Samuel Update

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. Thought it was about time to update you on what Samuel has been up to.
Sam is "potty" trained but will NOT poop on the toilet. It has been frustrating to me, because the kid never has a potty accident and can even go by himself. Pulls down his pants, lifts up the lid to the toilet, pulls his pants back up. Most nights wakes up dry, nap time dry....but poops in his pants. He will poop in his pants come and say "Mom, I am sorry I pooped in my pants! You mad at me?" When I try to catch him before he poops in his pants, I will put him on the toilet and he cries the whole time "I can't do! It won't come." Then thirty minutes later poops his pants. I have a hard time letting him sit on the toilet crying, so I have no idea what to do. We have tried bribing him, threatening him, showing him, nothing seems to be working. I ask him "Sam how do you poop when you poop in your pants?" as he sits on the toilet crying. He will say "I don't know!" I know he will eventually get it and poop on the toilet but it is driving me crazy because we are SO CLOSE! Joseph was still having poop accidents till he was over three but I think I just blocked it out and don't remember what we did to help him get over this! But yes, my last kid is "potty" trained. Hopefully in a month he will be "poop" trained as well!

This week Sam started to put on his own underwear and pants. To most almost three year olds this is not a huge milestone. But for us it was HUGE! We are so impressed with him figuring things out and doing things sooner then we expect. Now if we could just figure out how to get lefty through the shirt holes we would be all set. I think this summer when we have short sleeves on it will be easier to figure out for him. Another OT skill he started doing recently is putting toothpaste on his toothbrush with his left hand. Makes a huge mess, but hey what kid doesn't make a mess with toothpaste! Before he started doing this, he would put the toothbrush down on the counter and put toothpaste on. I sort of thought this would be one of his adaptive ways of doing things, but he must of watch Joseph or Anna doing it and followed suit. Was pretty awesome to see him doing this. I got a little teary eyed.

As far as gross motor skills go, we haven't seen a HUGE jump in any skills. He is pretty close to age level on this front. He walks up and down stairs without holding on, jumps, climbs up on his stool at the bar by himself, plays independently (or with a little help from Joseph!) at the play places. Once the snow melts we will be working on pedaling his bike and stirring it. We have a PT evaluation coming up soon, so we will get some more ideas then. We can't get the kid to wear his brace. He just hates the thing. I think it was our fault when this summer we let him not wear his brace. Ever since then, we could not get him to put it on. It is a shame, because I am sure it really does help! I am not feeling super bad about it, because the doctor was almost not going to give him any brace at all. His ankle is still tight so we try to stretch when we can get him to slow down long enough to allow us to do it. One new skill he started doing over the last couple months is standing up without using his hands. Again not a huge skill for most kids, but he had always used his hands to prop himself off the floor. Now, he just stands using his legs, I think this came from doing the stairs without holding on. Increased his strength in his legs so standing back up became easier.

Speech is still on track. He is at the fun age where they start expressing themselves and telling stories. He often wakes up in the morning to tell me his dream "Mom, let me tell you something...." He has very detailed stories. His other favorite thing to say is "My teacher says..." Sam has his teacher at church, who is also one of my best friends so it is funny the things he says his "teacher" tells him. "Time for bed Sam." "Oh my teacher says I don't have to go to bed." "Sam eat your vegetables." "Teacher says nope!" My other favorite new thing he is saying is when it is time to go he will say "Five more minutes!" He has no clue how long five minutes is but always "Five more minutes." We must not forget him singing his new Jingle Bells song "Jingle Bells BAT-MAN smells, Robin a-aid an egg, Bat-mobile la-la wheel, JOKER got a way HEY!"

A update on the rest of us, since some of you have been asking how school is going for me! I am doing good. School is harder then I remembered it being, but somehow I have been so far getting mostly A's. If I can keep it up, I should get all A's this semester. Which is making me think maybe I should take more classes to get done sooner. I am taking Cultural Anthropology, Psychology and Nutrition. Going into the semester I thought I would like Nutrition the most, because it is kind of a Nursing class. BUT turns out I really don't care what each part of a fatty acid does. I have LOVED my Cultural Anthropology class. It is amazing and so interesting. Psychology is making me wonder if I have already screwed up my kids!!! All in all it has been a great experience. Daniel started a 'real' job the beginning of the month and having a normal work schedule has been so nice. He is home every night and has been amazing at letting me get school work done. The other four kids are doing really good. Joseph is getting so grown up. Makes me happy to see him being so responsible but sad too, they grow up so fast. Anna is loving kindergarten and trying very hard to read. She wants to read so bad but just is not quite clicking yet for her. She stays up and reads her little books they make at school but she is dying to read Fancy Nancy books all by herself. Elizabeth(2nd grade) is doing really well in school and surprisingly has a social network this year. Last year she would tell us how she just liked to stay by her teacher at recess and I would worry about her. This year she has a ton of friends and is quite popular. Lillian(3rd grade) is doing great in school this year, besides spelling. She hates it, and I struggle because I don't understand how you can think a word is spelled the way she spells them. But, my mom and others in my family have a hard time spelling, unfortunately Lillian inherited this gene. The kid can read anything you put in front of her, so why she can't spell is beyond me. Lillian still is the fun loving girl and makes a million friends wherever she goes.

Hope all my blog friends are doing good. I think about you and your families all the time. Hopefully, I will update more frequently. I will try to get some new videos up soon too!