on post instead. I'm actually really really excited to move on post. Every time I go to my friend Amber's house, there are people walking all around the neighborhoods. We've never had a community like that, so I'm excited at the potential of friends for the boys and being closer to everybody we know as well.

We're putting Marcus into soccer. The entire season is going to be while Sabe is gone for some training. Kinda bummed about that, but sooo excited to have him in a sport! I think it will be really great for him! I can't wait to go to his games, even if I'm huge and pregnant and have to run after Jamesen at the same time. It'll be so fun :)

Speaking of huge and pregnant, I'm 30 weeks! Crazy how fast that flew. She'll be here before I know it. I've been organizing her clothes and I can't wait to see her in them!

Anyways, that's it for now.

Marcus' Big Eval

It's been a long time in coming and I've been super stressed about it, but I'm very encouraged after going!

He's extremely smart. He may not be able to talk very well, but he sure is one smart little boy. They were very impressed with his ability to write his name (though he randomly wrote it backwards for the first time ever, lol) and knowing the names of a bunch of colors and shapes that are above his grade level (like grey, peach, hexagon and octagon).

He's very behind in speech, though that was pretty obvious. They were impressed by his improvements just the 2 months since they saw him last which makes me very happy!

They tested him for autism because he's has a hard time in a school like setting. I'm so happy to report that he doesn't have autism! He use to do a lot of things that were signs of it but he doesn't do them anymore now that he can talk better so they think his issues are all just because of his language barrier rather than him having autism or something like it.

They told me about some classes that I think will really benefit him. He'd start them with the new school year. He'll be in a normal size class with about 5 kids that are in the STEPs program (like him). They'll have a regular teacher and her aide as well as a STEPs teacher and her aide. With 4 teachers in there, there's a lot less of a chance for him to get left behind or not be able to do something because he doesn't understand what he's supposed to be doing. I'm very encouraged by this! It's EXACTLY what he needs! I was thinking of homeschooling him for awhile there just because I was so afraid that with only one teacher, nobody would notice that he wasn't following along, but this class makes me feel so much better. He'll get a lot more out of interacting with a class of kids and learning from someone else than learning from me and only seeing kids a few times a week with homeschooling programs.

All in all it was a great eval! I already knew he was very behind in speech so that was nothing new and it was very encouraging to have them tell me he's ahead in almost everything else and the things he's not ahead in, he's right where he needs to be. My special little man!

Now on to Jamesen...

I've been thinking he might have autism for a little bit now. It's been really hard to admit that, but I have to admit that there is also something going on with him. I called a local program here called Babies Can't Wait and they evaluated him yesterday to see if he qualified. He's behind in speech as well so he qualifies for that. I'm waiting on some more extensive testing for him and I'm going to be getting him tested for Autism as well.

They gave me a questionnaire with Marcus to test him for Autism and while most of the answers for Marcus were "no" or "he use to but doesn't anymore", a lot of the questions made me think yes for Jamesen. I'm a bit discouraged by that but at the same time encouraged by the fact that even 6 months to a year ago, some of those questions would have been yes for Marcus. Jamesen has pretty good eye contact and shows empathy so I'm hopeful that if he is Autistic, that it's high functioning, but it might just be like Marcus and the speech barrier is causing the issues rather than Autism.

When I brought up that Jamesen has a delay in speech as well, the 3 ladies evaluating Marcus said that if J's anything like M, they're both probably just very visual with learning rather than oral.

Overall I'm very encouraged about Marcus. I'm concerned about Jamesen but I have to wait before I have anymore answers on him.

After Holidays

Now that the holidays are over, we're struggling to get back into the groove of no daddy. The boys absolutely loved having him home for 10 days. Sabe went back to work yesterday and on his way out, apparently Marcus woke up and told him not to go. He then came into the bedroom with me and went on and on about how daddy is gone and "Don't worry mommy, daddy come back." It was really cute yet really sad at the same time. I'm so glad the boys love their dad, but it makes him leaving even harder. He's going to be doing some training in March, cutting it pretty close to my due date. It's gonna be hard being so pregnant with two little boys missing their dad. I'm going to be putting Marcus into soccer though so hopefully that provides a good enough distraction.

Marcus has been doing really well on his speech. I hope when we go for his evaluation that he's made some progress in the two months since he went last. His sentences are getting a lot clearer and he's starting to say sentences that we haven't coached him to say. Of course I can't really give any examples because my brain won't let me remember any off the top of my head, but that's ok, haha!

Jamesen is growing up so fast. He's lost all of his baby recently and just showing every single day how much of a little boy he is. He still has his tantrums (he is 2 after all), but we're just days away from his half birthday. He'll be 3 before I know it! He seriously has the longest legs and now that he's talking in small sentences, people really don't believe me that they're not twins, lol! He's still an overly fussy kid, but he's really a joy to be around and can be sooo loving at time. I'm hoping he does well with Gemma. He goes up to all babies that he sees and says "Baby!" and gives them a kiss so I can hope he'll do well with Gemma!

Speaking of Gemma, I'm 27 weeks today which means I've officially hit the third trimester! Getting close to her coming! Sabe and I both agreed that it's going to come before we know it since we passed Christmas! Hopefully March flies, since he'll be gone that entire month. I'm pretty sure she'll hang on until April though. I'm due on the 4th, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if she came on the 5th. I'm expecting her to come that day. We'll see if I'm right!

Nothing else really going on, just hanging out and enjoying the time with these two crazy boys I have before we add to the mix.