Reflections of 2007

This last year was a ride. God has brought us through much.

In January last year, the developmental testing on Benji came back poorly. Benji's communication skills were more than 40% delayed. His gross motor skills were delayed, just all around the results were bad. We did take into consideration that it was an updated test and it was the first time Benji was evaluated on it. We couldn't deny though that Benji wasn't communicating and was getting frustrated and overwhelmed.

March is when we discovered that Benji loves silky fabrics. He stole a night gown from me until we went to Wal-mart and bought a yard of satin. He loves his silky and is rarely seen without it nearby. His 2 yr check up put him at 36 inches and 28 pounds. This month also found the little guy exploring. He was caught in the dryer and also caught on Papa's ATV.

In May Benji had is heart check up. Things seem to be staying the same at this point but Benji wouldn't really cooperate enough to get complete readings. There was minimal change though in the readings that Dr. Hermo did get.

Summer brought speech evaluation, the spring fling, the pool, and more. Mrs. Kathleen at NHC did Benji's speech eval. It came back that Benji was at the age level of a 14 month old. (He was 28 months at the time) So he started speech. Benji enjoyed the annual spring fling at the fair grounds with the rides and such. The kicker was that we discovered Mr. Benji LOVES the swimming pool. He loves getting in the water and playing and splashing and hanging out on the floats. Also during the summer we had the reading challenge at the local library. The kids enjoyed this but especially Benji. He still won't sit through and entire book reading, but he likes stories.

August brought Benji's first trip to the ER. He smacked into the church pew and gouged a chunk out of his forehead. First thing we did after applying pressure was pray for the little guy. We then took him into Children's. He was so calm and actually slept through the stitches. He has a scar but it's not that bad.

September we started going to storytime at the library. Benji enjoyed it but he had alot of problems staying still and listening. We only went a couple weeks. We also got used to the new nursery at church. Benji really likes it and enjoys going. Made us greatful we changed churches. It's a big difference when your spiritual side is being fed fresh food.

October was busy with going to the circus and playdates and having a cookie day. While Benji did well we did notice a bit of overwhelming sensory stuff. Thankfully we were able to keep it in check.

November brought more questions than answers. Benji had his heart check up, his developmental eval and turkey day. With his heart check up we got the praise of he is stable. The valve and stenosis has been unchanged so we don't have to worry too much about surgery right now. The developmental eval gave us more questions than answers in that they recognize that something is going on, but he doesn't match the typical things. He doesn't qualify under Asperger Syndrome due to the speech delay and he don't qualify under PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) because he gives eye contact. So... we still don't know what is going on.

December brought us a major scare with Benji. Dec 8th Benji went into seizures and we went by ambulance to the ER. We thought we were going to lose him. Instead God has blessed us. He is suddenly talking much more, after about a week of coordination problems he is alot more stable, and the last week or so he's been wanting to go potty... on his terms of course. Through blood work and such they diagnosed Benji with Ketotic Hypoglycemia. It is a diagnosis of exclusion. Otherwise because it isn't anything else, they diagnose the Ketotic. We've had no more episodes of low sugar, but the doctor thinks it was because Benji had alot of congestion and didn't eat very well the night before the episode.

Christmas went well even though Benji did get overwhelmed with everything. He had three meltdowns the month of December. 2 in Walmart and 1 at home. They were full blown meltdowns too... worrisome but manageable. Just wish that people were more understanding.

So on to 2008!

Busy Day

So, our Wednesday was a very busy day. We started off by going to speech and working on 'yes' or 'sure'. We are also pushing the beginning sounds of the words. Benji likes to ignore them and still expect us to know what he is saying. =]

After speech we decided to go to storytime at the public library. We got there a little early, so Benji kept himself busy while I picked out a couple books for him. (This Old Man: the counting song, Trupp: a fuzzhead tale, & Hush, little ones)

Once storytime started, Benji wasn't sure what to do. He did not want to sit still. And then there was alot of things to distract him in the room. Which he made sure to investigate.

Story time had things we didn't expect but made it all the better. The librarian read two books. (I think they were Figaro and then Grandma's Cat) The letter of the day was C. There were also a small show and tell where some of the kids brought things that started with C, like a cookie, can strainer, cake pan, costume, and clownfish. We will have to make sure to bring something with a D next week.

During the story time, Benji did start rocking while I was holding him. I am not sure if it was just he wanted down or the stimulation got to him. He did seem a bit glassy eyed.

After the reading they played music. It was a cow song, because it started with a C... LOL. They did sorta like a line dance and Benji had a blast. He absolutely LOVED it.

After the line dancing, the kids got coloring sheets featuring things that start with C. I really like the way storytime is set up. It's an actual learning time not just sit and listen and drive your mom crazy time. =]

So Benji colored and colored. And then he colored some more. He actually went back and forth between coloring and dancing for several minutes. It was so cute. After coloring they played a game that was a cross between mother may I and simon says. Hard to explain. Benji enjoyed mimicking the other kids. He was the youngest one there save one little girl that was only a month younger. She was able to do so much more than Benji. It's hard to realize that Benji has definite delays until we get around other children his age.

Anyhow, while we were attempting to leave the library Benji found the reading room and it had a couch in it like Nana's. So he decided he had to go see Nana... and we did. He got lunch at McD's first though. Chicken Nuggets and Fries with sweet tea. (We are southern ya know) At Nana's he played and had fun and gave hugs and seemed to come out of his hyperness. We left Nana's about 2:20p and by the time I got half a mile from her house he was dead to the world.

Once home he slept until about 5 and was grouchy when he woke up, but it quickly changed once we got dinner and then went to church. He loves his church. It is so cute.

But that was our Wednesday.

Rompin' Stompin' Reading Roundup

So... today was a busy day. This morning we went to the library and signed everybody up for the summer reading program.
Benji got to pick out 5 books for us to read to him. He really enjoyed the kids area alot. There was a train table similar to his wooden Thomas trains and then there were computers.

Both Micah and Benji were very interested in the computers that were there. Benji was almost too excited...... LOL Micah played the games a little bit, Benji just wanted to hit on the keyboard.

So... we do plan on visiting the library at least weekly. The boys were also excited that they got library cards with their names on them. =]

Books that Benji(28 months) Checked out:
Let's Look at Mouths by Simona Sideri
Colors and Shapes Everywhere (Caillou, Concept Book)
Like a Windy Day by Frank Asch & Devin Asch
Little Yau: A Fuzzhead Tale by Janell Cannon
Pinduli by Janell Cannon


Books that Micah(46 months) Checked Out:
Scoop Saves the Day by Diane Redmond
Space Case by Kim Yaged
The BIRD Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
Transformers Energon: Terrorcon Attack by Andrew Donkin
Transformers Energon: Megatron Returns by Andrew Donkin