About My Boys!

Aidan:

Aidan turned 8 on February 15th. It's hard to believe that he's 8 already! I think back to when he was first born and back then I never would have guessed what he would be like at 8. He's so smart, and I'm being serious when I say that each and every paper he brings home from school says "wonderful" or "awesome" or is a perfect score. And still each and every time he whips it out of his backpack and says "100% mom!". It's getting really hard to keep being so excited about it! LOL I'm always like "woohoo!! Great Job Aidan!! That is so awesome!" and I wonder if he can tell that I am starting to force that excitement LOL. It's just I expect nothing less! LOL

We've started letting him stay up till 9:30pm now. He still has to go in his room with Austin at 8pm, but once Austin is asleep he can come back out if he wants to till 9:30. He does really well with it though and doesn't throw a fit when it's time for him to go to bed at 9:30. And even if we aren't paying attention to the clock right around 9:30 he'll say "alright I'm going to bed mom!"

The one "bad" thing I can think of with Aidan is his MOUTH! OMG the mouth on that boy is incredible! He is SO mouthy and it drives me INSANE! The other morning he was being really mean to Austin and I was telling him that he needed to stop and he turned towards me and with this nasty look on his face he said "You need to stop talking to me, cause I am NOT talking to you!" it seriously took everything in me not to smack him right across the mouth. I got up and told him he will NEVER talk to me like that again and sent him to his room. Roy then also yelled at him that he isn't to speak to me like that. He's just really got a mouth on him. I keep telling myself "it's his age" but boy he better grow out of it soon if he wants to live to see 9!

To end on a good note I will say that it really melts my heart to watch Aidan and Avery together. Aidan is SO protective of Avery and he really tries to play with Avery and just is such a great big brother to him. It really amazes me how I thought that Aidan and Austin being not even 2 years apart would be close, but that is SO not the case. Aidan and Austin can't get along to save their lives. They can't spend 5 min together before punches are being thrown. But Aidan and Avery where there is 5 years between them are just almost glued together. Aidan always makes sure Avery is included and honestly wants Avery around. Austin could care less about Avery and isn't very nice to him. So glad Avery has a brother like Aidan. I have a feeling he'll need him later in life.



Austin:

*sigh* What can I say about Austin?! He turned 6 on January 26th. He is SO typically your "middle child". Everything he does screams "middle kid". He's always complaining that Aidan got more than him of something, or that either Aidan or Avery is getting more attention, or is more loved or whatever. He tries SO hard to do anything and everything that Aidan does, and follows him around and wants to do anything Aidan does. But then when he gets in trouble for something it's either "but you let Aidan do it!" or "it wasn't me it was Avery!"

At the same time Austin is SUCH a cuddlebug. He'll climb up in my lap and just sit there for hours. I'm always cuddling with him when I'm sitting downstairs and it's kinda chilly and I tell him he's like a nice warm Aussie burrito and that he's keeping me warm. He's just such a cuddly, warm kid and I LOVE that about him. I just wish he was less "oh whoa is me no one loves me" and realized just how special he is just for being him!

In school we always thought Austin would be just the typical "average" student. Not exceptional, not poor, just average. And he's far from it! At his conferences we were told he's pretty much above grade level. He's doing really REALLY well in school! So proud of him for that!

I try to make time for each boy to go somewhere one on one with me or Roy, but it doesn't always work out so well. I need to work harder on that.



Avery:

Avery turned 3 on January 18th. Turning 3 made him "phase out" of Early Intervention and "phase in" to the school system. Which means we are now going through all these evaluations again for him to get services through the school system. He has his final "educational assessment" and the end of his speech assessment next wednesday the 10th of March.

So far we've gotten diagnosis's of "Severe speech apraxia, sensory integration dysfunction, motor planning problems, and low tone"

I've been thinking of trying to get him into Kennedy Krieger Institute with a developmental pediatrician down there to see if we can come up with a better way of treating him. But I just don't want him to be evaluated anymore. The poor boy has been evaluated to no end! I'm sure he now thinks anytime someone says to him "want to come play?" they are going to be testing him. It really makes me feel bad for him, and I wish it wasn't like this for him.

I've been thinking about getting Avery an AAC device (Augmentive Alternative Communcation device) Which is basically like a small hand held machine with pictures that he would press and it would say the word (or phrase). I really think it would help him be understood by strangers and especially if he starts at the preschool. We've been using the PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) for a few weeks now and he's doing really well with it! I just want something for when he's out and about with strangers and other children really.

We've started him on carnation instant breakfast once a day for his nutritional supplementation. With the little amount he eats the doctor wants to make sure he's getting all the vitamins and minerals he needs. Not that he's malnurished or anything LOL. Not at almost 41 pounds and 41 1/2 inches tall!

I guess we'll see how things progress.