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!

Healing and Speech

So.. Benji's stitches have been healing... He doesn't like it too much, they apparently itch. On close inspection we can only feel one. Not bad considering it's day 7. When Britt had hers it too 10 days. It looks like he might have a scar. And he does still says it "urts". We aren't sure if it's a word he is using because he gets attention or if it's because it really hurts.

So, that was that excitement.

I took pictures this weekend with the 35mm so, when I get them developed I will add. I prefer the quality of the 35, but the accessibility of digital... What's a girl to do?

There was the Football games on Saturday. We went to East Hickman, essentially Lyles, TN. It was about a 45 minute drive. Aside from no cell service and a creek that the boys were begging to go in, things were good. We brought the play pen for Benji, and realized that he's too big and can easily climb out of it. But it wasn't that bad and we were able to convince him to stay in with crayons. The Pee Wees and Minors lost badly, but our Majors won! (Britt and Kimmie cheer for the Majors.)

Sunday we had church and then went to the store. That wiped out our day. Benji really enjoys the nursery at DFA. It is outright amazing that I don't have to fight with him to stay. He enjoys it and is always ready to go. The rest of the kids enjoy it too, with Kimmie being a little angsty. She's nearly 13 though so I chalk it up to the age.

Monday we had a cookout with Nana and Papa. It was very fun and enjoyable. Benji and his brothers played very well and at one point Benji had gotten one of the girls' old Barbie computer and was showing Papa how to use it. I have a picture I will share once developed.

Tuesday we had speech. Britt went with us to figure out what was going on with her. I have always noticed some sort of slur when she was tired or speaking quietly but then when reading out loud it corrected most of the time. So while Benji eagerly ran into the speech room with Ms Laura, we stayed in the main room with Ms Kathleen. After maybe 5 minutes, Kathleen figured out that it was the shape of Britt's mouth.As she matures and gets the rest of her permanent teeth it may fully correct on it's own. She can how ever articulate correctly when it is needed so there is not really anything that we need to do at this time.

Back to Benji, he really enjoyed speech today. Kathleen's daughter was there because we had no school today being a in service day and he warmed up to her quickly. After a slow and quiet start, Benji started using many words.

Words:: uh-oh, mine, my turn, this, ball, momma, here, oh-no, Brittany, off, out, go, bye, see ya, yeah, no, meow, done, let's go

So... we are progressing... slowly but positively.

A rather eventful week.

Actually not really. This week has been a good one. (Which I know it's been awhile since I have updated and I really need to get on it.) Monday Benji had speech for the full hour and he did really good. Many spontaneous words and he is also using signs. Tuesday was a day of relaxation. Wednesday, Micah's preschool teacher and assistant came over for a home visit. (School starts September 10th for him) Then the fun begins.

Wednesday evening we went to church at DFA, we've been going for about a month and this was our 2nd Wednesday night. Jeff had gotten Benji from the nursery while me and mom were talking with a few other people. While we were talking Benji was being cute, trying out pews. Then Jeff tried to catch him before he took off but was too late. Benji took off running and ran smack into the pew. To the best of our ability we believe he smacked his head on the communion cup holder. Still we didn't realize what had happened. Jeff got to him and he was laying face down with his hands up to his head, sorta crying. Then Jeff saw the blood and said uh-oh. I ran over there and as Jeff got Benji up blood started pouring down his face.

So, we had a mild heart attack.... several ladies and a few men gathered around our crying little guy and Wes went and got an ice pack. The prayer calmed Benji (and us) and the ice started to slow the bleeding. We decided he needed to get stitches and headed in to Vanderbilt Childrens.

Did I mention that during service we had prayed for rain?

About the time we got in to Cheatham county it was raining. Not too bad, but it was raining. Then we got into Davidson county, all of a sudden the bottom let out and there was a gullywasher. Driving a rear wheel vehicle on flooded roads is not fun. Add to that I have never had a rear wheel vehicle until we were blessed with the Expedition. So I made it with many "Jesus take the wheel" type prayers. I had made the brilliant decision to get on the interstate to skip the street lights and all... That was a close call I don't want to relive.

Got to the hospital (I forgot to mention I called the triage line ahead to let them know we were coming.) Dropped Jeff off with Benji and went to park. By the time I got there they had him in the triage room assessing him. My only complaint there is we had told them that Benji was a heart baby and they didn't believe us. That is until they pulled up his records.

Long story short we had to wait 2 hours in the waiting room, nearly and then when we were called back they put the numbing gel on his head and we had to wait another hour. By the time we had gone back, Benji was very tired and had fallen asleep right after the gel was put on.

As you can see in the picture, he wasn't distressed really at all and I contribute that to the prayers. The wound went from when we first cleaned to thinking we could see the skull to by the time the doctor cleaned it that it don't really look that deep.

So that's through Wednesday. WE left the hospital I think around 1am... with the incident happening at 8:20pm. God is good... Benji might have a slight scar from it, but all and all he's fine. It's sore and bruised, but I have been keeping a clean and dry bandaid on it. I know the nurse said to leave it uncovered, but when we tried that Benji started picking at the stitches. So, hopefully the stitches will dissolve in a few days and all will be well.