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.

Christmas Morning!!

I need to write a blog about Christmas morning so when I go to scrapbook it, I won't have to rely on my faulty memory, haha!

Sabe and I could hear the boys waking up around 6:30. Jamesen had passed out on me the night before at 6:30 pm so we knew we were in for an early morning. We had planned to not let the boys do presents until at the earliest 7 but we figured we were close enough. We then spent the next half hour just listening as they played in their room and slowly made their way out.

Seriously they took FOREVER! The living room (so the kitchen we set up, the tree, the stockings, all the presents...) is right outside our bedroom door and they always come into our bedroom in the morning so we knew they'd eventually come our way. We didn't want to rush them over to us by calling them, but we sure were getting antsy in there, waiting for them.

They finally made it into the living room and we could hear them rustling around. We had left some cookie on the plate for Santa and we knew that would be the first place they went to. Then we heard Marcus go, "Oooh, mommy! Kitchen! Look, kitchen!" and both boys cross in front of our door. Sabe and I were trying to be quiet to see what they did and Marcus kept poking his head into our door whispering, "Pssssst, mommy! Kitchen!" it was so funny!

Sabe and I got up after that and we started on the stockings. They had no idea what to do with them at first, haha! Jamesen got stuck on the candy cane full of M&Ms but with some pushing he got through it.... after we pried Marcus' Chuggington Train from him, haha! He was happy to see some Cars 2 cars in his stocking and we ended up just dumping them both on the ground so they could see what all was in them.

After stockings we opened presents. I've been working on taking turns with things (like making cookies) and it went perfectly with opening presents. Jamesen got the first one and Marcus was practically screaming, "OK!! MY TURN! MARCUS TURN!" so funny! He was so cute. Jamesen did really well opening the gifts. I was afraid he would get bored before he would get his presents open, but he did really well.

We did have a melt down though... Jamesen wanted Marcus' toys and understandably, Marcus didn't want to share. We hadn't had breakfast yet though so I'm sure that contributed. Mom I really have a ton of respect for you and how you were able to make a huge breakfast for 9 people... I have a hard enough time doing it for 4! I finally got everything finished and we've all been breakfasted. Now we're watching Marcus' Scoobydoo movie that has a bunch of volcano action in it and he's stoked, haha!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas and what not...

We've had a lot going on since my last post. Thanksgiving went great! We went to one of my friend's houses (the same friend we went trick or treating with). Our kids get a long really well and we parent very similar so it's just natural for us to be friends! Our hubbies get along pretty well too so it's been nice to have them as friends.

Our store has been flourishing for the last little bit. A lot of hats being ordered with this cold weather! I doubt it's continue past Christmas, but for now we're doing pretty good. I'm using all my money from it to pay for stuff for Gemma's room, so I hope it continues! It's the only reason I've got money for her stuff, haha!

A week or two ago we had some pretty freezing temps here. It was cold enough to have some snow flurries in the wee hours of the morning, so I snuck some hats in for the boys in case we went anywhere. We didn't end up going anywhere because I had to wait for repair guys who took a million years, but at least they've got hats no just in case it gets that cold again! They didn't want to have anything to do with them until I took them into the bathroom so they could see themselves in the mirror. After that they put them on just long enough for me to take a couple pics and then they were off again.



We put up our Christmas tree right before Thanksgiving. We'd been searching for the perfect tree for a little bit but couldn't find any in our price range. We wanted to get a nicer tree that would last us for awhile without spending an arm and a leg for it. Finally after searching everywhere, we found the perfect tree at the PX on post. It was even on sale! We snatched up really fast! Of course I had to put it up right away. It was "pre lit" (I use that term loosely) so it made it a bit easier. The "pre lit" was that lights were already strung on it. I ended up having to add to it to make it look ok so the lights were pretty spaced. Oh, I think it's great looking now!

The boys had an absolute blast decorating it! I can't wait until they're older and have a few more ornaments in their boxes to put on.



Our next endeavor was to put lights on the house. This is the first year we've put lights onto a house that's ours. We've either lived in apartments, someone else's house or Sabe wasn't around to put lights up wherever we lived before. It's been really fun and to decorate our house! I know we'll be here for a few years so I don't feel bad decorating. The boys have loved it too. This house really feels like home to us! Anyways, the boys thought it was great watching Sabe put the lights up. Marcus was Daddy's big helper and handed him the hooks. Such a cutie!



I wish we had some pillars to decorate... or money for a few more lit lawn ornaments or something, but for now, I'll take it!


I wanted to get some pics of the boys in front of the tree. The back of our house is really dark so it was hard to get the nice quality, but I did what I could! I got a couple cute ones of them smiling really good.


They're getting to be such hams for the camera. I was trying to take a picture of an order to put on my fan page a few days ago and Marcus kept hopping in front of the camera and saying, "Cheese!" with a huge grin on his face. It was cute for the first few pics but got a little frustrating after a bit, haha!

We're battling pink eye in the house. It's been frustrating and annoying. I got it first. I was told it was "allergy induced pink eye". I've also had "allergy induced bronchitis" here in Georgia as well. Georgia just doesn't like me! Anyways, my eye allergies are pretty bad in the first place, so when my eye started to get irritated, I didn't think anything of it. Finally I woke up one morning to my eye stuck so shut I had to soak it open and it was pretty obvious that it was pink eye. I tried my hardest to keep the boys from getting it, but Jamesen caught it yesterday. Luckily, Sabe and I have been on the look out for it so we caught his pretty quickly and it doesn't look nearly as bad as mine did on day 2. We both have it in both eyes, but hopefully it'll go away fast since we caught J's eyes and my second eye pretty quickly. I've managed to keep Marcus from getting it so far, but I'm guessing it's just a matter of time now that Jamesen has it. Sabe doesn't have it either.

Anyways, that's what going on on our end. I'm turning 23 weeks this week and don't know where the time is going!

Marcus update

We had his speech screening a few days ago. I've been meaning to blog but I've been busy! My store has taken off a bit lately and it keeps me busy in between the boys keeping me busy, haha!

Anyways, we went to his speech screening and he failed pretty bad. I knew he would fail and I knew he would fail pretty bad, but he seriously failed bad. I don't know the total points it was out of, but they said he needed a ten at a minimum to pass and he got a 3. He's made such huge strides in speech though so I was hoping he wouldn't fail quite so bad. He did amazingly in the learning section though and impressed the two ladies with his ability to name cubes and cylinders and other 3D shapes! He got all his numbers, colors and letters right.

He wasn't able to say his name. That one is hit or miss. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. He couldn't say if he was a boy or a girl, but I've never worked on those with him. He wasn't able to pick the smallest or largest out of a group the first time. He's got a great memory though. They went through a few things and he missed like half, but they told him the answer and when they went back through a few minutes later he did it perfectly.

We're going back for a more extensive evaluation in January. He's going to be tested for Autism to rule it out (I doubt he has it... he's never given me any reason to believe he is), a pre eval for dyslexia (I'll be interested to see what they say with this one since I'm pretty convinced he has it) and some behavioral testing since he has a hard time sitting in classroom settings with other kids.

Jamesen is doing really well. Other than being a constant fuss bucket, he's talking so much. I feel really bad actually, he's getting close to being at the same level Marcus is. He's amazing me with his ability to speak and how clear he says things! He's already saying small sentences! Marcus didn't start doing that until after 3! He's such an amazing little boy and so affectionate when he's not crying. He def. has taught me patience. I don't know what his deal is, but he seems to always be crying, lol! It sure does make his smiles and giggles that much better though. It makes me appreciate every toothy grin he gives me so much more.

Gemma is doing great as well and is officially half way done with baking! Her movements are getting really strong. Sabe's been able to feel her move for a few weeks now, but she's really starting to get strong the last couple of days. It's actually hurt when she's moved a few times, haha! She moves way less than the boys did though, especially Jamesen, which is fine by me! Jamesen kicked the crap out of me! She usually only moves after I've eaten or when I lay down to go to bed.

We're doing great here! Just hanging out and preparing for Thanksgiving. We're going to be going to a friend's house. We went trick or treating with them and are excited to do thanksgiving too! She's got a little Autistic boy that Marcus has really taken to. I think they both know each other is different and so they just gravitate towards each other. It's sweet really! Marcus has only seen him a few times, but calls all little boys (in pics, other kids at the park, etc) Logan when he sees them for a week after a play date! Amber says that Logan is really excited about Marcus being his friend too :) I think it's so great that Marcus has a little playmate who doesn't see him as weird because he doesn't act the same. The kids at church his age treat him weird and it makes me sad.

I've been Christmas shopping and I feel so great this year! I've been saving up all my amazon gift cards from swagbucks and a lot of the money from my store to pay for Christmas this year. I can't tell you how good it felt to have money saved up specifically for Christmas and not tap into our savings or put it on our credit card and just try not to feel guilty for doing so. We've got Christmas 100% shopped and paid for and it didn't even eat into our savings or hurt our bills! What a great feeling that is.

Sabe and I have been slowly but surely chipping away at our debt. We don't have much other than car debt, but the car debt is getting us pretty good. We have to be really careful how we spend our money every paycheck or we end up almost starving the last few days before he gets paid again! I've got a plan though. We should be 100% debt free in 7 years and then we'll start saving for a house because eventually we'll get out of the military and need somewhere to stay! Sabe's got at least 15 years left in the military though so we've got awhile.

Anyways, that's it for now. nothing special, just hanging out and counting down to Christmas! The holidays are so much better when you've got kids!!

My kids are awesome.

All day long they've been showing me just how awesome they are. Take Marcus for example. I made tuna noodle casserole for the first time for dinner and not only did Marcus (who use to be SO picky) try it, he snarfed it! He was pretending to be cookie monster. Normally I don't like him using his fingers but he was being so funny I just laughed at him. "Oh greenbeans. nomnomnomnomnom. Oh tuna. nomnomnomnonnom." So flippin' funny. He's such a ham.

Earlier today I was sitting there crocheting away while the boys were playing. Jamesen brought me a book and plopped into my lap (on top of my crochet, haha) and snuggled up to me while I was reading it. He kept putting his cheek to mine and snuggling in. Sooo flippin' cute.

Today at the post office there was a really long line. The boys were a bit crazy but for the most part stayed out of people's way and listened to me. At one point, Marcus went running back down the line away from me and I called him and he came running back, grabbed my hand and pretended to eat it. Jamesen of course had to get in on it when I started laughing and it turned into them both licking me, but it was pretty funny anyway.

I've gotten barely any crocheting done because they've been wanting to snuggle me so much today. I can't say no to two little boys attacking me with kisses and hugs and wanting in my lap! I've got no power against their attacks, haha. I feel so blessed to have their little spirits in my life and that they're healthy. What more could a mother ask for?

We've not really been doing much. We've just been hanging out while Sabe's been gone. I didn't blog about Halloween I just realized. It's a lot easier for me to upload pics on FB so you can see that album here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100177140136719.2482872.17817329&type=1&l=2d75f9f845

They did really well on Halloween for the most part. I was worried J was going to freak out and thought M would be so gung ho. The opposite happened haha! Marcus wanted to ring doorbells, but apparently on Fort Benning, if you're giving out candy, you sit outside and hand it out. He got pretty upset about that and threw a huge fit. Jamesen though... That kid did so good! He was dragging his bag after awhile because it was so heavy. After awhile, Marcus stopped being a brat and just went for the candy. They were so cute in their costumes!

Anyways, not much more to blog about. We don't do much other than go to the park, the post office or the grocery store. I'll try to blog more often for you mom!