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Today at lunch Blake didn't want to eat, so he put the table cloth over his plate and just sat there.  Apparently he thought no one would notice his ENTIRE plate was missing...so funny!  I'm very impressed that he came up with that plan all by himself!  He has also started saying, "oh, I see"  when you tell him something...no idea where he got that from but it's hilarious.

He's doing well with his switch to the afternoon class..  He gets a little rowdy with another little boy in there but really seems to like his new friends.  They have also been spending time in a typical preschool class and his teacher said he loves that.  He has been a lot naughtier at home; we're assuming that's because we basically had to switch his entire day around...hoping he calms down soon because he can be really challenging at times.

Blake has made such improvement over the past few months.  He has started putting 3-4 word sentences together, even telling us "have a good day" when we go somewhere.  He is constantly talking at home (even though it is still hard to understand a lot of it.)  He loves school and riding the bus everyday.  He knows many songs from TV shows, radio, etc...he actually seems to have a really good memory.  It will be interesting to see how much he really has stored in that brain of his when he gets older.  It actually makes me kind of nervous--I hope there's not too many moments of, 'hey mommy remember when you got really mad and said all those naughty words?' 

Potty training is going slow but steady.  He still isn't initiating potty trips but is always willing to try when I bring him.  He is successful at least 3-4 times a day, although we are still working on the elusive #2...

I got a call from his teacher today who wants to move him to the afternoon class, which is a bit more of a higher level class.  I am so happy she suggested that because I have been wondering if his current environment has been holding him back a little.  He learns a lot by modeling others and in the class he is in now there aren't many typical behaviors for him to learn from.  So excited for him to learn some new skills and behaviors.  He is definitely up for the challenge!

Christmas was busy but really nice.  Blake was really into it this year and remembered the Christmas tree and Santa from last year...they talked a lot about it at school and he loves singing "jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle all da way..HEY!"  Christmas morning he sat on the floor patiently with all the other kids and when it was his turn for a gift he would say, "Yay!"  LOL, sooo cute!

I hope everyone's New Year is going well.  I'll try to update often but it is so hard to find the time with 5 kids!

Blake had a repeat swallow study today and passed with flying colors!  There was no sign of food or liquid going in to the lungs, so we officially no longer need to thicken his liquids.  So very happy & thankful  that after a very long journey we can finally put his feeding issues behind us.  Yay!

It finally happened....poo poo on the potty!  Way to go Blake!  He  gets a blow pop for that.

Blake had his second heart study last week.  It went much better this time.  He was such a big boy and was very cooperative, laying so still he almost fell asleep during the echo.  The 1st one we had done (when he was 2) was horrible--he screamed the whole time and I had to hold him down for the whole thing.

Everything looks good so far-he has a stills murmur, which is fairly common (up to 30% of kids have one, including my TD son) and has nothing to do with ptls.  The cardiologist said that if the aortic root were to dilate it most likely would happen between 8-13 years of age, which makes sense because that is when they hit their growth spurt.  So we will check back in 3 years.

He also has started at a new preschool because we moved in to a different school district, and due to ECSE rules we can not bring him to an out-of-district school.  I was pretty upset about that one.  I loved his last school and teachers and thought they had a great program.  I was really worried that he would be expecting to see the same faces and the same building from last year and was going to be totally confused and scared by the change.

He was a little unsure his first day, but when i picked him up he had a big smile and when I asked if he had fun he said "yeah!" His teacher is very nice and has 22 years of experience, plus her background is in speech pathology so her program is very language focused.  With his biggest challenge being the speech delay i think this will be a huge benefit for him.  Also the co-teacher specializes in ASD (autism spectrum disorders); a large percentage of ptls kids end up somewhere on the autism spectrum, so if this is the case for Blake we will have someone with him daily who is very knowledgeable in that area, too.

The Jenison school district has a reputation for their great special education program, and i have heard nothing but good things so i hope that it will work out...I still wish we could have kept him at his old school but I guess all that matters is that he is happy and getting whatever help he needs. 

Potty training has been going well. He has peed on the potty pretty much every day now. Still waiting for something a little more exciting to happen in there if you know what I mean. I don't even have to give him a reward most of the time; he is just happy to do the potty dance. I'm sure it will take a while but we are off to a good start.