It's a New Year!

Happy New Year! 
I have been meaning to do this for quite some time but i figured the start of a new year was as good a time as any.  I am creating a blog to keep everyone up to date with what is going on in the Smith house.  I will try to post as often as possible.

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas, tho as always, it went too fast.  We were blessed in that, all 4 of our parents were able to be here with us & the boys for Christmas.  It took us literally ALL DAY to open presents on Christmas day, working in "rounds" between meals & naps.  We were so grateful that my mom was able to come out and spend a week with us.  Her & the boys had a great time together! 
My dad moved out here last May and lives about 10 minutes away.  It is so great having him so close.  He unfortunately got laid off in June from the job that brought him out here & has been out of work since.  The silver lining is that he has been able to spend a lot of time with us & the boys.  He has spent a lot of time w/ Easton, in particular, since they had a regular date once a week when Gray had his music class.  So Grampy & Easton are buds.  Its awesome!!

I will start with Grayson (aka, Buggaboo, Bugga, Bug, Beega, Beeg).  Gray turned 2 at the end of November and is doing great!  He is still a very sweet, sensitive, affectionate, happy little boy.  The only words he is saying consistently so far are "up" & "yep" but he definitely lets you know what he wants/needs in other ways.  He started speech & occupational therapy this past August and really likes both his therapists.  The speech therapy is going much slower than his occupational therapy (OT).  The OT was because has had a developmental delay in his fine motor skills (self feeding, using crayons, etc) but he has gotten much better with that & we have actually decreased the frequency of his OT.  His speech therapist & I are concerned that he may have a condition called Apraxia (or childhood speech apraxia).  Which is similar to what stroke victims deal with in that, they know what they want to say but their brains and mouths can't communicate correctly & they can't form the sounds.  The child feels like "my mouth won't work!".  It is very frustrating for him (& us) but hopefully since we got him started with therapy early, we can get it taken care of sooner rather than later.  Some kids unfortunately take years.  We are getting an evaluation done at the end of the month by a doctor at Children's Hospital who's supposed to be the best.  So we'll see what he says.
He is a typical boy in that he LOVES vehicles but mostly, tractors & motorcycles.  He is tall & skinny, he is 36 inches tall (which is like 95th percentile for his age) and 30 lbs which is right about average.  He still isn't crazy about his brother but I am hoping that will change over time.  :-)  He does help out a little with him, picking up his toys that he dropped and giving them back to him (unless he decides he wants to play with it).  He loves being around other kids.  He is content most of the time to sit back and watch the action; people watch.  He loves music & dancing and just your run of the mill roughhousing & tickling (he's extremely ticklish). He also likes to help with some of the chores around the house, he likes to feed the dog, load & unload the dishwasher, mop the floors & is starting to take an interest in helping me cook.  Also, one of his new favorite things to do is play hide & seek.  He's getting pretty good at it too!

Easton (aka, Peanut, Nutty, Nut) is also such a happy little boy.  He is my very big boy!  E was 6 months on Christmas Eve.  He is almost 21 lbs and just shy of 29 inches tall!  He already has such a great sense of humor.  Not nearly as reserved as Gray.  He is very sweet, curious, very aware & alert and very vocal.  he LOVES kisses!  He is a very funny kid & I know he will continue to entertain us for years to come.  I knew since he was 2 days old he had a spark in his eye.  He already LOVES animals and adores his big brother.  He does get a little stranger shy, but that's ok.  Easton is also starting occupational therapy due to feeding issues he has had since birth.  He has dealt with a lot in his life so far (both boys have; health wise) but he is also improving.  Since he was born he has had problems coordinating his swallowing/breathing which causes him to aspirate (breathe in the formula from his bottle) which can cause pneumonia and causes him to choke a lot.  So we have had him to pediatric gastroenteroligists (GI), ear,nose & throat (ENT) doctors, feeding specialists, speech therapists & a couple pediatricians.  He also has acid reflux which not only compounds the problems but also contributes to frequent ear infections.  He is on meds for his reflux & i think we are starting to get a handle on his feeding issues.  As he progresses with his OT, his feeding should continue to improve.  He started solids in the last month and at first was very difficult for him.  He has improved greatly & we have moved up to the next stage of baby foods.  We have also just recently started sleep training him as he has still been waking up a couple times at night wanting to eat.  So after 6 months of this, we are over it!  Come on E, get with the program!!  It isn't as bad as it was with Gray but we aren't home free yet either. 

Both boys will be starting Kindermusik the end of January.  Gray has taken music class for about a year now but this will be Easton's first class.  Gray really loves it & I am hoping Easton will too.  They are in different classes so it allows me some undivided fun time with each of them individually.  The classes are held at a church a few minutes away (tho they are not religious in nature) and they offer child care.  So while i am in class with one, they have someone watching the other one in the nursery.  I am hoping it will work out as well as it sounds and am looking forward to starting the classes again.

Work is slow for Ryan right now but we are expecting it to pick up again the middle of February when we have our annual home show.  It usually gets us some work.  Ryan has been looking at other career options (as he does every year when we get slow & it stresses him out :-))  We pay a ton for health insurance being self employed and are tied to the business at all times.  We are grateful for the flexibility it allows us & that it has allowed me to be at home with the boys full time but are considering being employed by someone else may lessen some of our biggest expenses (insurance & taxes, namely).  But we will see where that path takes us.  I am also planning on heading back to work once things are stable with both boys therapy.  I think it may just be part time at first.  Again, we will see.

Hope everyone is well & i am off to get some sleep, while I can.