Names

Okay, so Mason was hard enough for us to name. We came up with a bunch of okay names and narrowed them down to three and then when he was born it just didn't feel like any of them were right and ended up picking Mason, a name that had been on the list months before and somehow dropped off the list unintentionally. We weren't even looking for a "son" name- it just happened. So now we have this theme going and the dilemma of deciding whether to stick to it or not-

hence the poll ------>

The advantage to the theme is that we have a starting point for picking a name, since we are really at a loss (and Nate wanted a boy because it would just be easier- we already have a girl's name!). So we'll probably start with the "son" names and then if we come across a non-son name we'll add it to the list. Wish us luck!

The Results Are In...

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. I am FINALLY updating the blog. I know it's been awhile. There are lots of reasons I've been a slacker in updating, but I won't bore you by going into those.

I had some plans for this post that were going to be AWESOME but that was solely dependent on a specific outcome, and since that didn't work out I'll get straight to the point.

It's a BOY!

Yep, baby #4 is on the way. We've been slow to tell people this time around because I really wanted to avoid the "so are you hoping this one is a girl or do you want all boys?" question. I knew that it really didn't matter what I wanted because I had no control over it. Am I disappointed? Yes. More so than I thought I would be. When I opened the envelope (Nate's out of town on a last minute family thing) to tell Nate the results on the phone, the pregnancy hormones kicked in and made me suddenly feel so nauseous I almost threw up. I really had felt like there was a good chance this baby could be a girl because this pregnancy has been a bit different from my previous 3. For example, I started showing at least 2 months earlier than my previous pregnancies, and while I've never experienced horrible morning sickness, I have had mild nausea the entire time- longer than in the past. I also have had a lot more back pain earlier on and trouble sleeping (although there are additional factors that may be causing that). I'm also a little mad because now Nate gets to gloat about getting what he wanted (all boys) while everyone else that knew about this pregnancy and had an opinion is disappointed. I haven't told Jefferson that he's getting another brother yet because he's had his heart set on a sister. I'm leaving that up to Nate when he gets home.

We've Joined The Club

The minivan club, that is. With our fourth child on the way it was eminent that we would have to get a larger vehicle. We researched what we wanted for months (before even knowing that I was pregnant since we knew that day would eventually come) and finally settled on the Honda Odyssey as being our favorite (despite the popularity in Utah). I still kept some of the 7-8 passenger SUV's in the back of my mind being hesitant to really get a minivan, but the minivan won out.

So now we are the proud owners of a 2005 Charcoal Gray Honda Odyssey. It has all of the features we were looking for- leather seats (once you go leather, it's hard to go back), built-in DVD player, decent gas mileage (it's got Variable Cylinder Management!), low miles, and my first color choice. And a bunch we didn't know we were looking for and love- the in-floor lazy susan, a removable 8th seat, 6 CD in-dash changer, seemingly endless amounts of storage space, etc.. I'm still a little weirded out about driving a minivan around (I am a solid sedan girl) but it's great having the space for the kids to spread out so they aren't fighting as much in the car.

St. George- Part 1: Jackson Exercising

When we went to St George for our biennial (yep, that's the right word- it means every 2 years) family vacation with Nate's family last month (yes, I'm a wee bit late getting around to posting about the trip- even Janna has posted before me!). We took down our Wii with us, knowing that it would be really hot (averaged just over 100 for the week) and that we would want to spend some time relaxing in the air-conditioned condos we were staying in. I brought Wii Fit with us so that I could exercise each morning, but if you have read my Toe Post on the other blog, then you know that I wasn't exactly able to. We still got some use out of it. My sister-in-law, Jeanette, was interested in trying it out, so she came over one morning and tried it out. Jackson decided that he wanted to exercise with her and stood next to her almost the whole time imitating all of the movements. Mason even briefly joined in. Here's a video of Jackson doing a Yoga pose with Jeanette:

Looking For My Memory Lane Post?

It's on my other blog: right here

Mason Is Pacifier Free!!!

Mason recently decided to ween himself from his pacifier. What a relief! Jefferson was so attached to the pacifier that he was 3 before we were successful in getting rid of it. Mason did himself a service by biting holes in the pacifiers and making them less enjoyable until he no longer saw the point in them. I'm so glad we don't have to go through the struggle again that we had with Jefferson. Hopefully now Mason will start talking more. I know that part of his speech delay was related to the plug in his mouth. Although, it's been a couple weeks and he still isn't saying much. I think I'm going to have to call Kids On The Move and get him evaluated. They worked wonders for Jackson.

The "Belly Butt"

Jackson loves pointing to the different parts of his body. If you say anything about noses, or ears, etc, he immediately launches into pointing to the different parts of his body, but his favorite is his "belly butt." At some point he started saying "belly button" more clearly, while simulateously dropping the "-on."

It cracks me up.

We Are Alive...

and mostly well. These last few weeks have been filled with me having no energy, packing for vacation, going on vacation, recovering from vacation, and getting sick. Hopefully I'll be able to manage a real update soon. Until then...

Jefferson's Last Day of Kindergarten

I know it's been awhile since I've made a good post. We've been a bit busy around here. Jackson has had quite a busy schedule with his school district evaluations and other evaluations. We also got a new computer a couple weeks ago that we've been setting up and transferring stuff from the old computer and just getting used to. Oh, and we also got a Wii! That's been distracting us a bit.

So on Jefferson's last day of school (well, technically his second to last day, but since his last day was all of 1 1/2 hours, it doesn't really count) his class has an "End of Year" program. His class sang several songs and did some "Reader's Theatre". I took a few pictures, but they didn't end up very good. Between Jefferson being in the back row for the songs and the lady in front of me moving into the frame almost every time I snapped a picture and the lighting in the classroom that I couldn't figure what setting on my camera to use, it wasn't easy.

Here are a couple pictures:

School District Preschool

Jackson qualified for the school district's preschool program! While it's great that he is going to continue getting the extra help he needs, it's also a little sad that he still needs the extra help. It's that parent thing about wanting your child to be perfect, but I know Jackson is special and we love him so much the way he is.

He was evaluated by the school district in several areas, including: Cognitive, Speech, Fine and Gross Motor, Behavior, and Socialization. Before his first evaluation appointment I had to fill out this super long parent questionnaire that covered several areas in development. The results from that questionnaire were then taken into consideration when looking at his scores from his school district testing.

His first day of evaluations were for Speech and Cognitive. He had no problem wowing the evaluators on his cognitive exam- he is definitely a smart kid! They score the cognitive exam in two ways and one of his scores placed him in the 99th percentile- which means only 1% of kids his same age that take the same test would score better than him. In his speech exam, he scored in the 46th percentile, which is close to average, and higher than I expected him to score. His past year in KOTM has certainly helped him improve his speech! The evaluators still had a few concerns about his speech- like his repetitive phrases, inconsistency in word pronunciations, and the high pitch that he tends to use, so they recommended that he be tested again at the beginning of the school year to check for progress. During the evaluation I ended up filling out another parent questionnaire- this time for autism - because within 5 minutes of Jackson's testing the one evaluator turned to me and asked if they had me fill out the autism questionnaire- Jackson was having difficulty moving on to the next task because he wanted to make sure the cards he was given to match to the pictures were perfectly lined up and a few other quirks were presenting themselves (along with his low scores from the first questionnaire in behavior and socialization). I wasn't surprised at all. I've suspected that Jackson would place on the Autism Spectrum Disorder scale for some time now- although he is certainly high-functioning.

His second day of evaluations were for Fine and Gross Motor. He did great in his fine motor evaluation except for in a couple key areas like stacking blocks higher than four (although he can do it at home just fine- but we have larger blocks) and inconsistency of hand usage. Those two areas brought his score down into the qualifying range (7th percentile or lower). His gross motor evaluation was next and he was tested in range of motion from jumping to walking in a straight line to doing a somersault to throwing a ball to walking up and down stairs, etc.. He ended up placing in the 8th percentile for that, but after looking at his other scores, the evaluators felt he should still qualify for services.

Since it took them awhile to review his results after his Gross Motor test (we hung out in the playroom for 1 1/2 hours waiting to find out if he qualified), and since Nate worked from home that morning so he could also watch Mason (Jefferson was at school) but had to go to a client site in the afternoon, I couldn't wait around all day, so they went over the results with me and sent me home and had me come back a couple days later to get my copies and sign the paperwork which took a bit longer to type up.

So the areas that qualified him are Fine and Gross Motor, Behavior, and Socialization. He starts in August and will go 4 days a week.