Eli is FOUR

Eli turned 4 on March 20th. We celebrated on his actual birthday with the many various life activities that were already on the schedule. Isaac had a track meet, Eli had a soccer game and afterwards we went to eat at Eli's choice restaurant, Nopoles, with both sets of grandparents.

Last year I started asking him a list of questions so this year I continued the tradition.

Eli's interview:

1. What is your favorite color?red

2. What is your favorite toy?l Lightening McQueen car

3. What is your favorite fruit? Blueberries and strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? Paw Patrol

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Spegettios

6. What is your favorite outfit? Lightening McQueen shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Deer hunter on Ipad

8. What is your favorite snack? Bananas and peanut butter and a sandwich

9. What is your favorite animal? Lion and alligator

10. What is your favorite song? Let it Go from Frozen

11. What is your favorite book? Llama llama

12. Who is your best friend? Carter

13. What is your favorite cereal? Apple Jacks

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike and my four wheeler

15. What is your favorite drink? Milk and juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? My blue blanket

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Oatmeal

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Nopoles the Mexican restaurant

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A BIG Giant MAN!  I want the same work as Dad and work on the computer.

4 Year old Stats:
42 lbs and 42 inches (90% for both)

Eli is so very funny and sweet. He says things like, "You are the best Mom" all the time and likes to give compliments. He loves to wrestle with Isaac and play with Olivia. He is a good brother and will hold Olivia's hand as she walks down and up the steps (even though she doesn't need him to), bring her things, and most of the time is a really good sharer. He makes an absolute mess very easily but likes to help me as well. He likes to cook and especially make muffins. Eli's favorite things to do are to play outside in the sand pile (which is mason sand left over from our pool project), ride his bike and ride his red four wheeler. He enjoys playing our iphones and the iPad as well. I had to take the app store off my phone because he keeps downloading apps.

Eli is playing soccer and made a goal the last game.. even though he touched it with his hands before he kicked it in! Last year he would barely get out on the field so anything is an improvement. He says he wants to be five already and I said NO WAY! You just enjoy being four. Soon enough you will be five and have to to go school every single day. They change so much when they start school.. babyhood is gone and they seem to turn into big kids overnight. I pulled him out of pre-school in December because his schedule just didn't work with my work schedule and I've not regretted it one bit. He will go back next year to the 4 year old class.

We don't do much sit down educational work at home because frankly I forget and we get busy with other things, however it doesn't seem to be hindering Eli. He isn't big on writing and coloring but he does like to do his 'school work' and cut paper into tiny pieces or get out the paint and make a huge mess. He can write his name but it is not neat or orderly. He is interested in reading and letters and likes to try to sound out words. He can rhyme and blend CVC words pretty well. He likes to type on the computer and can write words as I tell him the letters to type. He knows how to tell o'clock time (aka.. 6 o'clock) on a regular clock from reading a book about it once. He really is super smart and grabs ahold of things very quickly.

Last nap as a 3 year old :(

Morning birthday breakfast. He requested: oatmeal, fried egg, apples and peanut butter, and a bologna sandwich!

Ready for soccer

  

Nana and the grands

Mawmaw got Eli the boat he has been wanting!

Birthday dinner at Nopoles

Time for a Hearing Check!

This is the longest we've been between hearing evaluations... six months! I really wasn't concerned this time because I feel pretty confident about being able to tell what she is able to hear. However, I always have a small bit of anxiety because there's always a possibility that her hearing can change.

Olivia's audiologist is wonderful and I never have to wonder if we are getting a reliable audiogram, so for that peace of mind it's worth the 3 hour drive! After a clear middle ear check, we started testing in the booth. Our audiologist was able to get a complete audiogram as well as speech recognition threshold testing. She was pretty amazed that Olivia knew enough vocabulary and was able to do the speech recognition testing at a mere 21 months old! Olivia was presented with pictures and had to listen as her audiologist presented the words at different levels.. this allowed the audiologist tell what level Olivia is comprehending speech. During pure tone testing, Olivia did great. She just turned and waved at the animals like a pro. They were super impressed with her vocabulary and her testing ability. We also practiced play audiometry which she will do the next time we go for an evaluation. This is where she is conditioned to listen and put a block in the box when she hears the sound. Eventually she will get where she can raise her hand when she hears the tones. 

Olivia's hearing continues to be stable.. her loss slopes down as frequencies get higher. Her speech recognition thresholds were 45 dB in the right ear and 50 dB in the left ear unaided. For a reference, conversational speech is around 55-60 dB. Even when she doesn't have her hearing aids in she understands a lot of what you tell her. 

After her hearing testing we met with Hannah, Olivia's SLP/Auditory Verbal Therapist. Hannah did a new language evaluation, the PLS-5 (Pre-school Language Scale) to see how Olivia is progressing.  Here are her new scores! 

	Standard Score*	Percentile Rank	Severity Rating
Auditory Comprehension	124	95	Above Average
Expression Communication	123	94	Above Average
Total Language Score	125	95	Above Average

Olivia Jane continues to amaze me and makes me so proud. She is so smart, so beautiful,  and so so sweet. She is the most perfect daughter I could have imagined and I'm thankful God chose me to be her Mommy. 

Her hearing aids are lopsided right now because we had to send one of her FM receivers off to be worked on where the battery lock broke. I'm glad they are still under warranty!

New audiological testing

Midweek Confessions

1. I dropped my iPhone in the toilet (after I peed!) and didn't hesitate one second to stick my hand in there and pull it out. Miracously it still works.

2. I've used the iPad as a babysitter way too much the past few days...eek! Eli is outgrowing his nap and will only nap about 2-3 times a week so when it's quiet time (Olivia's nap time) I need my mommy re-charging hour. That iPad is quite convenient to entertain Eli.

4. I was trying to iron Olivia's silk hand smocked dress--- umm I think my iron was to hot!  My ironing skills aren't great... I usually throw things back in the dryer.

5. We came home with 6 baby chickens... again! Two died after the first couple days.. now some of the chicks have poop stuck to their butts which from what I've read it can be life threatening.  So.. I had Josh wash their little chicken bottoms with peroxide and water  :)

Weekly happenings

I've been neglecting my blog lately.. hey sometimes life gets in the way. I really want to try to keep it up because I love to look back and see what we've done and how the kiddos have changed. My memory stinks. Half the time I can't remember what I had for dinner the night before so I know that in a year I'm not going to remember all the cute little sayings and fun times we've had.

Josh- is enjoying his new job and the challenge that comes with learning something completely new. He is home quite a bit earlier than he was at his previous job so that's nice. He also has a really flexible schedule... they closed the office and told him to work from home the whole week that we had snow.

Isaac- has just finished up wrestling this week. I think he's ready to be finished. He always starts out strong with things and then just fizzles out. It's frustrating to me.  He made a B in band this past reporting period. I mean really.. band! He can make A's in advanced math and english but an 85 in BAND! He said it's because he doesn't practice at home and he refused to lie on the nightly practice sheets. He's really not had much time to practice.... wrestling until 6pm and then it's supper and the littles go to bed fairly early. I think I probably would have fudged on the sheets to keep from getting a B. Oh well. What's it really going to matter if he gets a B in band.... right? Josh took Isaac snowboarding for the first time. Isaac has been skiing when he was younger, but we've put off snowboarding because Josh says from his years as an instructor that kids don't really have the muscle strength and coordination for boarding until they are older. Isaac was sooo excited to go and did good! He's also taking guitar lessons every week. Now if we can keep Eli and Olivia from messing with the guitar all will be well.

Eli-is growing up faster than I like. He has a make-believe friend.. Vyron Casey. Vyron is younger than Eli, and doesn't have black hair. He also doesn't have an ATV but he does have a purple tricycle. It's pretty funny listening to him make all this stuff up about Vyron. We asked him where Vyron lived and he said, "in the middle". Josh said, 'In the middle of where?" and Eli replied, 'Nowhere." So Vyron lives in the middle of nowhere. He has one little sister but doesn't have a brother and he goes to the little kiddie class at church. It's pretty apparent that everything about Vyron is inferior to Eli.

Olivia- can hold her own. If the boys mess with her she says, "MOOO (No) Eli" or "MOOO Isaac." She absolutely loves the song "Let it Go" from the new Disney movie Frozen and asks to listen to it all the time. She really enjoys music.

Summer- I loved the snow! I was quite giddy watching it pile up. It's been forever since we had a good snow with more than a couple inches. I've picked up one more client at work so now I'm up to 3 visits a week and I love the kids I'm working with.  I've been going to Piyo (Pilates/Yoga) at our local YMCA and that's been fun. I was so sore the first time I went it took me 4 days to get over it. It's a really good workout and I've learned I have absolutely no core strength. Those planks and piyo pushups are killer.

Eli and his red ATV

Showing me how to charge the battery and he REALLY knows how to do it.

Isaac at the ALL DAY wrestling conference

Olivia had to go with us to the conference and she was an absolute angel.

Daddy and Eli enjoying Sunday afternoon family time with the Allisons

It had been snowing for one hour when I took this picture!

The next morning.. 8 inches of white fluff! Hooray!

Where are my feet Mom? Olivia wasn't a fan.

Josh, Isaac, Bryce, Braedon and Eli. Josh's brother and his family got snowed in at our house. The boys were elated. 

Rosy red cheeks

Valentine's Day came and went without gifts because of Snowmageddon. I  re-used this card from last year.

Josh and I went on a date on Saturday and brought the kids back a post-Valentine's day gift... a new book.  We got Isaac "Divergent" and he finished it in 2 days. 

Eli and Olivia both got a new Llama Llama book. 

Olivia enjoying the warmer days on our swing-set this week. 

Walk on the Greenway with the littles

I got a new workout headband and Olivia confiscated it. 

Isaac snowboarding

My plank :)

Weekly happenings

Olivia and Nana

Fun dinner with one of my favorite families... The Ellis Family. Amber and I roomed together in college and then worked together for several years. We are making it a point to get together monthly so we alternate houses, eat dinner and have Ellison Family Night! Eli and the girls put on a "Frozen" show for us. Rachel was adorable and oh so serious as she sang 'Let it Go'. 

Family movie night upstairs.  I think we were watching Despicable Me 2. My little Minons look engrossed in the show.

I had Aunt Jane's letter to Olivia hand lettered and I'm going to frame it in her room!

Pool is at a standstill. Nothing else can be done until the temperatures increase.

Olivia woke up from her nap early and so I held her and she fell back asleep on my chest for 2 hours. Pure sweetness. 

We finally got above freezing so the kiddies played outside for a while. This makes me ready for summertime.

I caught the little guy napping. A rare occurrence around here. 

After I picked Isaac up from school early he wanted to drive up our hill.  He's 13 but it won't be long he is driving for real. 

Olivia Jane's 1st snow!! She liked marching around in it but didnt' want the gloves on and then got mad that her hands got cold. 

Eli making snowballs and cheesing for Mama

Isaac and Sampson... snowball ready to pelt Dad

Josh gave Isaac a snowboard lesson in our yard. They are going up to the slopes on Saturday. Josh was a snowboard instructor in college and Isaac is excited to learn. 

Isaac learning how to board in our less than 2 inches of snow!