Zeke's First Year of Preschool

We were so blessed by Zeke's first year of Preschool. He had 3 great teachers and a great speech pathologist that worked with him 4 mornings a week. Here is a picture of him with his teachers the last day of school. Lead teacher, Ms Michelle on the left, Ms Logan holding Zeke and Ms Donna on the right.

 We have been given all the information we need to get him into a good school down here in Florida. Such as his IEP (Individualized Education Program), his PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) (which is the next picture) and a folder with what he has done this year at school (which is the next picture in the yellow folder).

We are slowly trying to get into a routine here and checking out local library class times or other classes that we could go to. That way we can get out of the house and into a routine of learning and fun.

We are waiting until the insurance kicks in to go ahead and get Zeke tested to find out if he is or is not on the Autistic Spectrum or if he just has some major communication delays. That will then help us out getting into some programs that will help us. But we did find out they had a cool program where they the student has and IEP (which he does) he can get into the program for free. So that is pretty cool. I'll keep you updated on that. 

I ended up making these little monsters (picture below) for his 3 teachers as well as his speech pathologist. I put them in little baskets, with dark chocolate bars, tea bags, popcorn and some other goodies. I'm really going to miss his teachers...they helped make the school year not only good for Zeke but good for me.

Right now Zeke is loving Nonna and Gramps' pool. He has a little star floatation device and he loves to go in there and get some water balloons and hold on to them. If only we could get him sleeping all the way through the night and not coming in mama and daddy's bed partially in the morning. But I think that is what happens when we end up all being in the same room. Or sleep schedule gets CRAZY!!!

Well until next time...which should be pretty soon. :)

What a Valentine's Day...

First off...sorry for no pictures in this post.

Secondly...I'm pretty tired and a little broken down SO the story might be a little scattered.

Thirdly...HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY & enjoy our story.

Normally our little happy go lucky boy (Z-Man) wakes up happy and plays in his room and then comes to our room to get us up. TODAY he did NOT do any of that. He cried and cried until Rick went into his room. Rick got him and put him to walk out of his room however he just cried there and wouldn't put any weight on his right leg. He cried throughout the his morning diaper change. He didn't like ANY rotation of his right hip WHAT SO EVER! Rick went into school/work/fellowship (whatever you want to call it) and I said I would keep an eye on it. I thought maybe he just slept on it weird and it was asleep. Well, Z ended up NOT moving from the spot on the couch and he cried off and on every time he tried to move. I ended up sending a text Rick to see if he could get Z into our family doc. He called back and said we could get in at 9:30. It was a unpleasant time getting him dressed to go to the doctors but I made it there in 45 minutes. Z wouldn't let ANYONE touch his leg. The doc said well...let's get you an x-ray and see what is going on. Let's just say of getting an x-ray of hurt 2 1/2 year old little boy is NOT fun! The first set didn't turn out well either so we had to do it again. Well...the x-rays looked good and didn't show anything abnormal for his hip at all. SO then it was calling a pediatrician to see what they would recommend (we love our family doc but sometimes they just need to consult another doc for things they haven't seen) The docs conversed that the next thing would be blood work. It would help come up with things that Z was not. The blood work came back within normal limits so that ruled out a couple things. Then we waited to see if the Ortho doc this afternoon or tomorrow. Well...we are seeing him/her in the morning. SO we shall know FOR sure what he is dealing with. All we do know is that after a dose of pain medicine he was feeling a lot better and even able to put some weight on his right leg.
There is Valentine's Day story for 2011. We are very thankful that he didn't need to be admitted to the hospital tonight. We are thankful that even though he was in pain he still had some smiles and I actually think he liked the extra snuggles with me. We do have some prayer requests...so if you are that kind of person PLEASE do pray for...
-Wisdom for the docs that are looking after our son.
-God's peace and understanding in this whole matter.
-Rick & I have been fighting a sinus junk (either an infection, or due to drastic change in our Iowa weather)
Well thank you all very much! I shall have more info tomorrow. ALONG with pictures (today we spent in the car, doctor's offices or hospital labs...the kids weren't really in there Valentine's Day outfits) Actually Z was in his Red shirt with silver hearts that I made for him that he got Vaseline on that one day. :)

Birthday Video...

ENJOY!

More Pics...

Here are some more pics of the "Z-Man's" birthday weekend...
On Saturday we went to the Rose Garden (we ended up getting eaten alive by the bugs...not fun!) So here are a couple of pictures that were taken there...On Sunday we were invited over to a friends house for dinner and we decided to bring over "Z's" birthday cake.
So here are some pictures of that...

"Z's" big boy bed!

Well really it's just his crib with one of the side down...
"Z" has been doing so well sleeping in his bed at night and he is now doing somewhat better during his naps. Some days I go in there 2 or 3 times before he actually falls asleep. When I go in there...he is usually playing with his toys, I ask him to get in bed and he usually hops on in there. One afternoon when I went in there "Z" actually fell asleep in the chair in his room.Then he ended up getting up and moving to the bed. :)For night time "Z" is a CHAMP at sleeping in his bed at night. Because of it being dark in his room he doesn't want to play with his toys. We do a normal routine; PJ time, brushing teeth, singing some songs, maybe reading a book, saying a prayer and giving kisses. Sometimes he will just cuddle with me and then I say would you like to go to bed now, he will get down and run to his bed and jump in. He lays down and we turn on his music cover him up and he goes to sleep.
Right now his new funny thing is when he lays down he does a "fake" snoring...it's really cute. However he NEVER does it when I actually try to get a short clip of it.
Well I hope that you had a great weekend.

Compare & Contrast

So a couple nights after "Z" had his half birthday I decided to take a picture of him similar to an earlier picture of him and thought it would be fun for you to see on ONE blog how much he has changed. I would like to see what my readers have to say! What things are similar? What things have changed the most? That type of thing.

"Z" at the hospital

"Z" at 6 months

So what do you think???

Captured the moment!

Here is a video (really for my mom!) Sorry mom it's not on your phone. Maybe I will get it a little later. We had 3 minutes of video and snipped and put this video together.

Hope you have a fantastic Thursday! 

Successful Sunday!

Oh...this Sunday was a very nice family day.
Of course there was church. Which celebrated the LAST Sunday in one location and this Wednesday we will be at a new location.
Then there was nap time (me and my son napped) just the same time and apartment not in the same location. I liked taking naps with him when he was little but now that he is on a schedule and he likes naps in his bed or in the car. Me I am neither so napping on me doesn't go very long or very smoothly anymore.
It was a successful family day where we just enjoyed being together. :)
This evening while we were enjoying being a family, we let Ezekiel be free (no diaper!) We had a sheet laying on the floor and bumped up the heat. During that time Z-man of course peed on himself but he also rolled over. He likes to do stuff the hard way around so he rolled from his back to his stomach. Then when he was on his stomach he was "crawling" moved from one side of the blanket to the other side of it. He was using his arms and his legs to pull and push him across the blanket. Of course we don't have any film of it! But I do have some pics of him after the fact. So sorry about the little bottom showing. :)


He was kind of moving so it looks censored already.