Hooray!

Sabe's en route! :)

Marcus has been asking for him multiple times a day the last 3-4 days. Funny how their frequency in asking for him always increases right before he comes home. It's gonna be awhile before he gets here though. It's a long process apparently, lol!

Marcus is doing so great in school. He loves it and asks to go every day. He's going to be so excited when September hits and he can go to real preschool. He missed the cut off date by 2 days but it's working in his advantage really. I was thinking of holding him back an extra year from his delay anyways. His articulation is getting better and he's been saying spontaneous sentences, but progress has been slow. Any progress is a good thing though. Gotta remember that!

Jamesen is doing really good. His autism test is tomorrow. I don't know if I'll walk away with any information or not. We'll see how it goes. He's doing really great though. He's such a sweetie. He's a tank though. He's getting to the point where he can beat the crap out of Marcus. Marcus will start picking on him and Jamesen definitely knows how to take care of himself! It's quite funny to watch. Marcus gets surprised every single time. You'd think he'd learn to leave Jamesen alone, LOL!

They've started having conversations between each other and it's soooo cute! Nothing amazing, but they will take turns saying stuff to each other. it's usually the same "conversation" over and over, but it's a start and I'll take it! I'm loving all the talking that's going on in my house!

My due date is in a week from tomorrow! I'm hoping that Gemma will wait until my mom comes to watch the boys and be a day late. It would be so convenient and perfect. We'll see.

Anyways, I'll update more when I know more tomorrow. We're going to be having a crazy couple of weeks coming up!

IEP meeting for Marcus

We went to Marcus' IEP meeting on Thursday. Overall, it went as expected. He's extremely behind in speech. This test was the "Verbal" score where he tested in the 12th percent and at a 2 year 10 month level. I was actually expecting it to be pretty low, but that was a little bit of a blow. I can't really say I'm surprised though... He's really got no concept of back and forth conversation and being able to communicate in real sentences.

However, he scored very high in his fine motor skills. One test they gave him consisted of stringing beads, cutting along lines and copying pictures. In that test he scored at an almost 6 year level. This was the "Spacial Cluster" score and he actually scored in the 95th for that one.

He did petty good on everything except communication. I'm actually pretty proud of him! We've started him in the STEPS program at the preschool he was tested at. We go for 2 days a week, 3 hours each day. I'm actually really excited that he only qualified for 6 hours a week! They're working on his communication rather than speech specifically. He's got speech therapy already, so I think this will be a perfect fit!

We went for our first day of school on Friday and he was so excited! I told him on Thursday night that if he wanted to go to school, he had to go to bed, so he rushed to his room, put on his pjs and climbed into bed as fast as he could. The next morning I had to wake him up to get there on time. All I said was "Marcus, do you want to go to school??" and he excitedly said "OK!" and got up to get ready. He was so excited! He had absolutely no problem with leaving me at all!

Jamesen was pretty upset when we left Marcus though, especially when we got back into the car, and even more so when we pulled into the driveway. It took awhile to calm him down at one point he was actually running away from me and screaming :( broke my heart. He calmed down after a bit though and we had an ok 3 hours alone. When it was time to go pick Marcus up, I asked if he wanted to go get him and Jamesen lit up and was so excited! I love seeing that brotherly love!

When we got to the school, they brought Marcus to me and he turned and ran away from me, screaming no. Totally broke my heart. I'm so glad he enjoyed it though! We had a pretty rough day afterwards, but I think it was mostly just due to the changes and things. Friday was pretty rough too. Marcus has been having a hard time, from what I assume is Sabe being gone on top of all the new stuff we have him doing. Sabe's only got another week or so left before he comes back. I hope our world settles in ok with Gemma coming right after that! It's gonna be pretty crazy around here!

Anyways, we've got J's autism test on the 28th. I'll update again then

Tongue Tied no more!!

We had a crazy morning, let me tell you!

We went in really early to an appointment for Marcus. The ENTs were supposed to evaluate his tongue tie and let me know if they would snip it or not. The guy walked in, looked at his tongue and goes, "Now THAT is a tongue tie! Really textbook." After talking back and forth for a few more minutes, he goes, "We can snip it now if you want!"

I really don't do well with things like that. I can barely even be in the room when shots are given to the boys. It goes against all my motherly instincts to hold my child down while someone inflicts pain or causes them to scream. I usually make Sabe do things like this, but he's in Cali right now and wouldn't have been available anyway.

The ENT must have seen the look of panic on my face when he said we could snip it right then and there because he offered to do it at another time. I figured another time would just give me more time to stress over it, so we should just do it now.

Marcus must have known something was up because he refused to let the ENT spray the initial numbing spray on his tongue. I let him do it to me to show Marcus it was ok and man that stuff was nasty! Marcus wasn't very happy. He was even more unhappy when the Dr brought the needle with the heavy duty numbing stuff. I can't even tell you how hard it was for me to have Marcus sit in my lap while I hold his hands down, a nurse hold his head still from behind me and the Dr forcing his mouth open and tongue up so they stick the needle in. He cried so hard. At one point I just felt like I couldn't do this and went to leave the room but he clung to me and wailed and I just knew I couldn't leave my kid while two strangers held him down. I had to be there for him.

We then had to hold him again while they snipped his tongue tie. He fought us so hard. I did more bawling and he kept biting the Dr. He's one strong kid! After what seemed like 5 whole minutes (it was probably more like a single minute...) it was finally done and he just clung to me and cried. I felt like the worst mother ever for putting him through that. I cried all the way to the car and all the way home too.

Despite how awful the procedure went, he's doing really awesome. He's suddenly able to say his Rs and Ls! His articulation is a lot more clear, just hours after the procedure. He's eating and drinking fine too. He's bitten his tongue a few times because he's not use to it being able to move around like it does, but he's doing really great. I feel really guilty that we didn't get it snipped before. Hopefully I'll have more stories of how great Marcus is doing in the next few weeks.


We did have the initial eval of Jamesen for autism a few days ago. There was a significant amount of autistic tendencies that she wanted to test him for it and so we'll be going back on the 28th for the test. He's actually doing really well. I'm not sure what to think on that front anymore. He's acting a lot more like a typical kid most days, though he does still have bad days. He's not having monumental meltdowns as often as he did before. Testing him won't hurt, so I'm going to go through with it and just cross my fingers for the best news, while being prepared for the worst.

In Gemma news, I'm 36 weeks! Won't be long now! I hope she waits until at least her due date though, so my mom can be here to watch my hooligans. She's under lock and key until the 4th of April!

Yeah so we're just hanging out, waiting for March to hurry and pass so daddy will be back home. He went into "the box" today, so we'll have no contact with him for the next 2 weeks. Hopefully it all goes quickly! The boys sure do miss him and ask for him every day. I hate when he has to leave! It's been really hard this time around, on Marcus especially. I think it's mostly that Sabe only just recently came back from that two week course he was at, only to leave again, not to mention he's got to know a huge change is coming. Kids know these things.

I've been carrying a baby doll around for the last 2 days like I did right before I had Jamesen and both boys are being so sweet to it. Really makes me happy since Marcus was violent towards the "little brother" one. They're both older than Marcus was when I had Jamesen though, so hopefully that helps in the transition. Marcus likes to kiss my belly, which is totally adorable, whether he realizes what's really going on or not!

Anyways, that's it for now. Until next time!

What's new?

I'm happy to say that the 2 weeks that Sabe was gone went by pretty fast for us. For the most part, it went ok. The boys did pretty well. Other than a ton of drama that we had at church, things went pretty smooth. We had a bit of a meltdown on like day 2 when the boys realized daddy wasn't coming back, but that was it for the most part. We're so glad to have him back, even if it's just for a week. Hopefully Gemma decided she's nice and comfy too because Sabe won't be able to come home early if she comes while he's gone.

Speaking of Gemma, we're doing really well on that front and have picked up everything that we need or had people tell us they would get it for us (thank you!!). I've not really tried to get her room together though, because we're planning on moving right after she gets here, so we'll just leave it all a mess until we move, lol! We have SO many clothes!! We've been given a ton (thank you!!) and have picked up some we couldn't resist as well. Girl clothes shopping is sooo different than boys. There's so much to choose from and everything is so cute. It's a bit overwhelming at first actually!

Marcus is doing great. His speech therapy is really helping and he's starting to say the "L" sound a bit. We're waiting to hear back from the specialist about an appointment for his tongue tie, but we should hear from them soon. Hopefully that will help a lot in his sounds. He's doing really great with it so far though, and is enunciating a lot better. He still doesn't speak in complete sentences, but we're forcing him to ask for things properly before he gets them and it's been helping. He's still picking things up really fast and I can't be more proud than I am! He's such a little trooper! We've put him into soccer and while he's having a bit of a hard time since he doesn't really understand what he's doing, he's not the only kid having a hard time and that makes me feel better. He's really good at dribbling! I think once he gets the concept of what's going on and really gets into it that he's going to do really well.

We've got a few appointments for Jamesen as well for him to be tested for Autism. The closest one is on the 6th. I'll have more on that after I know what's going on. I'm pretty sure he's on the spectrum, I just don't know how severe he is. He really is such a sweet kid though. His speech is coming on really well (compared to Marcus at that age anyways) and we're so proud of him too. He keeps showing me that he's got a talent for music and I can't wait for him to turn 3 so I can put him into piano lessons. I really don't know how well he'll do since he's kind of stubborn when it comes to people showing him how to do things, but we'll try it out and see how it goes.

All in all we're doing really well! No real complaints other than the ones that come with pregnancy and daddy being gone. Nothing too terrible and nothing we've not dealt with before. We can't wait to move on post though! We figure that will be around the beginning of May, just before deploys. It'll be nice to be on post near our friends while he's gone!

Anyways, that's our little update! Until next time.

Momma Drama

I was thinking about how the drama in my life has changed since becoming a mom. It was actually quite funny to me. During highschool and college it was boys (did I still like the guy I was dating? What was he doing wrong that I didn't like? How do I get him to break up with me so I don't have to do it?), tests (did I study enough? I studied right? I should do ok... right? Crap I sucked) and work (coworker drama spilling over to me, not getting enough hours to pay my bills or getting too many hours to study properly)

Those woes are long behind me. They've changed to things like, Jamesen's thumb has been "bruised" for about a month now.. is that really a bruise?? We just signed Marcus up for soccer... where am I supposed to find cleats that aren't too expensive that fit a 4 year old with huge feet?? and the one plaguing me the most lately... How in the world am I going to get 3 carseats in the back of my Maxima?! More than that... how am I going to pay for the new carseats I need to get so that they fit in the back of my Maxima?!

Sabe and I switched vehicles a bit ago because he was driving way more than me. His truck is a guzzler, so I would keep it despite the like one or two days I drove somewhere during the week. Now that Marcus is in speech therapy, we've decided that the carseats will be in the car from Friday-Monday and the truck from Tuesday-Thursday. I'd have the car for the days that Marcus has speech since the place we have to go to is kind of far away and I would just try to do all my errands on those days as well. It's been working great... as long as Gemma stays growing. Once she's out, I'll need to fit a third seat back there and with our current carseats there is NO way that is possible.

Luckily, I've got some carseat guru friends who pointed me to a group that has some serious carseat nazis who have helped me figure out which carseats I can get to fit back there. It's just figuring out how we're going to pay for them. The skinniest carseats on the market are $300 or close to it and I just can't afford to buy 3 of those. I'm hoping to get away with only buying one and buying another one that's thin. We'll be doing all of this when we get our tax return in the next few weeks. Wish me luck finding good deals on the seats I need!


Other than that, we're all kind of bummed. Sabe's leaving in an hour or two for a course he's gotta take. It'll be two weeks. He then comes home for a week and then leaves for 4, comes home just before my due date, is home for a few months and then deploys. I just wish I could blink and have it be April. Sorry if I'm a bit mopey. I've still not gotten the hang of being super cheerful while Sabe's gone. Marcus really misses him and it breaks my heart.

Anyways, gotta run, just wanted to update really quick. We've got some appointment for the boys on the 7th, so hopefully I'll know more about the tongue tie and possible autism then.

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.