February 2024

Welcome back! I feel so guilty that I didn’t write an update about Christmas time. That’s ok. Today I wanted to write about a particular issue Isaiah has. Frequent request to use the bathroom. Sometimes, he will ask to “go potty” every 15/20minutes. He usually does go pee a little bit each time. Sometimes he doesn’t though, he just sits there and tries and nothing comes out. We will go to a park for an hour and he’ll go to the bathroom three times during that outing. Or we will drive in the car for an hour and he’ll ask to go potty multiple times in the car. Now, I’ve tried different strategies. I tell him to wait if he just went 15 minutes ago. But, he obsessively asks and his anxiety increases. So then, I feel bad that I’m causing him this discomfort and say, “ok fine. Go potty.” Of course at home, he doesn’t ask he’ll just go. Very often. He’ll go during his favorite shows, while he has his iPad, when he’s outside, all the time. At school, they have him on a routine. He goes to the bathroom every time he enters or leaves the classroom.

In November or maybe it was December, he had a cough so I took him to our pediatrician. Overall he was fine and just had some sort of virus. I asked them to test his urine. His urine was fine. No blood, no protein, no infection. The pediatrician recommended I go to a pediatric urologist to get an ultrasound of his bladder and kidneys. I took him on February 2. Tested his urine again, it was fine. His kidneys and bladder was perfect. “Very photogenic kidneys” the doctor said 😂. He said that if Isaiah is constipated, poop could be pressing on his bladder and giving him the urge to go pee. He recommended that Isaiah get an x ray of his abdomen. At this point, I’m really over this whole situation. No, he’s not constipated. Every scan and test comes out with no issues. I debated the x ray but then I decided to do it. I just want to rule out the possibility of a foreign object perhaps in there and maybe causing discomfort. Probably not. So today, I took him to get an x ray. As I write this, I don’t have results yet. Feel free to comment on here or text me if you’d like to know.
Surprisingly, Isaiah does great at the doctor. He loves to go to the doctor. He loves to talk about it. I never have to deal with high anxiety or a meltdown on our way to the doctor or during a visit. He just likes it. He doesn’t need a screen while we are there. He doesn’t ask me to go home either. He happily skips school to go.

I’m hoping that the x ray comes back showing everything is fine. I then will need to train Isaiah to not react to every feeling or urge to use the bathroom. He will have to tolerate no. I already do this often, but I will feel way more confident telling him to wait if I know for sure that there is no medical issue here. He is already on a bathroom schedule at school and during therapy.
We have a big trip planned for the end of May. Isaiah is very excited and he tells me the date of our departure on a daily basis. We talk about it all the time. He is very excited about the airplane, and the hotels, etc. He loves to travel. But, frequently using the bathroom is just not going to be an option. He’s going to have to tolerate waiting. So, I need to start diligently training him now. As a side note, we aren’t bringing his iPad either.

Another issue that Isaiah is having (at school not at home) is rocking back and forth and hitting his mouth on the table in front of him while he is seated. It’s usually when he is frustrated with doing his school work. This is happening frequently and the school always sends him to the clinic. Which he probably really likes to go to the clinic. One day, I got yet another email saying Isaiah hit his mouth on the table. I took iPad privileges away that afternoon. He was mad and had a meltdown for about 45 minutes. He wanted to hit me. He wanted to hit himself. Crying, yelling, anxiety…. It was tough. I haven’t gotten an email since then. That was a week or two ago. But, I will have to take away his iPad privilege for the day if I get another email.

I wish there was a book on parenting a child with a cognitive disability from a biblical perspective. Or maybe, I could write about the various things we have done over the years to train and teach Isaiah. The last thing I need is social services at my door 😳. It does take discipline and it is exhausting but effective… for the most part.

Happy Birthday – September 2023

Welcome back readers! September was fun, Isaiah had a birthday! He turned eleven. He had lots of fun! We went to a water park and he enjoyed it very much. He got a blue icee there too. That is of his favorite desserts, also Publix sprinkled cookies, also air heads…. also chocolate cake. He has a MEGA sweet tooth! Anyways, we ate dinner at a restaurant, which he also enjoys to do. He opened presents and got lots of things he likes. Puzzles, books, dvds, candy, etc. we celebrated all weekend long. He knew his birthday was coming. He knew which day it was on the calendar. He knew about our water park plans. He brought it up almost everyday. He knew he would get presents. He asked for air heads. He even picked out which cake he wanted. He knew we would sing to him. And he was very happy about all of those things. He was excited! 🥹

But, his birthday can be kinda sad for me. I push those feelings down, and decorate the house and wish him a happy birthday multiple times. In reality, he’s not eleven. He’s maybe 4 or 5. Academically, he scores at a kindergarten level. He has for years now. It doesn’t seem like he will get much farther than kindergarten. He’s in the 5th grade now. I’m desperately trying to hold him back so he doesn’t go to middle school next year. I’m not ready for that. And I don’t mean that in a typical mom of a 5th grader who’s moving up to middle school. Because, he’s practically, not a 5th grader. He’s a kindergartner, on his best day. I tried to hold him back last year, they said no. I’ll probably get the same response this school year too. 🤧🤧🤧

If you ask him, “how old are you?”, he will still say “ten”. We’re working on it. Isaiah cares about the simple things in life. What show he will be watching and at what time he will be watching them, where we will be going on Saturday (or everyday really), bedtime, wake up time, and what foods he will be eating. This is what Isaiah talks about. The schedule. The next thing. Time. Dates. When we are going to the next hotel. He doesn’t care about reading or writing or math or science. He’s always focused on the next time he will be able to get whatever it is that he wants.

He’s very happy that we are going to the zoo on Saturday. He doesn’t show too much emotion. He seems stressed out daily but he doesn’t seem to be in some sort of deep distress. He was sick this week. He took a nap on the living room floor. I had to get a picture. He looks so cute when he’s sleeping! And wowzers is he tall! Just under 5ft! He knows about trick or treating. He hasn’t been telling me daily yet. But I bet as soon as it’s October, I’ll hear about it everyday 😏

Thanks for reading! Here are some fun pics from this month. 😊

Anxiety

Hey guys! I felt like this topic of “anxiety” needed a permanent place on my blog. A quick google search will tell you that anxiety is defined as “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” Also, “a desire to do something, typically accompanied by unease”. Also, “a nervous disorder characterized by a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behavior or panic attacks”.

Isaiah’s day is filled with these “episodes”. Isaiah has anxiety about just about everything. He tries to remedy his anxiety by figuring out the plan for that day or that week or that specific date in the future. He is very in tune with dates and days of the week. He will tell me… today is “Monday October 10th”. He probably will repeat it multiple times. He will then tell me the name of his school, “_______ Elementary”. I respond to his repetitions, “yes Isaiah, Today is Monday and you are going to school”. I’ll even do it ten times. And usually that’s a minimum. That’s really not a huge problem. He likes the affirmation and it’s comforting to him.

Sometimes he gets mixed up. For example. October 1st came around he he tells me “trick or treat!!!”. No Isaiah, not today. October 31st is Halloween. We will go trick or treating on October thirty one. He takes that well, we will talk about in daily until Halloween but that’s ok. Everyday, for thirty days. I can handle that.

But often, it’s not that easy. Isaiah will repeat something over and over and over again that he wants that it’s just not time for. He wants to do everything in his life really really fast. Isaiah is all about routine. If it weren’t for me…. Isaiah would get up at 4am eat breakfast at 4:10, got to school at 4:15am, come home and have his iPad, go on a walk, eat dinner at noon, take a shower at 12:30pm and be in bed for the NIGHT at 1pm. Of course, that’s not how life works. I spend my entire time with him going over what we are going to do and at what time we are going to do them even when he wants to do all those things but much faster. In real life, there is “down time”. Not every second of every day has a “to do”. Some things go longer and some things go quickly, some things get cancelled, some days it rains, sometimes there’s a hurricane. Life is unpredictable. It actually is OFTEN unpredictable. Especially with a family of six. Isaiah hates to wait. Isaiah loves to do all the things he does in a day but he just wants to get through them extremely fast. Sometimes, he can tolerate the prolonging of time. Other times, he can’t. After dinner, he will beg and beg and beg for a shower. I’ll finally cave, earlier than our normal 6:30pm time. He will run to the shower, stand in the for 20 seconds and come out and be done. Hours of pleading for a 20 second activity. Sometimes, it’s tough. I have to be strong, stand my ground, and force him to wait. It’s for his good. I simply, won’t allow him to go to bed at 6:31pm. Not all days are this hard but many are.

I’ve noticed that Isaiah’s anxiety affects other people too. His constant nagging is annoying, it’s actually infuriating. I cringe when people respond with “OK FINE!!”. I know it’s hard to be nagged and to not have the person accept, “hold on…. Not yet…. Almost”. It’s still hard for me to not get angry and I’ve had years of practice! With children, “no means no”. If Silas comes up and asks me to go outside and I say “sure, after we are done with lunch”…. I expect him to accept it and not ask me again. And he does just that! Because he knows that he must obey and he really doesn’t have a problem with waiting until after lunch. Autistic anxiety is a whole new ball game. I hate it for him. He has a hard time enjoying things that he loves. He begs to go swimming and then he begs to go home after being at the pool for 5 minutes. He begs to go to church and then he begs for the iPad when we are there. I do my best to distract him so that he begs less but ultimately, he usually does not get get his way when he wants it.

So what do I do? I use a variety of tools to help me help Isaiah. First of all, his doctor recommended magnesium. So I give him a magnesium gummy in the morning. I also give him four drops of a “natural stress relief for kids” concoction that a friend told me about. Do these things help? I really don’t know. Maybe? I also show him calendars, set times, show him the clock, repeat schedules, keep things as consistent as possible. And on a day to day basis, these things are helpful. Probably the most helpful thing is when I patiently and calmly tell him the plan as many times as he needs me to. I don’t give in, I stand my ground but I do it calmly without showing anger. Isaiah tends to respond well to that. If Isaiah wakes up at 4:40am (like he did today). I go to him and remind him that he needs to go back to sleep until the green light turns on and it’s 6:30am. I also give him melatonin. I didn’t give in, I quickly reminded him the plan, gave him something to help him and went back to sleep. Today it worked. We’ll see about tomorrow.

Some weeks, I feel like I can’t take it. I feel like Isaiah can’t enjoy his day to day life because his anxiety is so high. I contemplate a prescription medication. I often feel one phone call away from going that route. But some days, it’s not so bad. So here I am… hanging in there and hoping for a chill day from a boy who has ZERO CHILL.

Thanks for reading!

Catch Up Time

Well hello there old friends! Did you know that it’s been almost 2 YEARS since I posted on my blog? It’s funny, my last blog post was posted about a month before my 4th child was born. I guess having FOUR kids will make me a little busy…. Or crazy. 🤪🤪 Anyways, it’s time. I would like to thank fellow authors of some recent books that I have read. These authors have persuaded me to write again. And who knows….. maybe I’ll be able to compile all these blog posts into a book that people may actually want to read. Wouldn’t that be wild?! Thank you Katie Blackburn, mother of 6 with one of those six with autism. Thank you Andrew and Rachel Wilson, parents of two on the spectrum. Thank you Carrie Cariello, mother of five, one of those with Autism. Thank you Kate Swenson, mother of four, one who has autism.

So the real question here is…. How’s Isaiah? Is he better? Is autism gone? Or is he normal now? Has he improved?

Well, the answer to that is complicated. He’s older. Some things are “better” and some things are “easier”. But, things are still hard and Isaiah is still pretty much Isaiah. I guess you will just have to stayed tune and keep checking for updates on Isaiah for all the juicy details. 😉

I will say this, Isaiah is handsome and his one liners make me laugh sometimes. He’s 10 years old. He’s in fourth grade. He goes to a public school in a special needs classroom that has about 8 children and three teachers. He still loves puzzles. He does 300 piece puzzles now. He loves Encanto!!! He still looooves to climb trees. He loves dessert after dinner. He loves taking a shower. He only sleeps in his underwear now 🙄. His clock lights up green at 6:30am and tells him he can get out of bed. And sometimes, he does that. He loves a plain bagel toasted with butter and strawberries and blueberries for breakfast. Everyday. Except Saturday when Mama makes cinnamon rolls and bacon 😋 He still loves the beach, and boogie boarding. He loves the science center. He loves ice cream and more recently, crumbl cookie. He LOVES to hang and swing on the pull up bar. He likes to sit in the front passenger seat of our SUV. Most of the time, he’s told to sit in the third row, sorry bud. He still loves vacation, hotels, and hiking. And he looooves the boat and tubing and this past summer, he grew very fond of knee boarding 🤩🤩.

He requires a lot of patience. But, I love him. ❤️

🦃 November Update 🦃

Hey guys! November brought on some cooler weather and different routines! Thanks for reading!

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• Isaiah is doing well in school and really this past month hasn’t been too difficult for him. His daily routine is pretty much the same but now that there isn’t any more pool time, we have been going on walks and playing at the playground on a daily basis. Both boys need a lot of physical activity so I’m doing the best I can with this growing bump of mine! Isaiah loves to push my poking out belly button but I keep telling him that there is a baby in here and it’s a girl.
  * Thanksgiving break was spent going to lots of parks and playing outside. We had the best weather! I could tell that he was getting a little bored though with the same thing to do everyday. Makes me a little nervous about Christmas break coming up in just two weeks. 😬 Overall, he did really well with thanksgiving day. We had about 20 people over and although he had a hard time sitting still and eating his food, ultimately he found things to do inside and watched tv.
  * I took the bigs roller skating for the FIRST TIME EVER. Isaiah shocked me with how much he enjoyed it. For his first time ever trying, he did really really good! (Even better than Trinity who has ice skated several times prior). I definitely old take him again. We stayed for 2 hours plus and he kept at it! I know the flashing lights were also very stimulating to him.
  *Isaiah still loves SeaWorld. And he still loves the roller coasters in Sesame Street. He’s not quite tall enough for the bigger roller coasters but we plan to make him try them when he can. I think he will love it once he gets over his initial fear of heights.
  * he has had a loose tooth since October. It’s not ready to come out yet though and I have told him that maybe in January we will pull it out. He reminds me of this promise everyday 🤦🏻‍♀️😂 “in January, tooth come out”….. I sure hope it’s ready in a month! 😳 He also asks to go to grandmas house everyday. Well, I told him the exact date that we plan to go and now he tells me everyday when we are going to grandmas house. There are many Isaiah-isms that we use around the house and joke about. He’s precious but still naughty 😜.
  Some cute pics! Thanks for reading ❤️
  

🎉 September Update 🎉

• Hey guys! WordPress has changed so much since my last blog post, it’s taking me a long time to figure out how to type words and upload pictures onto the post. 🤦🏻‍♀️ So in this post, I hope to remember how Isaiah’s school year has started off and how Isaiah is adjusting to the new school/home schedule.
• Isaiah has a new teacher or teachers I should say. From my understanding, there are three kids total in his classroom with one teacher. Then, a different teacher takes over in the afternoon. It appears as though Isaiah’s academic lessons, reading, math, and language are 30 minute sessions that are one-on-one with the instructor and take place before noon. Mornings are better for Isaiah, he has better focus and less hyperactivity. Looks like that Isaiah is struggling to retain material and as a result, he is going at a much slower rate in his lessons. This isn’t all bad, his teachers are focusing on retention. They are even wanting to change his Math curriculum that he is doing to “Touch Math”. I like that “Touch Math” uses material that he can actual touch to learn. My hope is that Isaiah will continue to work hard and be pushed to do hard things.
• I took Isaiah off his medication several months ago. He wasn’t sleeping well at night, he would be awake for several hours in the middle of the night. He’s not having this problem anymore thankfully. He’s consistently sleeping from about 7:45 to about 6 or 6:30. Sometimes he does wake up around midnight to pee. Side note, I would also like Isaiah to say “bathroom” instead of “go potty”. Changing that habit seems impossible at the moment lol. At home, Isaiah has trouble sitting still, not jumping constantly, constantly putting something in his mouth, and doing an activity for longer than 5 minutes. I am hoping that with constant correction and redirection, Isaiah will learn to submit and settle down.
• He hates to be corrected. He gets really worried when i rebuke him and sternly tell him “no” or “that’s bad” or “don’t do that again”. He says “say I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” Which, is really a pretty good response to getting a strong rebuke. But, if I don’t say “I forgive you” and continue on in my correcting him….. he says it again. Louder. Sometimes, it’s hard for me to forgive him because his disobedience is so great and I feel so disgusted with it. So then he panics, stares me in the eyes, worried look all over his face, and starts yelling “SAY IM SORRY. PLEASE FORGIVE ME”…. it’s hard not to laugh at that point. But, yes I forgive him and he settles down.
• He still gets pretty high anxiety over his OCD type things. He tells me to turn a different way in the car even though he knows that’s not where we are going. He wants “what’s in the Bible Christmas” dvd after school everyday. And everyday it’s “no”. I’m simply not ok with him watching the same thing everyday. I will fight to change up his routine. He gets over it. As long as I am firm from the beginning and don’t give in to his manipulation. He eventually sees its futile and that Mama won’t back down and he will settle to watch something else.
• Isaiah turned 8 on September 17th!! 🎉 🎉 I think he will now say “8” when asked how old he is. He took to the idea of his “birthday” a lot better this year, he really enjoyed his cake, presents, and singing to him. We then celebrated with an overnight hotel stay in Orlando that had basically a water park open for us to use for two days. Isaiah enjoyed the slides and hot tub. He wanted to stay longer and sleep at the hotel another night. It’s really nice to see Isaiah actually have an opinion and really want something that isn’t a repetitive stim behavior.
• Chase has pulled out another couple of teeth making it a total of 6 teeth lost in about 1 year. Isaiah looooves to get his teeth pulled out. He frequently asks us to get a “towel” and “pull out teeth”… even when they aren’t loose 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣.
• His recent loves include: playing on a large floatable in the pool, getting into a hot hot tub, playing on our playground across the street, going on hikes, “towel spankings” (when Chase whips a towel at a stuffed animal) 🤷🏻‍♀️😅, What’s in the Bible Christmas, going to a local playground before school, chewing gum, skateboarding (I think I’m gonna get him a scooter for Christmas). We switched over from the storybook Bible to “The Action Bible” and Isaiah is slowly getting used to us reading that Bible to the kids every night. He has struggled with the switch but it’s getting better and he is more accepting of it now.
• Isaiah adjusted well to Mama and Papa being gone for 4 days on a trip. Chase’s parents were here to take care of the kids and Isaiah still went to school and had a pretty “normal” routine. He was even asking for them when we came back and they had left lol.

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Some highlights from August/September

Thank you for reading! ❤️

🍎 August Update 🍎 (Part 1)

Haaaaaloooooooo! Woooooow!

It’s been a looooong time since I have been able to update  Isaiah’s blog. So sad, because I know I will not be able to remember everything that has happened or how Isaiah has been these last 6 months. 6 months 😱. I’ve decided that August is going to be a two part series because oh. my…. so much has changed in our life this past year that it is overwhelming! I literally haven’t had a free hour to sit down and write a blog post without knowing I had more important things to do. But. Guess. What. Today is the first day that both Trinity AND Isaiah are physically in a school building… since MARCH 12. Today is August 17. I think the time period since March 12 until Augustish was in my top 5 “difficult seasons”. It was HARD! So what happened?! Well, COVID happened…. school shut down, we stayed home because everything was closed, Chase worked from home full time, church cancelled, vacation cancelled, everything on the calendar cancelled, looked for homes,  we moved into a new house, we rented our previous home, I got pregnant (yay!), and 8 weeks of intense nausea (nooo). Wow 😳 

In this post, I wanted to talk mostly about how no school or out of the house activities affected Isaiah from Mid March – beginning of June

• On March 13, 2020; spring break started for both Isaiah and Trinity. No biggie. But, the uncertainty of if it would be an extended spring break was definitely already there. School across the nation were already closing down in the beginning of March due to the rise in COVID 19 cases. I started to watch closely as things became more and more uncertain. Poor Isaiah, I didn’t know what to tell him when schools extended spring break until March 30th. Sorry buddy, “people are sick” so “school is closed” is what I would tell him. I was seriously praying that after two weeks of no school, school would reopen. Nope. Then came April and school was still extending the closure. Then, “Online school” started. The days of trying to get Trinity doing her online kindergarten work (that was assigned and decided by someone else) and getting Isaiah to be socially interactive on an app called “zoom” where he had to pretend like a person was right in front of him teaching AND wrestling a 15 month old AT THE EXACT SAME TIME while “being quiet” because my husband was working from our master bathroom in our 1400sq ft home.  Every day, I thought to myself… “I don’t know how I’m going to do this again tomorrow”. I have never in my life been so stretched and demanded upon. Not even in college, juggling 5 classes. 

• Isaiah did not thrive in “zoom” lessons. I had to physically sit next to him and repeat everything that the instructor said. There were so many distractions… baby fussing, lag in the zoom, sessions cancelled, inconsistency, lack of materials, lack of focus. Isaiah does not respond to a computer screen. Period. For him, it is NOT a substitute. I was so sad for him. We make so many sacrifices for him to be able to attend a private school that specializes in children with autism using ABA therapy techniques and it was ripped out of his life without any warning. There was no music class that he loved. No art class. No “peer to peer” interaction. No social skills being practiced. No way to be able to hold the American flag during the Pledge of Allegiance… Well let me just stop there. I think you get the picture.

• So, I pretty much did all the lessons with him. Then school was cancelled for all of May. I counted down the days until I no longer had to homeschool. Finally, both kids finished their online schooling on Thursday May 21.

• Then we started to participate a little more in life. I was finally able to take control of my schedule and no be forced to comply to the online school schedule. Playgrounds started reopening. So we went on daily outings of either a long walk at a park or a playground or someone’s pool. Isaiah so desperately needed to be out of the house and doing much more physical activity.
  

• Screen time had increased drastically because of this economic shutdown. Isaiah was in bad shape. Meltdowns daily. Disobedience. Anxiety through the roof. Always wanting to know what we were going to do. Always getting an answer of “stay home”. Everyday was a struggle. Super hyper active. Poor participation in his zoom lessons. Not saying the correct answer when I knew he knew. Always begging for his iPad. And me not having enough arms or strength to give him constant one on one attention… he got the iPad. A lot. His communication decreased. Progress was halted. And I had to no way to prepare and nobody to help.
  

It took him 6 months to get used to it.

• Church also shut down for about two months. Not going to church and tuning in online was very difficult for Isaiah. Oh how he missed his old life. He missed the routine of going to church. Unfortunately, because we had no childcare, church was on the tv but about as effective for our family as zoom academic sessions are for Isaiah. 😐 Rough times. On June 7th, we all went back to church as a family after I think it was 8 weeks of no childcare.
  

Things were finally starting to look a little brighter. Thank you for reading!
Check out those lost teeth finally! 4 teeth fell out this summer, that was a riot. Isaiah still hands me a towel and says “pull out teeth” 😝. Chase was the one who did the yanking this summer. 

to be continued with June, July, August… 

🍁November Update🍁

Hey guys! Some highlights from this past month include; thanksgiving break, SeaWorld, and school.

• In school, Isaiah still has incidents with PICA, especially with crayons and pencils. He really excels in his academic curriculum when he is one on one with the instructor. I have noticed that his teachers are trying to give that to him more often.  He has some good goals in place for this next quarter in school but because problem behaviors are dealt with frequently, progress isn’t made quite as fast.
• We took a few days in South Florida over Thanksgiving break. Isaiah enjoyed playing in the pool and hot tub all day. The weather was beautiful and warm. We took daily walks on the beach. Overall, Isaiah did pretty well. There were a few instances of extreme difficulty. He didn’t sleep well the first night and was up for 2 hrs in the middle of the night but he slept straight through the night the second evening. He didn’t do well at a Japanese steakhouse one evening for dinner, he just couldn’t wait and enjoy the “show”. I’m glad we went, it was a much needed break from the normal everyday routine. It’s so good for him to change things up. And it refreshes me to continue on with the normal everyday routine.
• Thanksgiving was hard. We went to a another families house and I brought a backpack of activities to keep him busy. He refused to do any of them and just wanted his iPad or my phone the entire time. I refused to give it to him…we lasted a couple hours and then we went home. He didn’t get his screen time when we got home because he did so poorly when we were out. That was a rough day. Holidays can be hard though. Trinity had fun ❤️
• Much of the first half of November, I was occupied with Trinity. She had pneumonia for about two weeks. A fever for 9 days, two trips to the doctor, several missed days of school, lots of medicine, and lots of care. Thankfully nobody else received the same illness as her. I think Isaiah developed a minor cold after thanksgiving break and still has a random dry cough here and there.
• So far, wearing socks and shoes and jackets because it’s “cold outside” doesn’t seem to bother him as much this year. He’s got another loose tooth on the bottom. He’s getting so tall 😍
• We got annual passes to seaworld and we went (for the first time in a few years) on Saturday for my birthday. Isaiah loooooved the roller coaster in Sesame Street and he loved the dolphin and whale shows. He loves to see the animals do flips and tricks. I look forward to taking Isaiah frequently. This is something we can all do as a family with minimal meltdowns and lots of fun. ❤️
• Isaiah currently loves…. StoryBots, our trampoline, s’mores by the fire, listening to Christmas music, taking baths with Silas, reading the Bible before bed, strawberries and blueberries and whipped cream for breakfast, taking sips of my coffee, hiking, and playing at a playground.
• Thanksgiving is a time to think about what I’m thankful for…. I am soooo thankful for childcare help. The help that I have with childcare is school. Public and private… I am soooo thankful for the help. School is life changing. For me and for him. The longer we have it, the more I see how needful it really is. Praise God for the ability to send my children to school. What an immense blessing.

Thanks for reading! I listed to this podcast this week and I can’t recommend it enough.

https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/5/3/2/532cf2ac91e083da/Special_Needs_Roundtable_2_-_Final_-_12319_9.38_PM.mp3?c_id=59093858&forcedn=attachment&cs_id=59093858&destination_id=338076&expiration=1575655490&hwt=7d727ce8834216bb58f83066642e3c63

Amen.

 

 

 

October update 🎃

Hey guys! Well, I have intentionally put off writing an update about Isaiah. Things are just hard. He’s got PICA issues and “getting out of his seat and jumping around” issues at school. Outside of school, if he doesn’t follow the same routine as a school day then it’s just one meltdown after another. It’s difficult when you can’t leave your 7 year old alone in another room even for 5 minutes without him jumping off the walls or doing something he’s not supposed to be doing. Sunday’s… a day when we try to act like a normal family and go to church and then go to some sort of event like a fellowship or church meeting or something… are the most difficult day of the week for Chase and I. May the Lord God give us the strength to endure these difficulties because I know without the Holy Spirit…. Id be a mess All. The. Time.

So in other news…

• Isaiah got an MRI with anesthesia this month to rule out any possible brain abnormalities. With much prayer, Isaiah did great that day! Results were all normal. I’m not really sure if this is good or bad news at this point.
• Isaiah super enjoyed going trick or treating and “trunk or treating” at Trinity’s school. He practiced at school with his class and can say “trick or treat” clearly. The boy looooves candy. He choose starburst and skittles EVERY time 😂
• The time change has been a bit tricky. He is suuuuuper tired by the time it’s 6:30 but we hold him off until 7:30. He is definitely waking up earlier than 6:30am… he hasn’t adjusted yet. Neither has Silas. I think Trinity is the only one really.
• Isaiah loves to play Candyland, makes s’mores in the backyard fire pit, go on walks to see the “ducks”, watch “umizoomi” or “Daniel tiger”, catch frogs, jump of the trampoline, wrestle with Papa, take baths with Silas, and listen to veggie tales worship music and “seeds family worship”. Oh man, it is soooo sweet how he can sing “Amazing Grace” and “Hosanna” and “This Little Light of Mine”. He also loves going to the zoo, feeding the animals, and playing in the splash pad.

Thanks for reading!

 

August Update

Hey guys! August was a fresh start to a new school year. Here’s what’s new in August.

• Isaiah was beyond ready to start his second year at his school. He has the same teacher but the assistant teacher is not the same. He misses the assistant teacher terribly and asks for her often 😢. Isaiah is doing well in school and chugging along in his curriculum. He did some review from last year and then continued on from where he left off in May. He loves the consistency and routine of school. He was introduced to “go noodle” at school which have a bunch of short videos to get kids moving. Isaiah loves the group called “Koo Koo Kangaroo” and particularly loves a couple of their songs. “Pop see ko” and “Rollercoaster” are his favorite and he can sing them really well! He also likes a “classroom rules” song that he teacher plays and he knows all the words 🤣. It is sooooo cute to hear him sing!!
• Isaiah has his first loose tooth! Finally…. he’ll be 7 in a week! I hope to protect his new teeth from getting grinded down so much 🤦🏻‍♀️.
• Isaiah can write his name pretty well. Below is a picture of how he independently wrote his name with chalk at Crayola Experience before school started on August 8th.
• Sleep!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy better. I now give him 1.5mg of a time release melatonin that he swallows with water about 10 minutes before bed. Some of the melatonin dissolves instantly and the rest dissolves slowly over time. 7:30pm – 6:30am is happening consistently with no waking up during the night. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 And he is so recharged in the morning! So alert and using his words and so calm.
• Screen time. Still limited to 30 minutes of iPad time after school. I know he gets 30 minutes of computer at school too. But shorter sessions a couple times a day are better for him than loooong sessions. He enjoys swimming in the backyard and going on evening walks daily. He still begs to read the Bible before bed every night. He keeps himself busy with his puzzles here and there and his animal figurines and he has enjoyed playing with a leapfrog writing toy. He does well tracing the letters and numbers.
• Skateboarding. Isaiah looooves to skateboard with his Papa. He asks to skateboard all the time and he’s pretty good at it!

Thanks for reading!