Lately...

I was thinking- the one thing Eli really has going for him- as the poor middle child- is that I actually kept up with the blog when he was little... I actually have documentation and real pictures of him doing everything.  sorry Silas...


Silas started speech in August and lately has been doing so great! When he was fist evaluated he was 24months old and scored at a 9-10month level.  He'll have another eval soon and even his speech therapist is excited to see where he is.  I've been keeping track of his words and should blog it all.  He is still mostly gibberish but is trying to say a word for so many things even if we don't understand it.  He has just started trying to say Rowan "Wowy" and Eli "wewi"  I swear they sound different ;) It's exciting! He has actually been saying Tristan "didan" for a month or so.  Tristan is our neighbor who is good friends with Rowan and ELi, he's here a lot and Silas loves him! Probably because he's nicer to him than his brothers are haha!

Silas has been using the potty for several months now too! I totally credit the little bit of elimination communication I did with him as a baby.  He spends his days naked and can say "peepee" and "poop" he loves to be naked but unfortunately because of his speech isn't that great at telling us when he needs to go so if he has clothes on he has lots of accidents.  Because of this when we go somewhere he wears diapers and is not usually happy about it.  Slowly we'll get there... He has been sleeping and napping without a diaper and is usually dry- I usually try to sneak a diaper on at night once hes a sleep. I just bought him a seat that fits on the toilet so he doesn't need to use his little potty anymore.  Every time he had to go he would go get his potty and move it to where people were and then go haha yeah I was getting sick of that so decided the little potty needed to go.  He loves sitting on the big potty and picked out an Elmo"baby" seat.
He has finally been sleeping in his toddler bed and falls asleep really quickly if Mike takes him to bed.  He's horrible with me and spends forever laying there in Eli's bed with me He won't even lay in his bed if I take him.  SO Mike gets to put him to bed most of the time@!

Eli is doing great in 1st grade and reading really great! He is still crazy at home and does things every day to make Rowan and Silas mad :/
He has been planning his birthday party for months! He has very big plans and almost every night wants to talk about it haha So we will def. have to have a friend party for him this year, lets just hope what he wants gets a little less expensive as we get closer! He generally gets along with everyone at school, although he has had some issues with a few boys he desperately wants to fit in with.  He always wants to keep up with everyone and hates to miss out on anything.  He is excited to play coach pitch baseball this summer!!

Rowan is doing pretty good in 4th grade.  He likes to hurry on things so has gotten some not good grades from that. but hopefully he will be more careful.  He wants to play Minecraft all day everyday and if he's not then he's playing lego's.  He wants to play soccer this spring!

I am taking 2 classes this semester- yet another online Chemistry class :/ and microbiology, that will be it for my prereqs and then I can apply for nursing program for next fall.  Our lives will get insane but it will be good in the long run.  Of course I can't actually make any plans- childcare, money.... until I am accepted into the program so I just wait.  I'll be mailing my application soon but the deadline isn't till April so I won't know till March :/
The kids and Mike are all doing great helping out on the nights I have class.  The kids have a checklist for morning and evening.  In the evening they have to make sure they complete it all then they show it to Mike and he double checks them.  It's just stuff like- picking out clothes for the next day, make sure homework is done, signed and put back in bookbag... they also help clean up after dinner and pick up the living room.  It helps the next morning run a little smoother if everything is done the night before and I hate coming home to a messy living room.
Mike rearranged his schedule so that the 2 nights I have class he can get off at 4.  This puts him home by 5 so I can leave and get to class by 6.  Last year the kids got home from school and basicsally had time go to to the bathroom before we loaded up to head in town.  They ate their snack and started homework in the van.  We'd meet Mike at work and I'd take his car and he'd go home with the kids.  They like it better now a lot! It's a lot better on all of us to not have to rush like that!

I'm still hoping to blog pics of our trip last summer... one of these days!