The Difference a Week Makes

Oh boy, what a week!! A pretty exhausting one at that! Slowly, we are making our way into what is our "new normal". Bringing a new child into your family, who already has his own formed personality and ideas, and figuring out where he fits into that family, is no easy task. But a week has already made such a difference. He has already learned how to play nicely with Ella, he doesn't whine half as much as he used to, he has only had one tantrum all week, he's not falling apart every time I tell him "no", he's sleeping at night from 8pm-6am now, and he's eating just about anything we put in front of him!! He's has eaten oatmeal twice for breakfast, ate chicken nuggets for lunch the other day, and last night joined us for Friday night pizza! Ella said "he's NEVER going to eat pizza", and I agreed. So I had the noodles all ready to go, but when he walked into the kitchen decided that I would break a piece of pizza off and let him taste it. It didn't get spit out, so I let him take a bite, and another, and another. Then, when he saw Ella and B sitting at the table he decided that he and his slice of pizza would join them. He ended up feeding himself...the WHOLE slice! I guess I shouldn't be happy and doing a dance of joy that my new child has now added chicken nuggets and pizza to his diet, but it sure does make life a lot easier not to have him push away everything you offer him. Today for lunch we had sandwiches and he ate his whole ham and cheese sandwich. Ahhh.....the little things, like having everyone eating the same meal--it makes life so much easier. Life in general has gotten a little easier each day and for the most part Wen is very happy, smiley, friendly, and easygoing. I just exhausted!!Here's lookin' forward to next week!!!

We also got a lot accomplished this week as far as getting Owen set up with all his medical appointments, and evaluations. We were at the pediatrician yesterday. Things went well especially considering his last encounter with a doctor was not a pleasant one! His pediatrician thinks he looks great and gave us all the necessary referrals for specialists and lab work. I am going to have him seen by an opthamologist. I'm just not convinced that he doesn't have a little something going on with his eyes. I also got him registered with the school district the other day so that we can start having him evaluated for services. I was very pleased with my meeting with the special ed coordinator. To my advantage, she is a speech pathologist and has a love for working with the deaf and hard of hearing population. I truly felt like he would end up getting everything he needed, and I wouldn't have to fight for anything. She has already started looking into preschool programs for him. We are going to be taking him to the local school for the deaf to have his evaluations done. Both she and I felt this was a good place to have him evaluated as they are very familiar with this population. They do have a preschool program there that is for hearing impaired children with hearing aids and cochlear implants. I am really hoping that this is where he will be placed. Considering that his auditory system has basically been unstimulated for three years, he will not only need to learn how to talk, but he'll need to learn how to hear and make sense of all these new sounds he's hearing. I think that a program where they are familiar specifically with the needs of hearing impaired kids, not just speech delayed kids, is probably the best place for him right now. It'll take a few weeks before we have everything figured out, but at least we're on our way!

Here are some pictures from the week :)

Ella being goofy in her "big sister" shirt
Owen....LOVING his big sister!

Playing rough with the big brother!

Poor Jason!

Handsome with his new haircut

Friday night pizza

Who would have thought...pizza...he's eating pizza!!! Definitely not noodles!