J with a hook

We have been practicing the letter J for quite some time now, but I think this little man finally has it down! I'm so proud of the progress he continues to make. I have such high hopes and dreams for you Jayen. Always do your best!

Date nights!

Daddy got tickets to the Diamondbacks baseball game from work, but was only able to get three of them. I convinced him that he should take the boys for a guys night out. I secretly wanted a girls night in so it was a win win!

 

 

The boys bumped into one of our baseball buddy families and were able to sit near them during the game. They snapped this picture to show us how much fun they were having. So we decided to snap some for them and send them back!

 

 

Our first stop was my favorite request from my little princess; she wanted noodles! The boys got hotdogs and popcorn while we shared sushi, lettuce wraps, and noodles. I think we won!

 

The fun didn't stop there! We headed to Target to do some shopping and had fun in the costume aisle!

The girls night ended with pajamas, slippers, a movie, and popcorn with M&Ms. Perfect ending with my little princess! I hope we all get more days like this!

Listen to this!

I'm so impressed by this little man. His speech is really coming along. Tonight for bedtime he choose to read a book his preschool teacher made him called "Classmates, classmates who do you see?" There were pictures of his then classmates with the words like "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?" book. Jayen recognized his friends from two years ago and was able to clearly make an approximation for their names.

 

Let's hope these seizures stay away so we can continue to grow his language. We are getting closer and closer to hearing, "I love you mom!"

My monkey on the bars

He has always loved doing the monkey bars but was too scared to do them by himself. He would beg for someone to come hold his feet, even though I was pretty sure he had enough strength to do it himself. After church today we went to the park to waste some time before Sunday school. I was watching Jayen walk across a bridge where he had to move his feet around the bars and saw Dalan was standing in front of the monkey bars, the next time I looked up Jayen was on the other side of the monkey bars. Dalan had this amazed look on his face and shouted, Jayen just did the monkey bars by himself. We watched him do it another time and video taped it. I was so impressed! No prompting, no help! We watched him do it over and over again, but had to stay right under him after he lost his arm and fell more than 7 feet to the ground face first. I screamed and ran as fast as I could towards him. He had a little dirt in his mouth, but otherwise seemed fine. He was ready to get up and do it again, but mommy wanted to snuggle and watch a little closer. What a brave little boy! I'm so proud of you Jayen Hochstein! But don't scare mommy anymore!

 

Talking so much, but not always saying good things

Jayen has really taken off with his verbal language lately. He is really making an attempt at all the words we present. I'm so impressed with what is actually coming out of his mouth too. Today after Jayen's baseball game, Matt was having a conversation with Brilyn about her being hungry. Matt jokingly told her she should have eaten her super (before the game) "ya dingbat". So of course my nonverbal child chimes in and repeats the name calling. It wasn't the best thing for him to repeat, but we couldn't stop laughing at how well he said it. I'm still holding out for the day I hear, "I love you mom!" or "You did such a fantastic job raising me. I know you put your heart and soul into making me who I am today!" Yeah, still waiting for that day!

Therapy Fun!

Mommy was able to sneak a picture of Jayen at therapy today. I love all the special tools they have to work with Jayen. I think we need one of these at home!

 

Trying anything we can!

Mommy and daddy have been struggling keeping up with the laundry at our house due to the nightly bed changes. Jayen goes on these amazing runs where we don't have to change the sheets for a couple weeks, then he makes up for it by making us do it every night. We have been on a very bad run for far too long now and I'm trying anything I can. I found pajamas at Kohl's today that have no feet, and thanks to my amazingly smart, autistic mommy friend Kourtney, I heard it helps to put them on backwards. Jayen was very excited for his new pajamas so I was excited to try them out tonight.

Something, somewhere decided tonight was not going to be as fantastic as I hoped. Jayen got out of bed over 100 times, that's no exaggeration. Every could of minutes he would get out of bed and walk to our room. On the positive side, the pajamas didn't come off at all. He did try to pull all of his clothes out of his closet and put them on top of his pajamas. But because he was awake all night long he peed and somehow still managed to soak the bed. AHHHHH! I can't take this anymore. Now I have laundry to do and I'm so tired I think I used bleach instead of laundry detergent. SOMEONE HELP!

 

Religious Education

I'm always nervous about leaving Jayen with someone new, so when we signed him up for religious education classes I made sure to talk to the director numerous times. She understood Jayen and his needs and remembered him from children's liturgy on Sundays. She didn't see any reason why he couldn't participate in classes. She gladly welcomed and encouraged him to participate. Last week was their first class. I hung around at first and told the teacher about him. I was so excited to learn that she knew some sign language and would work with Jayen. It really sounded promising. I'm still very excited about the teacher working with Jayen, but something this week really confused me. After class the teacher approached me and told me about the project they were working on today and suggestions for how Jayen could participate. She said they were asking the kids their favorite colors but didn't know how to include Jayen. I turned around and asked Jayen, "J, what's your favorite color?" He verbally responded, "Bu". He also signed the color. I didn't know what to say to the teacher other than just ask him. I told her that he understands so much receptively but expressive is his problem. He has a ton of word approximations and can usually get his point across with what he does have. I also gave her the idea of two choices with her hands and he has to point to the hand that he chooses. I'm trying to let this all process. I really think she cares for him and wants to include him, otherwise she wouldn't have asked, but that seems like such a silly question. I'm thinking I might stick around a little longer next week and give suggestions during class.

Game Day

I don't think things could get any busier at the Hochstein house on Saturdays. Oh no, let me take that back; things can always get worse. Saturdays are a very busy day at the Hochstein house. Our morning started bright and early with an 8AM football game. Dalan has been waiting for football season since arriving in Arizona. I love how happy it makes him. He is really good too. The first game of the season he was asked to be quarterback. He wasn't too sure about this idea since it meant he would necessarily be the one making the touchdowns. After a bunch of hype, he wearily accepted the position. Now the second game of the season and all he talks about is being quarterback, so when the coach didn't put him in that position he was a little disappointed. That disappointment quickly went away when he scored the first and only touchdown for his team. He really is growing so fast right in front of my eyes. I love the little man he is and can't thank God enough for sending him to me. I'm so proud to be his mommy!
My other children didn't cease to amaze me either. Brilyn, my often times quiet and shy little girl, met another little girl at the football game and became "close" friends. The little girl had a tablet with her and was playing games and watching movies. Brilyn very politely asked if she could watch. When I looked over again, they were sitting cheek to cheek in her very tiny lawn chair; "close" friends! But what melted my heart even more than her breaking out of her shell was what I heard her ask her new friend. She noticed Jayen watching from over their shoulders and asked her new friend, "Can my brother watch with us too?" She didn't push him away and take her new friend and her tablet away from Jayen, instead she invited him over and asked for him if he could join. The two of them are always fighting, but I know they love the other more than anything. They may be further apart in numerical age, but they are so close developmentally that it often is challenging for both of them. I couldn't have been more proud or have seen more love between them than I did at that moment.
I wish it could have lasted a little longer, but Saturdays are busy busy busy and Jayen and Matt had to make their way over to baseball. Thankfully the football fields and baseball fields are only a large city block apart. Dalan finished his football game strong and passed out his treats to his friends. Snacks were our responsibility. So glad that is done so I don't have to worry about forgetting our turn. (I freaked out last week thinking it was my turn and I forgot the treats!) We quickly loaded up our stuff and headed over to buddy baseball.
This is honestly one of the reasons we chose to live in the city of Surprise. In Nebraska we participated in a program with the Miracle League called All Play. This buddy baseball is the same concept. We have been trying to convince the organizers to add in some of the things we loved or helped from our Nebraska games. I had asked last season about painting feet on the ground in the batter's box to help the kids identify where they are supposed to stand when they hit the ball. Last week I brought along a door mat I painted feet on and placed it in the batter's box waiting for the organizers to notice. When I saw them looking at it and talking about it, I walked over to see if I was in trouble. Ms. Jenny loved it and was thankful. She was trying to find a way to put it there without having to paint them on the ground.
This week she had a surprise for me; we told her about how we used the PA system to announce the kids' names when they were batting. Ms. Jenny had been working with an electrician and was able to present me with the microphone. What? I just said it was an idea. I didn't say I wanted to do it. I bit the bullet and fearfully announced the second inning. The kids were in awe. I loved seeing their faces when their name was announced. One child in particular made it all worthwhile, maybe because he was the last batter at the bottom of the second inning. He was patiently waiting his turn to bat as I announced child after child. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, he stared at me waiting for me to call his name. When it was finally his turn he jumped up out of his seat with excitement. While standing in the batter's box he would often turn and look at me directly behind the batter's box. I got caught talking to another family that came a little early for the next game. They were very excited to hear the announcing. They were hoping I was staying for the next game and announcing theirs. While talking the excited boy hit the ball and stood there waiting for me to announce his hit. I looked up only seconds later to realize I was missing my cue and quickly announced his HOME RUN! (The last batter of each inning is a home run to get all the kids in!) I obviously had to make up for my mistake and went a little soccer on his home run; think soccer announcer yelling GOAL! I think we showed the staff at the stadium how this little addition really makes a difference. And apparently now I have a contract to announce the rest of the games this season. I guess I better start watching baseball and learn some of this commentary stuff.
After the baseball game we changed all uniforms to Husker gear and headed to meet more Husker fans. My friend Karrie has been teasing me about going to a local Mexican bar and grill to meet up with the West Valley Huskers. We found out where they were meeting and decided to try it out. We also heard that they were having a raffle for tickets and airfare to next weeks game. We weren't sure how early we had to be to get a seat but we were hungry and ready to eat. We were about an hour early, but worth the wait. I loved seeing the flags outside the building as well as the front door welcoming Husker fans. My smiles only escalated as each new fan arrived in their red gear ready to cheer on their favorite team. I didn't know a single person there, but I felt at home. The game didn't start out well, but I became best friends with the entire bar towards the end of the fourth quarter. Holy moly what a game! The kids were all so good. I truly couldn't have asked for them to be any better. The raffle was drawn and sadly we didn't win (weren't sure what we would do with the kids anyway). A little sad it didn't end the way we wanted, but fun to watch and be with friends none the less.
A great day filled with many great games. Hope we can repeat next week!

Nerves

No day should start out this early; 4:30 AM is a time I only remember seeing on the clock only a handful of times. One time I was just coming back after the 4am bar close and heading to bed instead of leaving it. My nerves didn't let me sleep much so 4:30 came way too fast! Of course no food or drink for Jayen so Matt and I snuck a quick bite before waking him. Dalan was able to spend the night at a friend's house so we didn't have to wake him this early. We tried getting Jayen and Brilyn in the car so they could continue to sleep for the 40 minute drive, but they decided they had more than enough energy. Traffic was crazy, even at 5 AM. We ended up being about 10 minutes late for check in. In admissions and my nerves hit the roof; the 30 minute wait for someone to actually check us in didn't help at all. I'm so glad we brought the iPad to entertain them with Frozen. In the pre-op area there was a cute waiting and play area. Jayen challenged Matt to a few games of air hockey to pass the time.

 

Matt drew the short straw and went in pre-op. Apparently Jayen put up a pretty good fight when they brought out the mask. I WARNED THEM! He knows what that thing is. When Matt came back out of the operating room we took Brilyn to the cafeteria. I did like how they had the OR board on the wall to update you on the progress. We got back to the waiting room before they were finished and the nerves couldn't have gotten any worse. I thought it was only supposed to take about 45 minutes and we were well over 2 hours. They finally came out and said everything went well. Jayen ended up needing 4 cavities filled and two crowns. The anesthesiologist said we needed to let him sleep as long as possible. They didn't want me going back until he woke up because they didn't want me seeing the tube down his throat and to make sure he stayed asleep as long as possible. We kind of laughed at the explanation since we've been there through brain surgery and have seen so much scarier shit. After we explained that the anesthesiologist came back out and brought me to the room. Not long after Jayen started waking. They weren't kidding when they said he was going to be mad. He would wake up long enough to yell mom, hit me, then pass back out. I crawled in the bed, snuggled with him and did everything I could to not cry. After a few rounds hitting then passing out again, he finally woke up enough to chug two apple juices.

 

We were able to leave a few minutes later. I couldn't believe how well he bounced back. I'm so happy this is behind us. 

Preparing for it

Being a special needs parent is really a full time job. I can't tell you how many phone calls I have had to make in a matter of minutes this morning.
Who loves dealing with insurance?
Jayen has two different insurance companies (so twice the calls) and needs stupid referrals and authorizations for EVERYTHING. While I'm sitting here anxious about his appointment tomorrow for dental work because he goes under general anesthesia, I call the dentist office to see where we are su...pposed to go tomorrow and what are the rules as far as meds and breakfast only to find out they got the authorization from our primary insurance, our dental insurance, but are still waiting on medicaid. THE PROCEDURE IS TOMORROW MORNING! We've been working on this for 4 months. Out of three insurance (Tricare medical, Tricare Dental, and Medicaid) we can't get this freaking figured out. I can't even stress about the procedure itself because I have to stress about it happening at all. I'm done with today and it has only just started.