I can't believe it!

I know I've been MIA for a month.. Jamie's been enjoying school and the holidays are fast approaching. Jamie Signed Help!! That was exciting. This brings Jamie's vocabulary up to 3 words.. mostly signs, and the word no. He'll get there.
We got some blood test results from the Dr's office. Turns out Jamie is low on the protein 'Ferritin' that helps store iron in the body. So we will supplement him with iron drops so he can get those stores back up again. Hopefully the supplement will help him sleep better, and in turn, help his attention span.
Merry Christmas and Happy holidays. Happy new year!

A GREAT DAY!

I decided to start trying to teach him sign language again. I started with the simple sign, 'more'. Basically you put all your fingers together and tap them together. That's the sign for 'more'.

I started having him pay attention to what I was doing with his hands. I did the sign for 'more' and I had to prompt him a couple times. The third time, he did it!! He touches his fingers together, but It's a SIGN!!! I was so excited!!!
All I need to do now is to sign when I ask him if he wants 'more' of something, and he will do it!! We practiced all day yesterday!! What a great Day!!

Jamie loves the bus! One of his first days when we woke up late and he missed the bus..he cried and got upset!!! Poor guy! (We did drive him to school that day, though.)

He is doing so great! He is sooo smart! Hopefully he can learn another sign.. I am so excited!! That MADE MY DAY!!! Oh we had so much fun yesterday.

An Auspicious Day

Well, We got the diagnosis. What was hard for me is that All along I didn't think it would be it. Jamie has high-functioning Autism. That's right. Dr. Harkins also told us that he does have some sensory integration problems, but that kids with autism can have sensory problems.

When I read the review, I cried. It made me feel better when the doctor told me that his prognosis was great and that he will do just fine.
I talked to my mom about it and she said she knew two girls with HF (High functioning) autism. One is eight, and she said her mom says she had it, and my mom's like WHAT??.. She couldn't even tell. So that's a good thing.

That's what we found out.

He must be very special.. and he's so fun to be with.

News Coming about Jamie

As most of you know, We've gotten help with Jamie from Early Intervention with Speech and Occupational therapy for his sensory issues.
We've been crazy busy with the ARD for the PPCD class he's in, and testing from the Developmental Pediatrician Jamie's been seeing. They've done lots of testing, and asking him to do different things, like feeding a toy baby, asking him to try and follow directions, that sort of thing.
We've also been busy with the school's assessment with him too.

We have a parent conference at 11:30 tomorrow, and then Dr Harkins, (the Dev. pediatrician) will give her diagnosis for Jamie. It will be just us parents talking to her. I am excited. Trey thinks I'm crazy to be excited, but I am just a Mommy looking for some answers, and ways to help Jamie.

I will keep you posted.

:D
Will write more later.

Jamie Antics

A few days ago I was on the phone with someone and I realized things were a little too quiet. This is what I found. (This was afterschool one day!)



Yea. That there is Jamie. I guess he likes it.. Look how he's playing in it.


Here he was after he got up from the kitchen floor.

What a Kid!



What a mess!

Lots of News and Updates

I never mean to go very long without posting, but it happens.

We wanted Jamie to go Trick or treating, but he had a fever that night, so that was a no go. Maybe next year.

Jamie started school on his birthday! He is going to this PPCD (Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities) class and it's from about 7:30-10:30am everyday. The bus comes earlier but drops him off later. Jamie really really likes it. He even pulls me toward the bus when he knows it's coming.

He's doing good. He's been going for about two weeks(?) I think.

Tagged!

I was tagged by Kristin--This looks like fun! Here it goes...!


8 favorite TV shows
1. Full House
2. Sabrina The teenage Witch
3. Amazing Babies
4. Home Improvement
5. The Golden Girls
6. The secret Life of the American Teenager
7. Sponge-Bob Square-pants!
8. Mama's Family (yes it still is on tv!)

8 Favorite Restauraunts
1. Wendy's (Love their frosties!)
2. El Jharro del Arturo
3. McDonald's
4. The Olive Garden
5. Zio's
6. Fudrucker's
7. Subway
8. Burger King (once in a while)

8 things that happened yesterday
1. didn't go to church
2. stayed home
3. Watched Home Improvement
4. Cuddled with Jamie
5. Surfed the web
6. Watched The Singles Ward
7. Loaded the dishwasher
8. bathed Jamie

8 things to look forward to
1. Christmas
2. My 5 yr anniversary :D
3. Halloween
4. Meeting up with my internet friend Kristin
5. Getting Jamie's diagnosis in Nov
6. Jamie going to a special Preschool
7. Losing some weight
8.Thanksgiving

8 things I love about fall
1. The changing leave colors
2. The smell in the air
3. The cooler weather
4. Thanksgiving
5. Hot Cocoa
6. Pumpkin Pie
7. Gathering for Thanksgiving dinner

8 things on my wish list
1. Lose some weight
2. Purge and organize
3. Pray and read my scriptures daily
4. Traveling the world
5. Get out of debt
6. Become a millionare :D
7. Saving more money
8. Purge and organize.. can you tell I really want to do this?

8 people I am tagging
1. Kathy
2. Shannon
3. Rebecca
4. Linda
5. Heidi
6. I don't know many people with blogs
7.
8. Anyone else who wants to do it! :D

Some Good and Bad news

Well, from what the title implies, we do, have good news and bad news.
The bad news is that Jamie was sick all weekend with a stomach bug.
The good news is he's feeling much much better today. I think I got him hooked on popsicles lol.
I can't believe my little guy is going to be 3 in 8 days.. We're going to have his birthday party a little early.

VERY EXCITING NEWS!

Something very exciting happened.. and I'll tell you what.
We usually go to our in-law's house to do laundry once a week.
We were at our in-law's house and I was getting Jamie undressed for his bath. I took his diaper off. (I thought.. what the heck) and sat him on the grown up potty. I made sure to keep a hold of him so he wouldn't fall in. He PEED in the potty!!! Jamie was observing what he was doing, too. I was SO excited!!! I told him three or four times ' You peed in the potty!' I clapped a little bit.. and Daddy came to the door of the bathroom. I told him what happened.. He told me GREAT!. What's more, is that he went back to the potty a time or two more..and (actually he started going on the tile) I grabbed him and held him. and he POOPED in the Potty!!! So I was REALLY excited!
That's a great thing to happen.. Yay Jamie!!!
I'm hoping to at least take him to the potty before bath and have him sit on his potty chair at home!
I'm just all smiles.. This made my day!!!
Grandma and Grandpa may have to get a potty seat for their house!

An Update

We went to the play date. Jamie was good. Jamie hadn't met this little boy before he played with, and it was a new place. Jamie was exploring for the first few minutes, and then really started to play toward the end. The lady that we talked to that let us use the room and the tape recorder said that the tape could make a difference on the diagnosis.. but it won't be very long until we find out what's going on.
We have our next appointment in two weeks for more testing and then we go to the parent conference in which our Dr. will tell us what's going on.
In the meantime, we're hanging in there.. and hope that things get better soon.

Things have Gone CRAZY!!!

I know what you're thinking.. yea I'm a crazy mom. No I'm not going crazy, though I confess to going out of my mind now and then.
I wish it wasn't so long since I posted. Here are some pictures to give you updates on what cute things Jamie has done.

First, some updates.
Jamie's still seeing a developmental pediatrician to diagnose him, since he has completely stopped talking, and has some sensory issues too. The appointments to get the diagnosis have been crazy, but that keeps us busy. We are going to a 'playdate' tommorrow (Oct 16) where we need to let one other child interact with Jamie for 20 minutes.. and it needs to be tape recorded. This is to see how he interacts with someone his age. But we're getting things done. We have another appointment with the school district (one to assess him.. one to get the results) and we'll have a couple more appointments and then a parent conference to see what the diagnosis is. Although frustrating he still is a happy boy and a pleasure to be around. We have also learned since he has a significant 'language delay' and the sensory issues, he can attend a special preschool at the public elementary school every school day for 3 hours a day.
He can start going to the preschool on his birthday if he wants, but we'll see.

Trey's still doing good and spending time with Jamie whenever he can. He is working on his masters still.. not too much to say about that.

I'm the crazy one in the family.. I guess. I've gotten a calling for a VT coordinator.. which is basically who you call to turn in the VT reports of who people you have visited. I also run the house and keep everyone organized. I also make sure that Jamie isn't making messes left and right.. which he tends to do at least once a day. It doesn't help matters that I tend to misplace things almost daily.. and 'hide' things a little too well from Jamie (and myself). We are excited for Jamie's third birthday, We plan on having a duck themed party.. (that's his thing now.. rubber ducks, he has 9!)
I can't believe that Halloween is coming so fast.

Anyhow.. here are some pictures that Jamie's been up to.



Jamie's really into imitating me lately. He knows that I put on the oven mitt to work in the oven. Don't worry, the oven is off.. :D



Examining the cold oven.. :D


While I was doing something, Jamie had figured out how to open a little take out container full of BBQ sauce. Here he is eating it straight out of the packet..
I know.. totally gross right? He seems to love it!


Here is another picture of him!


Here's Jamie in his PJs. See his new haircut.. Cute right? I thought so.



Jamie had gone to sleep very early the other night (Oct 14) and was 'reading' Chicken Little. Cute!



There's Jamie conked out and Daddy 'napping' for the picture. Jamie likes to go to sleep with Daddy close by.

Well, I know this was a long post, but a lot has happened.

MIA... EKKKK!

I am surprised it's been so long since I posted.. I've been MIA for about a month or so..
Lots of things have been happening as always at the Brady household.. I've got a few pictures to show you what we've been up to.


My mom needed boxes to pack up stuff .. Jamie's checking out the boxes! LOL



Jamie now loves to play with the vaccumn hose.. what a kid!


I'm not quite sure why he would want to put it on his mouth.. oh well.



He's probably thinking something like.. 'Wow.. look what I built!"
These 'blocks' or Nesting blocks..have become one of his favorite toys.
He'll even carry his blocks down to the car to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house :D


What's with the tongue..?? Hmm.. He's been doing this lately...


Trying on Dad's Valero flip-flops. What's funny is I actually let him take a walk outside in them once. :D
I think he'd say if he could talk would be 'Outside, now mommy?' or something.

Lots of Things happening

Things are pretty busy as always. This weekend was not any different, but let me back up.
Jamie's occupational therapist suggested he play with shaving cream to let him feel the texture..and get the 'sensory imput' that he needs. I had sprayed it on his body before, but thought it would be fun to write on the bathtub wall too.. Here is what it looked like when we were done!



I took another picture of it.. te he he



This past Saturday, the 12th was my birthday.. We dropped Jamie off at Grandma's and went to the Library..and went mini golfing. We also had to go get Trey a haircut..so we did that..then went bowling. We ate dinner there.. but had dinner early..lol.
We then went to my mom's house, stayed a little bit, and picked our son up.
Happy Birthday To ME!!! Yay!

Here are some pictures of Jamie and I ..Just relaxing on the couch..Ugh..My hair doesn't look too good..:-P..

Happy Birthday America!

July 4th Our Nation's Birthday!

Trey had the day off.. and our ward had a 4th of July breakfast at our Stake President's house. On our way there, Jamie fussed a little bit. We think it's because either the way we drove was unfamiliar to him, or because he recognized it's not something he does normally at that time in the morning :) . We think it was a little bit of both.

So we go to the breakfast, and boy was it good! They had sausage, eggs, and pancakes. Yum! Jamie just was running all over the place, consistantly pointing to the pool, and the outdoor seperate jacuzzi. He wanted to go in lol, but we wouldn't let him.

After that we pretty much hung out at home. He was so active this morning.. He took a 3 hour nap!! that was sooo nice!! We kept busy during his nap too..

That's what our day was like. We generally cleaned up the house, and everything else.

Happy Anniversary

July 3rd..Happy Anniversary to us! We've been married for 4 years now!

I am thankful for my husband and my son. I love my husband very much.
You do so much for us and we love you.

Busy, Busy Busy

It's been pretty busy so I haven't posted in a while. Here are some updates as to what's going on.

First, Jamie's still doing well and jabbering, making noises.

My FIL is doing better, however, in order to save his life, he had to have an above the knee amputation of one of his legs. But he's in Rehab now, and will be finally coming home soon. He is still in good spirits.

My Mom and dad have been having marital problems for a long time, but they might be separating in the next little while for good. As you can imagine, this is a really hard time for my family and also for my brother and sisters.

Oh one story about Jamie, We were trying out this new casserole dish, and I had put the casserole dish on the table (for dinner) and he must have touched it. I had seen him holding his other hand. I got him to the sink and was running water over his hands. I asked him, "Does that feel better?" and I swear I heard Jamie say, "NNNNOOOOOO!" We both cracked up laughing.
Hopefully this will start a language spurt.. but we're not sure. We think Jamie's taking his sweet time talking.
Trey is still going to school and is doing well.

I will need to post a LOT of pictures to make up for not posting them..

More updates coming soon.

Family Updates

There has been a lot of news lately so I'll fill you in.

Me and Trey got our own car back after being repaired. That was this past weekend. Woohoo! :D

Trey's father has been in the hospital fighting a bad infection. He is doing well and will come home soon. That is encouraging. He seems to be in good spirits which is great!

Jamie has had another couple sessions, both with the Occupational Therapist (OT) and the Speech Therapist (ST). The Speech therapist was trying to scare us into thinking Jamie had autism.. but me and Trey have done extensive research on it, and I believe he doesn't have it. The speech therapist has not said a thing since. Jamie and I both like the therapists that are working with Jamie.

It's frustrating sometimes to not know what he needs sometimes, but he's a fun kid. He does a lot of jabbering and babbling, so I know he's close. He also knows how to make his needs known through his actions, which help a lot.

I don't have any pictures to post, but I will soon. :D

I will post more soon..

More news and Pictures

I know I haven't posted for a while.. so I'll fill you in on what's happened.

First, some sad news. My husband got into an accident on the way home from an errand he did after work. He is ok, but the car's not. But we now have a rental car, and the car can be fixed. Woo Hoo.. We don't have to buy another car!!

In other news, Jamie has had his first session of Speech therapy, and will have his second session of theraphy this Wednesday. The speech therapist is nice.
Jamie will also have his first occupational therapy appointment the wedneday after Memorial Day.

Jamie's been very cute.. I've gotten a few pictures of Jamie.
He is now doing some pretend play woo hoo. The therapists were concerned he wasn't doing this.. so that's good.



Here is Jaamie wearing Daddy's long black socks. They come up to his knees! :D



Here he is trying to put on his shoe.. What a kid!

I think my son's a techie kid. He loves anything where he can push buttons. I guess he's really into the cause/effect phase. He's fascinated with turning the lights on and off, etc. Sometimes Jamie can be really cute.



Here as you can see Jamie put on Daddy's headphones.. Is that cute or what?



For some strange reason, Jamie wanted to get in Trey's vanity sink. I let him.. but here he is checking out some shaving cream.. lol
You can also see he doesn't fit in the sink anymore :D

Jamie also likes to imitate us more, and helps us quite a bit.

That's about it right now.. Will post more when I have more pictures.

New Updates and Cute Jamie moments...

I know I haven't posted in a while..things have been so busy around here. I got a new computer, which is fun.. but I'll tell you what's new in the Brady Family.

Things are busy as usual.. I got a phone call from Jamie's new speech therapist a couple days ago. Our first speech therapy lesson will be on Tuesday in the morning. We also got a Occupational therapy consultation on Monday in the afternoon. The speech therapist thinks he has some sensory issues.. but that remains to be seen.

Jamie is still his happy little self, as you can imagine.. He's going to be two and a half in three days! I just can't believe that time goes so fast..

Jamie did something cute.. again..

Jamie had gotten bathed and had his pajamas on.. He then picked up his shirt that he'd worn that day and gave it to me.. He wanted it put on, LOL.. He wanted his shorts and socks and shoes on as well... I was able to get a couple pictures.. They were soo cute.


There He is!!


Here he is again!


Jamie doesn't look too happy and Daddy gave him a kiss. You can see his shoes a little bit in the picture.

What a kid!

News and Funny Things

Well, I know that I haven't posted in a while, but Jamie's been awesome.
At The beginning of the month, I called Early Intervention, and scheduled for someone to come and asses Jamie for the program. The first time it was just a lady who watched him. The second time was a few days ago, on the 26th, a Speech Therapist accompanied the woman we saw earlier this month. We found he's behind on some levels, such as not playing pretend, and not following directions. He also doesn't play with other kids like other kids tend to do and he doesn't have many words he can say. He only actually talks when he feels like it. His attention span isn't that long either, but I think that's normal for his age. Hopefully we'll know more this month.

Today is also my Father in Law's birthday! Happy Birthday to Tom! I'm not sure how old he's going to be.. but I think it might be rude to ask.. :-)

Anyway.. Jamie's very funny when he wants to be.

Jamie still gets upset when I vaccumn, but I was a tad bit surprised when he started playing. I think he's getting more used to the vaccumn.



He's almost as tall as the vaccumn... LOL! He's a month away from being 2 1/2 and he's 3 feet tall! Wow!

This is too funny.

I was baking some banana bread, and had brought the bowl in the living room to share the lickings from out of the bowl after I had put the bread pan in the oven. We had it all eaten, and Jamie did the cutest thing...
He put the batter bowl on his head!
Once he did that I just laughed so hard! I got a photo of it too.



What a cutie!! I'm sure that there are more of these moments to come.

Michevious Toddler Caught In the Act!

Jamie loves bouncing on the mini-trampoline at my In-Laws house.
I had pulled the couch cushions off, in hopes that he'd like to climb the cushion 'tower' instead of climbing onto the back of the couch. Around Dinnertime, he wanted to take off a couch cushion.. and this is what I saw with the camera. This was a few days ago on the 5th of March.



He's standing up on the couch...


He's on the other cushion.


He's getting on.. :-)


You can see he's been jumping. I think he's a little monkey!
See that mischievous little grin on his face in the pictures?
I'm sure there are many more moments like this to come!

Sitting around the house

I am happy to report that the suit jacket Jamie got baby powder on looks brand new. I was able to get it out and just home-drycleaned it. So that's all good.

These pictures I have gotten weren't too hard to get. The last one was kind of hard to get, as he kept getting up and down.. but here they are. Sorry about the mess. It seems I need to clean up a bit more. LOL



Here Is Jamie sitting in his Elmo chair watching TV.




Here is Jamie in the bathroom sitting on his potty with his diaper on. He doesn't understand yet what it's for. He does like to sit on it though, which is good.

Look at What Jamie did!

I know, I haven't posted much of anything for a little bit, but it's been real busy. Jamie's been on a 'nap strike' (providing there is such a thing :-P) lately and it's getting to the point where some days he'll nap and other times he doesn't.
After nearly an hour and a half of getting him to sleep, I decided he should go in his room. I put the gate up. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I checked on him about an hour or so later.

I took one look and said 'Oh, Jamie'


Yup, you guessed it. It's baby powder.


Look how messed up his bed is!


Those are some of his toys.


Baby powder is ALL over the floor!


Jamie absolutely COVERED the rocking chair in baby powder!


He does manage to tear apart his room. It doesn't take him very long either.



He even got baby powder on one of Daddy's nice suit jackets!

By the end of the day, I had gotten his room picked up. Yesterday he cried when I turned the vacuum on and even cried when I even got near the vacuum. I did it though. The baby powder made the room smell good.



The Clean Doorway



Things are cleaner!



Finally, All Clean!

Dad/Lad Look

Trey and I and Jamie were just playing around the other night when we tried to get Jamie to wear his glasses. He likes to take Daddy's glasses off.. lol. Jamie didn't want to keep them on very long, so this picture was a little hard to get, but I snapped quick, and it's such a cute picture. Those are his Elmo glasses. Doesn't he look SOO cute?

I was soo excited to be able to get the picture.

Here it is! :-D

Who does Jamie Look Like?

We had that same question. There has been a lot of speculation about this in both our families. Now we know. lol :-)

Everyone's Better!

It's been another week, and Jamie's all better. He finished all his medicine, so he's good to go. I found out there really isn't a need for a follow-up visit this time. He's becoming more and more talkative, sometimes though we can't understand what he's trying to say. He seems to be experimenting with other sounds and we try to encourage that.

Jamie's done great in Nursery too these past couple weeks. I think he understands now that we will always come back for him. That helps, plus he's getting familiar with everyone there.

Jamie's still adjusting to his big bed. He is having a little bit of a problem staying in his bed. We're trying to be patient, but hopefully he'll get it.
Jamie hasn't had any problems with giving up his pacifier yet, although I have noticed he puts his fingers in his mouth though, esp his thumb. Hopefully he doesn't turn to his thumb. I've heard that's a harder habit to break than the pacifier.

Jamie still sits on the potty just about every day. That's good. I think all he knows is that it's somewhere else to sit, not necessarily what the potty is for. We've told him what it's for though.

Daddy's all better too. Daddy keeps busy. He has a new class he's signed up for at Our Lady of the Lake University he goes to every other week. So he's got that going, and working still at Valero Energy.

Mommy's keeping busy too taking care of my boys and keeping up the house, which is hard because there is SO much to do. I manage though. Time for me is at a minumum though. I try to make the most of Jamie's naptimes, as I am sure most mothers do.

Another Family Update.

We went back to Jamie's doctor last Friday to follow up on whether or not the ear infection was gone. It had gone away, however, our doctor found that he had the beginnings of a sinus infection now. They prescribed some more antibiotics, so now he takes those now. Hopefully, that will clear up as well.

Jamie's adjusting to his big bed, but now the crib is gone! We heard of one of my mom's friends needing a crib for her baby, so we lent it to her for the time being.
It's been about a week since we first put him on the big bed, but hopefully soon he will get used to napping as well as sleeping in it at night.

Jamie hasn't had any problems adjusting to life without his pacifier. It seemed he was ready to give it up.

Jamie got a potty seat for Christmas. I opened it up just yeserday and he's still exploring it. I have told him matter-of-factly what it is for and surprisingly, he doesn't object to actually sitting on the potty seat with his diaper on. Maybe he'll show an interest sometime this year but for now, we'll concentrate on getting him used to the big bed first. Then we may see if he's interested again.

Daddy has a sinus infection and some kind of respiratory infection, so he's taking antibiotics too. My poor poor boys. Well, they should bounce back soon.

Family Update

First Sunday
Well, Yesterday was the first Sunday that we went to church at our new 1-4 schedule. I would love this schedule, but it interferes with Jamie's naptime. This past week, though, since Daddy and Jamie were sick, we decided to go home after Sacrament Meeting. I may like it better as he adjusts and at least gets an hour sleep before we go, possibly. We'll see how he does in Nursery next week with the new schedule.

Where have all they all gone?
After a friend suggested we take all of Jamie's pacis away, I decided it was time for them to go. We took all of them away on Thursday the 3rd. He didn't have it for that night, and he's been paci-free since. It didn't even seem to phase him. I don't know even if he cared that we took them away. I was prepared for crying, whining, and fussiness for a few days, but he hasn't done ANY of that. I think he was ready for them to be gone. He'll have to adjust and soothe himself another way. :-)

Jamie's a Big Boy now
Since Jamie has learned how to get out of his crib, we knew it was time to switch to his "Big Boy Bed". We started that Saturday night. What we're doing is putting him back in his big bed over and over, and have him get the idea that he has to stay there. It's going fine, though it's hard just putting him back in the bed, with him crying and stuff. It's for the best, though. I know he's not going to hate me because of it.

The New Year is full of changes for our little guy, but we're take things in stride, and trying to remember that 'this too, shall pass'. Trying to remember that things will pass is hard when you are living in the moment.

A New Year!

Greetings!
I hope everyone has had a good Christmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Our Christmas was good, and it just consisted of visiting both my inlaws and my parents. Both of them wanted to see Jamie and had a very good time with us.

New Year's
We spent New Year's Eve with my parents, but went home before it hit midnight (for safety reasons). Then we rang in the New Year together at home.

Well, to give you an update, Jamie's all better from his tummy bug, cold, and ear infection. I know, poor little guy. He's gone through a lot in the past month.
Hopefully, he'll be relatively healthy this year. Having a sick toddler isn't fun. :-( :-( Both of us think that he now has some allergies. :-(

Big Changes
There will be big changes for our little guy coming up. He's recently learned how to get out of his crib, and it's probably time for the switch. We'll probably be doing that soon.

I am also contemplating weaning Jamie from the pacifier. So far, he only needs it to take his nap, to sleep at night, and when he's sick. Other than that, he's paci free.

This is about all the news on the home front. We'll update you on what happens.