The Latest on Cade

I'm a little late in getting this on my blog, but better late than never, right?  Cade had his tubes put in his ears 2 weeks ago and it has made such a difference.  He can actually hear without his aids in!  It's fantastic.  The day that he had them in I asked him a question, his aids were out, and covered my mouth so he wouldn't read my lips and he answered it!  Needless to say, I cried.  He hasn't been able to hear well for a long time and now the liquid is out of the way, he can hear so much better.  One of the best things is that the tv isn't as loud as it used to be.  We had a follow up last week with the doctor and he said that everything looks great and the tubes are in a good position.  Cade keeps asking how many more days until they come out.  His teachers all noticed a difference right away, he is so  much more focused.  He is a great little boy and we are so lucky to have him in our family.  The poor thing has been through so much in the past 2 years to try to get things figured out and hopefully now we are done.  The improvements in him are amazing, he is more social and is speaking a lot clearer.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS CASEY!!!!

I have to give you a background on this post.  Every Christmas I stress out what to give Casey for Christmas and last year I thought I did a pretty good job picking out some gifts including a watch and an ipod shuffle so he could listen to music while he rode his bike.  Christmas morning we were opening presents and Casey said, "Well, that's it!"  I said, "No, there are still some presents for you."  We looked under the tree skirt, even picked up the tree and nope, they weren't there.  I went to my closet where I was putting all of the presents after I wrapped them.  No, they weren't there either.  I was so stressed.  I looked through our whole closet, I showed him the receipts to show him that I really did buy him more then what he got.  Not that he wasn't happy with what he got or didn't believe me but for my sake.  It was driving Casey crazy because all I did the whole day was either worry about it or look aimlessly for the missing gifts.  We came to the conclusion that they were probably put in a plastic bag with garbage and thrown away.  I didn't really believe it but it was the only solution I could come up with and it took me awhile to accept it.

So....  Today I was cleaning out the closet in the toy room that holds all of my craft things, wrapping paper, bags, ribbons, toys etc.  I was going through and organizing all of the drawers and I had a big bag of ribbons on the shelf and decided to put them in the drawer.  They didn't fit in the drawer in the bag so I dumped the bag out and out fell two wrapped presents.  My first thought was, What are these presents?  I turned it over and there was the gift tag that said To Daddy.  I started screaming for Casey over and over.  He came running wondering what in the world would I be screaming like that for.  It was pretty exciting and on top of that he LOVED the watch!  It is a happy day!  Casey loved his gifts and the money I spent on him wasn't thrown in the garbage!  So... 9 months later, Merry Christmas Casey!  

Cade's new golf clubs

     

Last Saturday, Casey wanted to go get himself a new putter and asked Cade if he wanted to go.  Surprisingly, he said yes!  If Cade has a choice to go somewhere or stay home, he always stays home.  So Cade went with Casey to the golf store and ended up getting Cade a set a golf clubs instead of a putter for himself.  What a good daddy.  So of course when he got home he had to show them off and try them out.  Casey and Cade even went to the golf course that day while Claire was at a party and Chloe and I napped.  

We might have a golfer on our hands!  

Pink dots

Yesterday while I was brushing Claire's hair before church, she was looking in the mirror at me and said,

Claire: Mom, I see pink dots on your face.  

Me: Thanks Claire.  I'm going to remind you of this when you are a teenager, ok?  

Claire: Ok Mom!  

Cade's latest...

Cade has had some trouble hearing lately, even with his hearing aids on.  The other day I was about 3 feet away from him and was asking him in a normal voice, "Cade, can you hear me?"  He did respond until he saw my lips moving and came over and put his ear towards me.   He has really been relying on lip reading a lot lately. Without his aids on, we have to talk directly into his ear for him to hear.  He also has been complaining about a noise in his ear that he has described two different ways.  The first is by putting his pointer finger and thumb together and making a circular motion by his ears and the other he described as a feet noise.  I asked him what a "feet noise" was and he stood up and quietly marched in place.  He went to the audiologist last Saturday and he did some tests, his hearing had gone down 10-15 decibels and the pressure behind his ears was REALLY bad.  We were able to get him into the ENT and we were told that he needs to have tubes put in his ears to help him with the draining.  We were really happy that this was a lot easier to diagnose then the hearing loss was.

We showed him the poster on the wall explaining the tubes being put in his ears and immediately he said, "I don't want that."  Then Casey said, "Maybe we can get you the Lego Batman video game if you get it done" and that sealed the deal.   We went to meet with the scheduler and he was ready to get it done right then.  Now he has to wait 2 whole weeks to get his game.  We go in on October 10th to have the procedure done, it will be a great day.  I can't wait for my little boy to hear well again.

The Gumball Machine is Back!

Cade and Chloe are so alike in many ways, it's a little scary.  They both like the same shows as little kids, they both can't sit still, and they have the same motivators to be potty trained. When I got back from Lake Powell I rededicated myself to try to potty train Chloe.  I know that it's all about timing but when all the kids her age and younger are done then I put the pressure on myself to get it done.  So the immediate reward is a gumball, I bought this when Cade was going through the process.  Cade loved it then and Chloe loves it now.  I should rephrase that, all of my kids love it, Cade and Claire think that if they go to the bathroom then they get a gumball too!  I hear them asking me a lot after they go.  The long term motivator for when she is done is Disneyland that is what it was for Cade too.  She's also like Cade in that one part of potty training is going to be difficult, I'll let you figure that out.  So the adventure begins... I can't wait until it's over!

Cade leads the school

While we were at Lake Powell Cade's class was in charge of leading the school in the pledge of allegiance and he got to do it one day!  Mandy and Erich practiced with him so he would be ready. So here he is in action!