First things first....Andy got accepted to IWU to finish his Bachelors!!! Yay!!! :) He tentatively starts January 16. The university caters to adult learners so the classes are one after another and each once lasts 5-6 weeks.


So to recap the beginning of the month!

Tuesday, Dec 3 Mason had a GI appointment (follow up) and we are basically cleared from future follow up appointments unless something comes up. Peds GI doesn't think they have much left to offer us because we are in feeding therapy, have an excellent pediatrician, and a medically educated momma. So since he is still failing milk protein challenges we will be consulting a pediatric allergist when he turns 2. The GI doc said that the blood work for food (and other) allergies is more reliable once they are 2 years old. If Mason doesn't grow out of the food allergies by age 2 then the chances of him being allergic for his lifetime are greatly increased based on the experience and research that he's seen.

Later that day we had our intake meeting for First Steps for Mason. She was basically collected income and insurance info and I had to sign a bunch of forms. Two therapists (most likely speech and occupational) will come do an evaluation on him this coming Tuesday the 17th. We are pretty sure we will just be switching his feeding therapy over to First Steps instead of continuing to go to Parkview Peds Rehab... nothing against them at all but there have been several schedule conflicts and with First Steps there is a high chance Mason will be able to see the same speech therapist that Austin uses. (remember...ST's do feeding therapy too). :) We are interested in hearing what the occupational therapist says about whether she thinks he has a sensory processing disorder...if so he will get OT therapy as well. Or we can OT do both therapies...just kinda depends on what works out. Overall he is improving in what he will eat.

Lots on Mason...sorry about that!!

Austin had his school speech eval December 4th. I didn't like the therapist...or care of the test really but whatever. She said he qualifies for continued speech therapy for articulation. So basically he isn't as clear as he should be for age. He is leaving out 3 main letters (f, t, & k) and is having omissions/substitutions along with it. They recommend 30 minutes once a week. We have the option of using his elementary school for free ...but we would have to work around a very limited schedule to do so. The lady is only at his school 2 sometimes 3 days a week and only til 3pm. She wants me to take off the same day every week. I don't think that's fair to the other 2 girls I work with so we are going to talk to his current ST tomorrow about her private office sessions that she offers since she has other patients that aren't in the First Steps system. Austins last official day of First Steps ST is tomorrow morning. Crazy! So crazy that he will be 3 years old on Monday!!!

He is getting excited about his birthday party on Saturday! When we talk about it he immediately says "presents" haha! :) The big boy bed is going well...although we usually find him sleeping on the floor with his pillow & blanket. But at least he is sleeping through the night. Now to patiently wait for potty training. I just don't want to push him. Everything I've read and everyone I've talked to tells me that it will happen very quickly as soon as he is ready. So we are ready with Thomas the train & dog print undies!

Work is going well. :) My car is acting up so it's spending the night at the body shop & will be getting a look over early tomorrow morning by the mechanics. The power door locks keep blowing through fuses and the remote key fob doesn't work. Guy said it could be up to $600 to fix worst case scenario depending on what he finds. I say lets just get me a newer car since I'm ready for something different haha!!

Learned some extremely exciting news about a family member tonight. :) I'll be praying my heart out for her!