Hip, Hip Hooray! Someone in our house just turned five!
Can you guess who?
I cannot believe that five years have passed, but it's true. Justin is a whole hand old! And he can even say "five". It's adorable, kind of like he is. Justin's birthday party was right after Alaina's surgery so it was kind of low-key. He didn't even care! He just wanted "Veggie Tales" and legos. Veggie Tales are still his favorite thing, and with Travis' fascination with legos, Justin needed some of his own.
I love how he reads his cards. He says "Me read" and opens it up. Of course they all say "Happy Birthday Justin"!
He got a Lego (Duplo) fire station, which pleased him to no end! The best part of Legos is crashing them down so he needed his own to crash. Travis is not a crashing kind of guy...
Since Justin can't have regular cake, and he LOVES ice cream, we just bought ice cream and dumped it upside down on a plate and frosted it with the new cool whip frosting. A few sprinkles and a candle and voila - instant birthday cake! It was a big hit with everyone.
So we now have a five-year old. He still is making huge strides in therapy. He has learned to ride a tricycle and he can jump and walk on his tiptoes. He can swing on a regular swing without fear (my fear!) of falling off. He can run really well, with arms pumping and knees up. He is learning his letters (to write them too). He is not very good with this yet, but he's just starting. He is working on his hand strength and stamina so his therapist sets the timer and he has to color for five minutes without saying he is done. It's tough (we do it at home too) because he has no ability to focus except when it comes to TV. He is also working on buttoning buttons, which he can do on a shirt in front of him but not on himself. Good thing boys wear mostly t-shirts!
His speech is what is the most remarkable. Justin's OT who moved to Austin came back to visit and she was amazed at how much progress he has made in the 8 months she has been gone. I think his learning seems to progress in a spiral: We don't understand him for a while and then there is a huge breakthrough and we understand most of what he says and then he wants to say more and we don't understand again and then he gets clearer and we understand again and then the cycle starts again with his desire to say more increasing. It kind of started with him only talking and referring to things in his visual sight and current experience. Then he talked about things that happened in the past and we struggled with understanding because we couldn't just guess things that were right there in the room. Once we understood is was about something that happened earlier in the day we could train our ear to listen for those words. Now he has gotten abstract and refers to things he would like to do or see. It's kind of fun but it's a lot more guessing for a while. He sure can tell a good story! And he started learning mostly nouns, and then he moved on to verbs and some adjectives. Now he is on to adverbs and prepositions. It's amazing to hear such long sentences come out of his mouth! He's up to four and even five words sometimes!
Justin certainly has a great sense of humor. He can tease and joke and I cannot help but laugh. He so wants to tell knock knock jokes (like Travis) but they are completely nonsensical (um, kind of like Travis...) He likes to sing songs out of the blue and he gets most of the words so I can understand enough to figure out what he's singing. We are learning "Holy, Holy, Holy" in school and he can get that part perfectly. But forget about the cherubim and seraphims for sure!
He adores his "Pop" and constantly asks for stories. Pop starts every story with "Once upon a time there was a boy named, oh, what was his name?" And Justin immediately pipes up, "Justin!" "Oh, yes, that's what it was, Justin..." It is precious seeing how much they love each other.
His sleep has improved. Since I put him back in diapers for the night he sleeps most of the night without waking up. Good for mommy's sleep. He doesn't wake up dry but he tells me "not much, lil' " is how much he peed in his diaper. If it's a little or a lot, does it really matter? So that's still a work in progress. Last night I slept for 5 and a half whole hours straight! Whoo hoo! He does seem to be more well-rested so that's a huge improvement. I am sure we are due for another sleep study soon, but I am putting it off as long as possible!
So that's our boy: Sweet, funny, crazy, silly, precious, and cuddly. All wrapped up in one adorable package called Justin!
