Sunshine

The sun came out today and the ice was melted on the roads after lunch so we headed out :) We discovered a new park too! It was so nice to get out after a couple days of being cooped up. 

Now I have to get motivated to get through one whole day of work before the weekend. ha! Happy Thursday! ♥ 

Ice Ice Baby

Well, I just got the call that we are off of work tomorrow! 3 days out this week, which would be great if we didn't have to make up the days including part of our spring break! Ugh. I know people up north are laughing at us right now. This would be awesome if it was actually snowing and we could go out and play, but we have all ice :( Florida is not equipped with anything to help the roads improve...mix that with a bunch of drivers that are not used to it and it's not good. 

 We are definitely hanging at the house. 

 Easton was not a fan. 

At least one of my kids had fun haha 

 Winter is lame! We are SO ready for our Florida weather to come back...it's supposed to be 68 Saturday Yay :) 

Our week

Just a quick check in with what we did all week/weekend. The week was pretty typical, work and then evenings filled with movies... 

working out...

 and grocery shopping.

Yesterday we went to the beach and park ♥ 

 Easton trying to sneak past us and run into the water again haha

 Today we were outside again. The park this morning and then feeding ducks and playing with Vivian and Dean this evening. I hate the end of the weekend :( Tomorrow is Monday and I have two meetings mixed in blah. Have a good week ♥ 

Day off

I am having an awesome day off with Easton :) This morning we went to Gulf Breeze and started at the park...

 Easton wanted to go exploring, so we walked around checking everything out since it was a new spot for us. He watched the big boys play baseball and kept trying to sneak through the gate to go play with them. 

 Checking out the football field...

 getting some water after running hills :)

 After that we went over to the beach. Beautiful day!!

 looking for fish 

 we walked the pier and then Easton chased some birds ♥ 

 He was confused when I wouldn't let him run straight into the water. haha A couple of months and we will be diving in! 

Now we are hanging out at the house waiting for daddy to get home from work. Looks like Easton will have another failed nap attempt today :( I think he has napped twice the last week and a half. He just has too much to do I guess :) Well, I'm off to get some cleaning and other to-dos checked off my list. ♥ 

Busy, Tired, Awesome

Getting ready to leave work Friday afternoon, my assistant asked what we had planned for the weekend. After I went through our plans she laughed and said, "Do you guys ever just stay put?" We are definitely always getting into something :) Yesterday morning I went and did a color run with my brother and niece. 

About to get blasted...

it was a beautiful day and a lot of fun to hang out with Kyle and Kylie. 

our after shot :)

headed home to get a quick shower and lunch before heading to shoot a wedding all afternoon. 

After the wedding I was back home and we got ready and went to a hockey game with everyone. Easton did such a good job at the game, just sitting in his chair like a little man and watching the game...only getting up when he needed to dance to the music they were playing ♥ 

Today we were up and had to get outside, it was so nice again. We actually did the exact same thing we did last weekend downtown. Ran around at maritime park and then went for a bike ride along the water. 

 oh these two ♥ 

 After downtown, we went to my parents for lunch and to hangout. I'm glad I got to see Kylie a good bit both days while she was in town.We played some home run derby in the front yard and went for another bike ride. 

It's been a great weekend! Drake is working tomorrow, but I get the day with my boy. :) Have a good week!

Back in our groove

Our heater got fixed yesterday so after 4 days at my parents, we are back in our own bed. :) Yesterday I also went and ran a new sidewalk they added close to our house...it was great because it is near the park and each side is exactly a mile. So I went straight from work, ran 4 miles and then met D&E at the park to play. 

 (Pop and Nanny took Easton to Chuckie Cheese today, so I got some pictures at work of him playing ♥ He's getting so big) 

Overall it's been a pretty typical week I guess...Easton did have speech today and had another good day :) Did a good job asking for "more" while playing puzzles with the therapist. We just do more things with him that require him to talk in order to get what he wants. She was holding the puzzle pieces and he was trying to get them and she would just sit there and not let go until he attempted some kind of verbalization and then he would get the next piece. 

Well, I guess that's it for now...3 day weekend coming up! Can't wait ♥ 

Beauty in the storm

Happy Sunday! This weekend has gone by WAY too fast. Everything is so up and down lately...even the weather. Yesterday morning it was so gross outside, storms and lighting everywhere. By the time lunchtime was here, this is what it turned into...

 I can't help but think about our current speech situation in the same way. Right now we are in a gloomy spot with worry for Easton. But I am really trying to make a point of when I want to worry, to stop and pray instead. I know one day this will be past us and Easton will be doing great. 

So, once it cleared up yesterday we went downtown and enjoyed the weather. We went to the park where Easton loves to just run for days! We played, looked at fish and then went on a bike ride downtown. It was really an awesome afternoon! 

Last night we headed to my parent's house because our heater decided to stop working. Dang it. So we had someone out to look at it and the parts will be in a couple days to fix it, so we are having sleepovers at my parents the next couple days haha

We went to the local college's basketball game and watched them upset the #1 team in the nation. It was a good game...on the way out we stopped so Easton could get a picture with Roy Jones Jr. :) The best pound for pound fighter in the world. 

Well, I am headed outside and enjoy the weather the rest of the afternoon. Have a good week! xoxo

*PS-Easton saying the few words that he can repeat back. Please is just "Pa" with the sign. Also, when he gets off the bed he says the "ah ba" that he uses for almost everything else. Again, just posting for us to monitor progress ♥ *

Quick update

It's been a good first week back to work...I have next week and then a 3 day weekend already! haha I love my job! It's been really cold everywhere this week so we have been indoors, but were able to go bowling last night which Easton loves! 

Today has been really good with Easton's speech. We have the therapist come to our house Wednesdays at 4:30 every week. She was very happy with the things Easton imitated with his mouth and said that there is still a chance it could end up being a language delay. She did not want to freak us out last week (of course she did) but wanted to be honest about the couple signs she was seeing, but said he did great tonight. Also, they will never "officially" diagnose apraxia before the age of 3, which to me was another positive that we have that much more time for him to progress and rule that out. We are SO hopeful and happy about the potential of just a language delay. I obviously realize this is just a week later, so I am being realistic...but positive. The signs of apraxia did not magically disappear in a week but he added some things this week that can hopefully lean us a little more the other way, even if just a little. A language delay would be some work but once he started talking he would be good to go for his future...the apraxia would be a never ending struggle. So, we are by no means out of the woods but I will take any positive right now. I just hate the wait of not knowing. It is and will continue to be a roller coaster of emotions I'm sure. Just have to take one day at a time. We will continue to work hard and love on our boy. 

Happy Wednesday! xoxo

New Year

Hello 2014! Back to work and the day to day grind. I hate that my first post for the year is a downer, but this is my space to write about the good days...and the bad. That's how life is. I guess I should start back to a several months ago. Easton didn't seem to be saying as many words as other kids his age at that point. We thought maybe he is just a "late talker" 1. Overall boys tend to start talking later than girls. 2. He is not in daycare and 3. He doesn't have older siblings. A little more time went by and we were concerned. I went ahead and starting the process to get him into speech therapy. I would rather be wrong and not need it rather than continue to wait and him get behind. 

Well, the process to get going took a couple months and we finally started his sessions in December after going through other testing he had to do. Those tests showed that he was above average in every area (motor skills, problem solving, etc. but was obviously low in the communication score) At this point he only has 3 words (mama, dada and bye bye) He attempts to talk all the time and is luckily able to let us know what he is wanting or needing by his non-verbals. He will push us over to the pantry and point to a snack and sign please while saying (pa) 

So...the other day at speech the therapist said that she was a little concerned by the fact that he may be showing signs of speech apraxia. This is a neurological disorder where the child understands everything you are saying, knows what they need to say back, but the signal from the brain to the mouth is not what it needs to be to allow their mouth to form the words. We pray that this is not what he has. This would mean many years of very intense speech therapy and a rough road ahead. I feel so bad for Easton when he does his speech...he tries SO hard to talk to us and his mouth and face are moving with so much focus but he can't get it out. 

The couple things that had her worried were: The fact that he is so smart as far as understanding what we are saying. He has done several tests to show that he knows what you are saying, will point out all of his letters and numbers, etc. But can't give anything back. She said if he was not understanding as much as he was then maybe it was just an overall delay, but he knows so much. Also, the fact that he continues to go to "ah ba" For example, when he is babbling it is always "ah ba ah bah" Even when we tried some exercises the other night of what does a cow say and really showing him our mouths going "mmmmmoooooo" He would open his mouth really wide and "ah ba" came out. 

Needless to say, the year is off to a stressful start after hearing the potential problem. We have cried a lot and have been working that much harder with Easton to have him watch our mouths make sounds, putting a mirror in front of us and moving our mouths around to try and have him imitate us. One thing that the therapist is so amazed by is the fact that he shows no frustration. She said you can tell he is walking around like, "Life is good and everybody loves me" :) He is such a sweet little boy and I will just keep praying and know that everything will be just fine. 

Sorry so long, I debated writing about it all but want to write about it so that I can look back for Easton's benefit to know what he was doing when. Last night we went to Easton's pediatrician's house for dinner. We knew them long before we started using her as our doctor, and they have become friends. She made me feel so much better about everything. When we were eating dinner we were making Easton ask for his water and yesterday he added "wawa" to his vocabulary. So, after he would say "wawa" we were all excited and clapped for him. They have 3 college/high school aged kids that were eating too and Easton pointed to the one that wasn't clapping. He will call you out if you don't clap when he does something good :) It cracks us up. 

Now to end on a happy note. Today was GORGEOUS. We went to the park and had a great day together as a family. ♥ Happy Saturday! xoxo