Here and there

Thanks for all the well wishes from my last post! Although Ethan's stomach virus was short-lived, it was crazy contagious and I woke up last Tuesday morning sick as all get out. By lunch time I barely had the energy to get off the couch and I had to call Jeramie to come home early, yet again. He was such a trooper, though; he took care of me (I had it much worse than Ethan: chills, fever, etc.), and gave lots of love and attention to Ethan who still wasn't feeling 100%. Unfortunately, after being all up in mine and Ethan's sickness, he got sick on Wednesday and spent the entire evening in the bed. By Friday morning, though, the three of us were good as new!

Here's to hoping that was our fair share of stomach ick for the flu season!

---------------------------------------

Thankfully, our sickness cleared up in time for the fun weekend we had planned. Friday night, we attempted to take Ethan to his Uncle Nick's playoff football game. (Jeramie's brother is the head coach for a high school in Kinston, NC.) Ethan had a great time playing around the field before the game started, but quickly went downhill from there. Let's just say that he and I left halfway through the first quarter! At least we got photographic proof that the three of us actually made it to a game together!

On Saturday morning, Jeramie's parents came to pick up Ethan for a night at their house. After the week of sickness we had just experienced, I welcomed the break! Ethan settled right into his carseat and barely even gave me a good-bye hug before he asked to watch the TV in their car. Unfortunately, he now thinks every vehicle comes equipped with a "tee dee" and is sorely disappointed when he climbs into ours!

Ethan's sleepover gave Jeramie and I the chance to spend some much-needed time together and to attend a going away party for some really good friends of ours. Mike and Amanda are moving back to Ohio and we are going to miss them terribly! It was so nice to spend time with them, and other friends, without the interruptions of a 20 month old.

Come Sunday afternoon, though, I was ready to see my boy! After lunch with friends, and a quick stop by the outlets, we zoomed down sat in traffic on I-40. I could have walked faster than the cars were moving! We finally made it to Jeramie's parents' house around 5:00 and my heart melted when I saw my sweet baby cuddled up on the couch, watching a movie. He had a great time playing with his Grandma and PawPaw, and I am so incredibly thankful that he gets to spend so much quality time with both sets of his grandparents!

---------------------------------------

Today, I took Ethan to see his feeding therapist, but not for feeding issues this time. This was much to Ethan's surprise; we strapped him into the high chair, as usual, and he proceed to ask for food. Homeboy knows the deal when we walk into her office! Today, however, was for a speech-language evaluation. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that Ethan seems to be trapping air in his nasal cavity when he makes certain sounds. I brought it to her attention during our last feeding therapy session, and we both agreed that a speech evaluation would be a good idea. He got an all clear from his ENT doctor last week, so at least we know that poor hearing isn't to blame. The evaluation confirmed my suspicions; we have a lot to work on! After we get the go-ahead from insurance/Medicaid, Ethan should begin weekly speech therapy sessions to correct these bad habits. The good news is that, from a language standpoint, he is ahead for his age as he was able to complete tasks in the 24-29 month range!

I took this video of him earlier today repeating his ABCs and you can hear some of those trapped air noises when he tries to say "g", "h", and "j".

His therapist assured me that these are very correctable behaviors, so hopefully we'll have him speaking clearly in no time!

---------------------------------------

It's a beautiful day here in Raleigh today! We enjoyed a fun morning at the park after Ethan's speech evaluation, and I think we'll head back outside after he wakes up from his nap.


I hope y'all have a wonderful week, celebrating all you have to be thankful for! Thanks for checking in!