Rule #82 Part 2: So do videos.

Tickles. (0:35)

Filling up our huge new pool. (0:54)

Boo! (0:36)

It's hot, lets go to the pool. (1:01)

Someone is spraying my face. (1:38)

Rule #82: Pictures burn holes in memory cards.

Playing during an Early Intervention visit with Lisa.

Evan and Jasmine watching the front yard.

Some light reading.

Evan and his friend Lily.

Jasmine isn't very good with ropes.

Getting ready for halloween.  Boo... boo...  BOO!

Evan had a followup appointment with the allergist, still allergic to all tree nuts.

Rule #81: Progress is progress

The last time I wrote about Evan's progress he was just starting to mimic and say a few words. I'll tell you what, that kid is learning everyday! I'm also fairly certain he understands more than he lets on...but I can be patient if I have to. Here's what Evan is up to these days.

He says Daddy whenever he sees Alex, or if I talk about Daddy...Evan is a big fan of his father, no question.

He will say Mama if encouraged, but not all the time. Mostly he will say it when I talk to him on the phone on the nights that I am working.

He says Hi to everyone, it melts my heart to have him walk into a room and say Hi.

He says Hey Bear to one of his stuffed animals that he has latched onto. That also melts my heart. And he's beginning to pretend play with Hey Bear too. He'll give him a drink and hug and kiss him. (The drink is usually after I do it first, but he's copying me. That is a big step alone!)

He now says "boo" even if he's just playing hide and seek with some crayons. Play hide and seek the next time you see him, it's the cutest thing I've ever seen!

This is Evan about to say "boo"

A few weeks ago when it snowed, I was pointing out the white world to Evan, said the word Snow, and he said it back! It was amazing. He already says No like it's going out of style, so it wasn't a big stretch to add an S, but he heard me, and said Snow!

And today in the grocery store, I said the word "auto", but since I am from Utah and will occasionally forget the "t" I said "audo" And Evan looked at me and said it right back! That's more than adding an "s" in my mind, he doesn't say any words like sound like audo, but he does now!

He signs Daddy, Please (when he wants to) Dog and Flower. Sometimes he'll sign Mommy, Hot and Bath.

He has signed banana, drink, happy, cry, cheese and bread a handful of times. But doesn't seem very consistent with them.

He can follow a few commands (makes him sound like a dog...) like getting his shoes from him room. He even knows what drawer to open. He can pick out the pig, cat and cow magnets, sometime the elephant too. Overall he seems to be comprehending better in general.

His therapies continue to go well, and we are all thrilled with his progress. The speech therapist will be coming for the first time this month, so we'll see how that goes. I'll try and be better about keeping everyone updated on Evan's mad skills. :)
Mostly, I just love this kid! Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm going to have another one and love him just as much. Doesn't seem possible, but I know that it is.

Rule #80: You should never trust a pencil

Some of you may remember a post I made a while back, talking about the accuracey a pencil has to predict baby genders? If not, click here to refresh your memory.

Turns out you can't really trust a pencil afterall. (shocking, right?)

I went for my big ultrasound today and all is way with new baby Davis. But, it turns out my baby is a boy! To the suprise of several people around me who were convinced I was having a girl.

Alex and I are very excited to be having another boy. It will be so fun for Evan to have a best little buddy around!

It just goes to show you that you can't put too much faith in a posessed pencil. :)

Now all we have to do now is pick out a name for our new little son. (Here comes the hard part)

Rule #79: Don't talk to strangers

sigh

I've been getting "comments" for over a month now from people I don't know. Now, if they were blog stalkers that actually commented on what I wrote, maybe it wouldn't bother me. But all of these comments are in a different language. (Chinese, Japanese...I don't know the difference. I'm not as cultured as I pretend to be okay?)

It used to be an occasional "comment" would show up. Now I'm getting them everyday. It's starting to tick me off. I really didn't want to go private, I like to blog stalk other people and not that I thought my blog was that fascinating, but I liked the option people had to blog stalk me if they wanted to. (They just should've kept their mouths/keyboards shut and then I never would have known.)

Regardless, I am now going private. I'll be making the change next week. So, if you'd like to be included, please send me your email address. Thank you.

Rule #78: More kids is more fun...

During this past week we took care of Evan's cousin Sanders for a few days while his family was in CA. It was fun to add some variety to the house, but Evan had mixed feelings. While at times they played together, Evan was incredibly sensitive to everything, I think the best word is stressed. Here are a few videos while Sanders was here that don't showcase his stress.

Evan doesn't like to eat, and Sanders does, so they found the perfect solution. (1:45)

Sanders quickly discovered as Evan has how fun it is to 'play' with Jasmine. (1:11)

Evan and Sanders throwing things, sometimes even to each other. Be warned, this one is a little long. (5:23)

Rule #77: Everyone likes pictures.

Meghan was craving some orange juice

And didn't want to wait... or be on camera.

But she's pregnant, so it's ok.

Jasmine likes the view while riding on Evan, and though he isnt laughing here, he thinks it's a great time.

Jasmine is in there for the dust, and Evan had to see what the fuss was about.

Ever want to grow your very own limestone cave? Try using hardwater.

These rock solid friends were living in our tub pipe, somewhat hindering its ability to drain.

Rule 76: You can't put it off forever

Some of you may or may not have noticed my lack of blogging for the last few months. Some of it has to do with the first trimester of pregnancy and feeling like a bump on a log. But most of it is this...sheer lack of desire.

I've needed to update on Evan for months now. But I didn't want to. I had gotten frustrated with the lack of understanding of what was going on with Evan, and how I feel about. I didn't want to get into it. But how do you update on your child and ignore who they are? So, I've decided that I can't put it off any longer. More importantly, I don't want to put it off any longer.

Let me say first, there have been many good intentioned people in my life, family or otherwise, that try to convince me nothing is "wrong" with Evan. I can only assume it is because they think I am sad. I would like to clarify, I am okay with Evan being developmentaly delayed. I have accepted it, and I am moving on in the direction of progress. My thoughts are now, How can I help him overcome these delays? I am not denying they exist. Please accept this with me.

That being said, a few months ago our wonderful developmental therapist, Lisa, had some test results for us. *I'm about to throw out a bunch of nonsensical jargon your way. Keep reading, I'll try to explain.* Evan has Auditory Processing Disorder, Poor Motor Planning and Low Registration. What the H does that mean? Yeah, we said that too.

The easiest way I have found to explain this is as follows. Evan has a learning disability. He doesn't grasp/comprehend information the way that you and I do. He needs big gestures, lots of excitement to even pay attention (low registration) He's not very aware of his body or his surroundings, and has difficulty knowing how to get from A to B. (poor motor planning) He hears the words, but they often mean nothing to him, requiring repetition to comprehend (auditory processing) Implications for the future; he may have some trouble learning in school. He most likely will have difficulty with group instruction, things like that.

If you are like I am, you will have already googled all of those terms only to find them all linked with Autism. I won't lie. I was pretty upset. But, after talking to Lisa she told me that at this point Evan still does not have a "diagnosis". And it is likely that we won't find out any answer to the autism spectrum disorder question for years! Years people! Anyone who knows me, KNOWS that I do not like the unknown. After a day to two of frustration and concern, I've accepted it, and moved on to progress.

Who knows what two years with show, Evan is already improving leaps and bounds! So in two years, they might laugh in my face that I was ever worried. Shoot, in 3-4 years by the time he's in school, he MAY not even require therapy. Who knows! So I've decided to concentrate on what I do know. My child has a learning disorder. Therapy is helping. He learns more every day. He is happy, and he loves me and his father.

I can live with what I do know.

In the last few months he has become a different child. He is so much more responsive, he has started to pick up a few signs, and even though he doesn't use them consistently, he at least TRIES to mimic what I am doing with my hands. This is huge!! This is what I was concerned about from the very beginning. How was I supposed to teach a child that didn't mimic? But here he is...occasionally trying to mimic. He says Uh-oh, A-go (here you go), Go!! (when throwing a ball) and the other day, said "Nana" while looking at a picture of my mom, who goes by Nana. I didn't even coax him, he just did it! He hasn't done it since...but I'm okay with that. He's beginning to grasp language! I'm thrilled! He still doesn't say Mama or Dada, but he does sign Dad and looks at his father. Progress is progress.

He's starting to care more about his world, which again, is HUGE. He cares if he eats, not only that, he cares WHAT he eats. He points and reaches for things, and his jabbering increases every day. I may have no idea what he is saying, but he is trying to say something. And he loves it when I copy his nonsense words.

Jasmine has become his best friend in the whole wide world. (sorry Sanders, your time will come) He signs Dog all day long, and thinks that everything she does is the funniest thing ever! He still has a problem trying to feed Jasmine all of his food, but we are working on it.

It's been such a blessing to see him grow and communicate with us, but to watch his desire to communicate has been the most rewarding. I am so happy that my son cares if I know what he's thinking.

He's loves to be outside and to "help" his daddy with yard work. He loves cuddles and kisses and loves to be chased around the house. And there you have it. The official update. Sorry about the wait, but emotional, tired pregnant women get cut a little slack. :)

Rule #75: Two is better than one.

Evan has learned a new sign to spread some big news for us. Watch the video and see.

Meghan is expecting, the new baby is due Oct 23rd. Yes, she isn't very far along, but everyone kept finding out this time from the get go. We're very excited and feel very blessed.

Rule #74: Stairs have many uses.

Evan has this bad habit of feeding Jasmine. He especially loves to feed her from his snack cup as seen here.

So Meghan gave him some dog treats to feed Jasmine, which he promptly ate instead of giving them to Jasmine, you win this round Evan...

Random video of Evan throwing walnuts down the stairs.

Rule #73: You'd be a fool to not have kids.

Evan is only 19 months old and already his potential for manual labor is apparent.

Random video of Evan going down the slide, be warned, he's not quick about it.

Rule #72: Fry sauce makes the fry.

Evan appears to like fry sauce as much as his dad.

Random video of Evan throwing a ball.

Rule #71: Everyone needs a kid-free vacation

Alex and I had the incredible opportunity to go to Maui the first week in February. (Thank you Doug and Susan). I had never been to Hawaii before and it's pretty much the tropical paradise that people say it is.
We left Evan home to be passed around between my family, and a few friends. Thanks to everyone who made our kid free vacation possible! Evan did really well while we were gone. I usually got report that he was happy and playing and sleeping like a champ. It made it so easy to enjoy myself. Evan did have a rough time with his cousin Sanders. (who is younger than Evan, I might point out) I'm really not sure what that was all about, but Emilie handled my clinging, crying child fantastically. Sigh, what a silly kid.

With my son well cared for, we were able to do some of the most amazing things I've ever done. seriously. Everyday we did something, and I could lay down at night and think, that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. And every night it was true!

I went snorkeling for the first time, just right outside of our hotel. It's a little claustrophobic of a feeling at first, but I really did enjoy myself. Alex, on the other hand, did not. He doesn't enjoy the water, but I was proud of him for at least trying it. We swam with the fishes, saw a few giant sea turtles, a group of squid! All while hearing the whale song underwater! It was amazing! (see, there it is again, I'll probably say amazing twenty times in this post!)

Picture taken by Doug underwater. We really were that close!

We went on two different whale watching trips. Both were amazing, and there were SO many whales, we were surrounded most of the time. Seeing little babies with their mom's was so adorable. But the highlight of the whale watching for me was the second trip. The captain let me put on his mask ans snorkel and hung me over the side on the boat so I could stick my head underwater and watch the whales swimming beneath us! I have never seen anything like that in my life! I probably never will again. It was AMAZING!! And those animals are HUGE! Intellectually I knew they were large, but I had no. idea. Simply amazing.

Whale watching

We went boogie boarding several times. It turns out that is one water activity Alex does enjoy. Found perfect beaches and perfect waves. Such a great time!

We took the road to Hana one day, stopped to hike to waterfalls along the way. It really is a tropical paradise. Everything looked like it came out of a movie set! And all along the way were trees with beautiful red flowers, turns out they are African Tulip Trees. I loved them!

We also went to the aquarium on one of the rainy days. We got to see them feed the manta rays and the sharks. It was neat.

We ate excellent seafood, well, Susan and I did. Most of the boys did not. Although I am proud of Jeff for venturing out and trying something different, and he even liked it!

On the last day we drove up to the top of the volcano, standing above the clouds! I've never done that before either! It was a pretty impressive sight.

The flight home was long, but we were lucky enough to get on the direct flight again (thank you Doug) so really, there's no complaining here. I was ready to be a mom again. I was so ready to go get my baby! I had an amazing time, made memories I'll never forget, but it was so nice to go home! I'm glad that we didn't bring him along, not until he's much older. (At least not on that kind of vacation.) As much as I missed him, I'm proud of how well I did without him. It's a good feeling to know that you can exist without your children, and it does make returning to them so sweet!

And here are a few more randoms pictures, because I know you just haven't had enough! :)

The Dragon's Teeth (made from flowing lava that crashed into oncoming waves!)

Meghan in front of the Banya tree, a local landmark (not the tree right next to me, but the huge one way in the back. It's hard to tell from here. All those trunks....they're all the same tree!)