Cream of Potato Soup

Christmas was great, and in many ways less hectic than usual. I enjoyed spending time with my brothers and their girls, and I got to see Cara, Elaine, Diane, and Kelly, all in from out of town. I must admit I felt badly, like I didn't spend enough time with everyone. It used to feel like we had tons of time to get together over the holidays, and now I'm squeezing visits in here and there whenever I can find a free moment. Time moves too quickly, yet again.

Evan has been enjoying our family time together though. He loves having Mike home all the time to play golf on the Playstation 2 or help him set up his train set or go on little daily adventures. Every day we do something fun together. It will be hard for us to return to "real life" on January 3rd.

Before that comes the celebration of the new year. We don't usually go out--in fact, we haven't really gone out since the days of First Night Erie and our after parties at Mike's parents house. This year, we're trying something different. We're having a party, along the lines of the old ones at Mike's folks, but this time the kids are invited. We're going to spend the night up at Mikaele and Tim's--family fun and then grownup fun after the kiddies are in bed. I'm looking forward to it.

If I don't write again before then--happy 2005! I hope to make it an exciting and wonderful year.

Posted by jenny at 09:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Evan, Mike and I want to wish everyone a Christmas filled with happiness and love. Thanks for continuing to read my tales of toddlerhood!

Posted by jenny at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We have broken through the fruit and vegetable barrier! Evan now eats raisins! Mike's mom offered him some this weekend and he loved them. Who knew? He still is averse to every other fruit and veggie on the planet--aside from corn and potatoes in french fry form, but those don't really count. What's next? A grape? An apple slice? A carrot coin? I can hardly wait to find out.

Posted by jenny at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's been a while since I've posted, I know. We were in Ohio for the past week, visiting with Mike's family and having an early Christmas. His dad is going to be out of the country on business for the holiday, so we had to move things up a bit. It all worked out though--everyone was able to get together and celebrate.

Evan, as usual, got lots of cool presents. The big hit so far was an Aquadoodle, a big mat you put on the floor and draw on with water. He also got a train table, some books and another signing video. All good stuff. This weekend is going to be more of the same I suspect--I need to start making space in his play room!

Other than that, not much is up. It's been snowing and cold for a while now, and Evan hates it. Unlike last year, this year he is deathly afraid of the snow. He won't even walk to the car in it, or walk through a parking lot. If there's any snow in his field of vision, he expects to be carried. Guess we won't need the snow pants this year! Mike and I are breaking our backs hauling his 30 pound butt around though. I hope he gets over it or the winter is mild, but I'm not willing to bet on either.

We're taking it easy today and tomorrow before the big rush begins. We plan to hang out at home, and hopefully recover before the next round of excitement.

Posted by jenny at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We took about 30 pictures for our Christmas card this year, and I wanted to share a few that didn't make it, but came out really nice just the same.

Click for a larger version.

Posted by Mike at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I intended to write a big long post about Evan's evaluation this evening, but Beth came over and we ended up talking for hours and that was so much more fun than writing and rehashing. Thanks Beth!

I will give a quick overview though. Ev was evaluated during play for about an hour and a half by a team of five specialists (PT, OT, SLP, caseworker and psychologist) in a preschool classroom. At the same time, Mike and I were interviewed in another part of the room. The whole thing was videotaped, and the team will go over that and discuss what they observed and meet with us about their findings at a later time. I wouldn't be surprised if that's not until after the holidays.

Evan did great. He cooperated (mostly) with the facilitator and was willing to do the activities she asked. He did have a minor meltdown when transitioning from coloring to puzzles, but overall he did really well. I couldn't have asked much more of him--I was very proud of his behavior. I do feel like the team got a decent picture of his strengths and weaknesses today. By the end of the eval, they were already able to comment on his not having a hand preference and some of his coordination difficulties. I'm amazed at how much of his personality is evident in his play. We'll be anxious to hear the team's thoughts about the eval and his next step in therapy.

Posted by jenny at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This morning, Evan and I were laying in bed while Mike got ready for work. I was just kind of waking up, watching the news, and Ev was still asleep. After a little while, he starts signing in his sleep! He signed "more" several times, and then "mine" very emphatically several times. And then he starts laughing to himself! I don't know what he was dreaming about, but he definitely had something to say about it.

My nonverbal son talks in his sleep. Ha!

Posted by jenny at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't really have a lot to say, but I felt like I needed to blog something. I can't leave a lame post about going to bed early up for too long! We had a lovely weekend, but busy, as we went to parties and shopped and worked. By Sunday evening though, we were done Christmas shopping, and that's the best I could have hoped for.

This is our last "real" week of the month. After Friday, Mike is off work until 2005, and Evan only has one or two therapies left in the month and we're taking some time off. That means, of course, that this week is very busy. Mike trying to get all of his work done, me trying to get the house in order, and Evan gearing up for yet another evaluation on Friday.

Ah yes, another eval. We can hardly wait. This one is a "comprehensive play study" at the Intermediate Unit. They are the group taking over Ev's case when he turns three, and they are also the ones that are going to help him eventually transition into the school system. Since he's completely nonverbal, he's hard to test, so we get to go for this big three hour eval where he's studied and we're interviewed and it's all very exciting.

Can you tell I'm starting to lose my enthusiasm for all of this stuff?

I guess I would be more hopeful if we ever got a straight answer, or if there were any answers to be had. As it stands, Ev is still a very complicated child with lots of fun little disorders. It makes life interesting, if nothing else. What is to be gained from this next eval remains to be seen. Will it be more referrals, a different diagnosis, a chance to start at a special needs preschool? We'll let you know on Friday, I'm sure.

Posted by jenny at 08:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our little family of three was very sleepy tonight. I started the trend by laying down to watch some tv, and Evan joined me a bit later, signing "sleep". Mike joined us in bed at about 6:30 and surprisingly, we all fell asleep shortly after that. Evan still is sleeping--he's in his own bed now and dead to the world. Mike and I both woke up around 10:30 and now we can't go back to sleep. Though it felt good, I wish we hadn't woken from our little naps--I think we have some rest we need to catch up on.

And tomorrow's a big Christmas shopping day.

Posted by jenny at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Signing is coming along very well. Evan is picking up new signs fairly easily now, but more importantly he's using what he knows. Prior to this weekend, he was just imitating the signs that he sees or doing them in tandem with me saying the word. Now he's using them to converse with me.

He signed "thank you" when I changed his poopy diaper yesterday. He signed "eat" when I asked him what the baby was doing at Grandma's house. I finally feel like he's able to talk to me. He signs to me what he wants or what he sees, and it makes me feel like we're really making progress. I'm starting to hear his voice, quietly.

Posted by jenny at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)