WOW FINALLY AN UPDATE!

Things have been crazy around here and I am going to jumble it all into one giant update.....

• Elijah's orthotics are in and he is wearing them daily.  Although they are NOT half as bad as anything I imagined when the orthopaedist prescribed them, they still look a little odd.  Don't worry I have not mentioned this minor detail to my boy!  The weird thing is they are straight last shoe and completely interchangeable.  There is no left or right shoe until the longitudes and arch supports are placed inside.  It is rather odd to look at a shoe and not tell if it is right or left.....totally straight no curve on the arches!!  Crazy huh!  The problem with this is they are really wide and must be tied tight which he is unable to do.  You know how you pull at the strings that are laced to get the shoe tighter....well he just can't get them tight enough so if they come untied during the day then they are a mess when he gets home.  I need to find something to make them stay tied!  This little feature means they have the general appearance of being tied tight and narrow at the top then they look extra wide at the toe of the shoe......did that make since?  Let me think.......sort of resemble a clown shoe!  Oh that sounds awful!  Luckily, they look much better with jeans and fall is HERE!!  The nice lady also fitted the arch supports for his football cleats so we switch them out ALL THE TIME!
• I love FALL!!  Although we had hot days this summer, Oklahoma BY FAR had a great summer.  Normally, we are in the 100s for what seems like forever but not THIS year!  Nope!!  It was so so nice!  Made football practice much easier on the boys!  HOWEVER, this makes me fearful for an extremely cold winter and I don't do cold!
• Tez was having issues and ran away a few times.  Due to his intellectual disabilities, the police and counselors advised that we go ahead and let him live with his Mother.  He does NOT NEED to be with her and we feel as if this is just throwing in the towel, giving up and will destroy his future; HOWEVER, like they said, "short of tying him to the bed, we have no other options because of his mental state".  He should have never spent the summer with her because he was fine before he left.  The past can't be changed and I feel both remorseful and angry at the entire situation.  Everyone says he will realize everything we did later but with the environment he will be in.....I just don't see it happening.  I wish you all could understand just how strongly we feel about this being a bad decision BUT do you send a 15 yr old with the mind of a 3rd or 4th grader to juvi?  No!  He is a follower and not in "trouble" like the juvenile offenders in juvi so we don't want him influenced in that way.  They said it might "open his eyes" but they didn't recommend it for him.  I could go on and on about this topic but I won't because at the moment I am still bitter about it.  I feel this is an awful choice for his life.  For example, she took him out of all of his IEP classes because "he wanted to be in normal classes"!  Are you freaking kidding me?  He is intellectually disabled no matter how much she denies it!  That basically guarantees failure!  My 7yr old writes better than him and his handwriting isn't good!  His Math, English and Reading Comp skills are on a 3rd and 4th grade level and she wants to stick him in with on-level 10th graders!  His new school is full of thugs!  He now has a cell phone (big mistake for him) and an 18 yr old girlfriend.  He is in a house with no rules!  Ok I really need to stop b/c I am getting pissed that everything I did for him over the last 2 yrs is down the freaking drain and she will destroy him!  Lord, help me since now I am thinking juvi would have been a better option!
• Isaiah is doing great in speech.  The therapist is awesome and anticipates he may not need the originally planned length of therapy.  They spent two sessions on K, two sessions on G and are about to begin L.  I love taking him and it is truly interesting to watch.  We were told he has mastered the tongue placement for those sounds and now we need to catch his errors during spontaneous speech so he recognizes his error and fixes it.  I am soooooooo glad I am getting this taken care of now and he is doing well!
• Hubs and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday.  Although I said I was glad he married me with my two...yep read it folks....two flaws, he has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of these two flaws!!  Smart move Baby....very smart!  We have been together now for almost 9 yrs and all I can say is....time flies when you're havin' fun!
• Still no internet at the house which leaves me with "I am switching to a cheaper service" regret!  We were told by three separate services that they don't service our area and one "measured" with no luck!  Ugh!  I may have to suck it up and go back to the original service before I experience death by internet deficiencies!!  That is a real medical condition.....I think!
• Our football Champion boys are at it again.  So far they are undefeated and make us prouder every week.  I think my favorite part is listening to Elijah talk about the games.  He LOVES it!
• I've come to the conclusion that I would be better off as a complete idiot!  I've been on a couple of more interviews through personal connections.  These people then call me saying the job really likes me!  Great!  I have heard this in every single interview.  We like you!  We love you!  bbbbuuuuutttttt you are overqualified!  Are you kidding me?  I don't need you to love me or necessarily even like me!  I just need you to hire me and pay me!!  This overqualified crap is just that.....crap!  That is liar for we just don't want to pay you what you are worth.  I DON'T CARE JUST PAY ME SOMETHING!  I understand the idea of working my way up but I need the opportunity!  McD's here I come!  My boys would LOVE that!!  I guess maybe if I act like a complete idiot, then maybe I will get a good job!  From past experiences, I know there are employed idiots everywhere even Doctors!! ha!.....remember Dr. Huang!

I think that is all FOR NOW but I have plenty other posts coming up with more juiciness!!  Wait till you hear about my experience with the racist wally world employees or a Halloween giveaway!

TONGUE IN CHEEK MOVES

Earlier this year Isaiah had a speech screening at his school. They were debating on whether to offer speech therapy at his preschool. The worker decided Isaiah needed to be further evaluated. I took him in for this evaluation about three weeks ago. She said although he had few errors and had passed the evaluation which is lenient at his age, the errors he had were errors normally self corrected through development by now and he would require speech therapy. This was basically a given with his hearing and speech history. My goal was to try to get as many of the speech impediments corrected as possible before he starts kindergarten. He is starting to realize he says things wrong and often won't repeat things saying, "Mommy, I tan't say it right!" This just makes me sad and I will help him anyway that I can!

This past week we went for his first therapy session and to go over the final evaluation report.

His therapist is amazing and we both just love her. She said just after his progress in the first session that she thinks he will do really well and it probably won't take as long as noted. I found the session intriguing. I was so amazed at what she was doing and it was immediately working. Sure he will have to work with us and it will take time but it was just amazing. I've always known hearing affects speech and that speech involves proper tongue and mouth movements BUT this was too cool. For instance to say a K word or just the "ka" sound the front of the tongue goes down and behind the bottom front teeth while the back part goes up. She informed me that many children with his same prior medical issues will have the same speech impediments because they lack muscle control towards the back of the mouth. Interesting, huh!?!?

Well she was TRYING to teach him some tongue exercises to strengthen his back tongue muscles. One such exercise was closing his mouth then using his tongue to push against the inside of his cheek therefore forming a ball look on the outside of the cheek. Are you trying it? Not hard just the tongue in cheek move! She would then push on the ball on the outside and tell him not to let her push it in. Isaiah could not do it. To teach him, she decided to show him and let him "push" on her cheek.

Are you ready?

Here it goes:

Poor, innocent, sweet, cheerful and funny speech therapist makes the "ball" and tells Isaiah to PUSH the ball back into her mouth so it will go to the other side.

Ornery, concerned, sweet, handful yet still learning Isaiah punches the ball which is her tongue in cheek and we both had to laugh because it was so unexpected.

Then poor, innocent, sweet, cheerful and funny speech therapist says, "Ok lets do the other side but this time not so hard!"

What speech therapist should have said was "Do NOT punch just push with one finger!"? Mistake noted by MOI!

She puts tongue in cheek then tells him to push. He lifts his hand, makes a fist and draws it back to hit his new fun punching back when I swear within a split second her eyes were the size of quarters, she ducked and her chair flew back!

Embarrassing?

Yes!

Funny?

NO HI-LAR-I-OUS!
I wish you could have seen the expression on her face!

PRICELESS!

Instead of trying it again, she showed him with MOMMY pushing!

Pushing/punching?

They sound alike to me!

He went home with "homework" which totally excited him since he gets jealous that he doesn't have any homework. He is doing well and we will return for more therapy next Tuesday. Can't wait to see what he learns next time. Kid you not I was amazed just watching. THEN in the drive home I was saying different words and paying complete attention to my tongue placement.

Try it with me!

You know you want to!

Say the word "THINK" outloud making note of your tongue placement.

for the "th" sound the tip of you tongue rubs against the bottom of your top front teeth

for the "i" sound your tongue goes back and stays mainly in the middle

for the "k" sound the tip of your tongue goes down against the back of your bottom front teeth with a click coming from the back

Amazing I know!

I spend the good part of an hour saying random words over and over while driving or talking on the phone and paying very close attention to tongue placement. Wow! Then I got rather freaked out that our brains know where the tongue should go as long as we have the muscle control! Freaky, huh!