Oh boy!

Oh what fun! All boy all the time! Ryne has definelty been busy. Ryne has continued being a wonderful big brother. He has had quite a few playdates lately with his buddies. He loves going to his "friends" house to play. So glad that we are having more and more playdates with his buddies. We are still having challenges when it comes with his speech and his behavior. We met with NREP for his evaluation meeting and he qualifies for speech therapy. We meet again in June to meet his speech therapist and discuss his goals. I know this will be a tough transition for him, but I believe he can get through it.
Tantrums are still a challenge. We are using a timer with time outs and for transition periods. It seems like it's helping. I also have cut out sugar,not that he gets a lot, cause he doesn't eat many sweets. except juice, I think it has really made a difference. We also have given up on naps during the day so he sleeps better at night. It seems to be working better but he still doesn't like to sleep in his bed. Working on getting him to stay in his bed has been another challenge, but he does seem to be less tired now that the naps have been cut out of his routine. Since preschool is coming up in the fall, he will have to manage a days without naps.
He is doing amazing with his academics. He amazes me everyday. We were driving the other day and I stopped at the stop sign. He told me "Mama, that's an octogan." Talking about the shape of the Stop sign... WHAT????? No idea how he knew that one. He's starting to count higher than ten now too, at ten he'll say eleven, twelve, fifteen fifteen.. .funny. We are working on it. He had the tape measure the other day and was making shapes with it he made a square and said the shape then made a triangle. So smart.
He was telling me a story the other day about how flowers grow. This came up because he was helping me water the flowers that we planted together. "They are tall, they go to the sky, the sun and the rain make them tall and they get really big!" I thought that was pretty good. I understood everything he said, but it was so smart and he knew what he was talking about. That is really big for him!

It's Spring!

Ryne has had a blast this spring so far. We traveled to PA for Easter this year to be with the whole Hackett clan. Ryne got to play and hang with his uncles Jim and Kevin, his auntie Stephanie, Gaggie and Pap Pap. He dyed Easter eggs with Mommy, and we had a little Easter egg hunt for him at Gaggie's house. He learned how to fly a kite with Uncle Jim and did pretty well until he dropped the string and Uncle Jim had to chase it down the hill. Funny times, sorry Uncle Jim! Like all holidays they end and had to get back to reality. Ryne has had a little bit of a hard time lately with seperating himself from us. Seperation anxiety I'll call it. He just gets hysterical when we leave him with a sitter or even a family member that he knows well. It's a new thing and it started like a month ago when he refused to go to PA with Gaggie for Scott's spring break, cause we needed a break. We didn't get one unfortunetly, but he used to be able to leave us for a week at a time. Or even an hour or two. I don't know. 

Ryne went for another speech evaluation. He didn't like that. Dealt with a tantrum the whole time, but eventually calmed down enough to get what the therapist needed. We have an eligibility meeting in May with the NREP clan. Hopefully we will get assistance for him. At the first evaluation he failed the hearing test they gave him so we have an ENT appointment next week to see if he really does have a problem that could be potentinally affecting his hearing. So we shall see what that brings. Hopefully some answers.

Ryne is officially counting like mad, he has some major skill. He really is doing a great job with counting and with numbers one through ten of course for now. We started working on eleven through twenty briefly, he says fourteen fourteen fourteen like the whole time so we have some practice to do. :) Hes being consistent with his colors now, and now is drawing circles and lines to make a "stick person". He draws it and then puts all the body parts on him. It's so good and he's so artistic. He drew me a dinosaur one time and it was pretty darn good for a three year old. So he's getting his fine motor skills working a bit with holding pencils and markers and crayons better the correct way. Loves to paint now too. Never liked it before cause it was on his hands but doesn't bother him as much anymore. 

He's doing great with Avalynn and Jonah! He is a fantastic BIG brother! He helps me out too now with them. If Avalynn is upset, he will act goofy to cheer her up and with Jonah too. He gives them toys to play with when, I'm busy in the kitchen or something and he comes in the nursery with me in the mornings and he tells them good morning and says their names and gives them kisses and  hugs. They love it! They start giggling at him and putting their little hands up. He started to pick them up and hold them on his own. It was so scary one day I was preparing lunch and I heard Jonah laughing hysterially and there was Ryne holding him on his lap bouncing him.I was like "NOOOOOO!" So I've had to be extra careful with leaving them in the same room together even for a few minutes. I started putting Avie in her Bumbo seat and Jonah in the Exersaucer. Learned my lesson.

Sleeping for Ryne has been difficult too. He started coming to bed with us about maybe when he was two and a half. Having to put him back to bed but kept coming back. It's a chore to get him to sleep at night and when he wakes up screaming and crying, I can't help but put him in bed with us or end up sleeping in his bed with him. I know this is bad but I just feel so bad for the little guy. So we are going to work on getting him to stay in bed all night with wanting Mama and Daddy. Any advice would be great!

Ryne Is A Busy Bee

Ryne has been doing amazing! He has conquered the potty training monster. He has actually gotten up in the middle of the night and used the bathroom. He has been waking up dry for awhile now. So we are on our way. Accident free for about three weeks now. So proud of him. Now that we have that down we are teaching him to pee standing up and sitting on the toilet the correct way. Eventually he'll have to use it the right way in public and such.

Ryne is officially registered for preschool in the fall. He will be attending Stephens City UMC, three days a week. We went to NREP to get Ryne evaluated for his speech situation. I must say I wasn't impressed at all with the psychologist. She was rude and didn't really work well with Ryne. The speech therapist on the otherhand was great! Ryne def showed some concern for obviously his speech and language but also failed his hearing test. So...it may be something to do with that. Thinking of making an appointment with a ENT to check his ears out. So praying that we find a solution to maybe what's delaying the speech. We went to the evaluation and now we have another evaluation with another speech therapist in April.

Ryne is still doing amazing with his academics is what I'm calling it. He can sucessfully count to ten, count objects, knows his colors, knows most of his numbers by sight and also some of his letters. He's starting to use more of his vocabulary when he's speaking. So I'm happy about that. He also has really gotten into art lately. He's very artsy. He drew a frog the other day, he did a really good job. It was green and he put big eyes on it and little pom poms for the "flies" very detailed I thought. I'm impressed with him.

Ryne has really enjoyed the nice weather we are having. He's been playing outside in his watertable and has had his friend Molly and Rowan come over to play.

Can I get a woop woop!!!

Yay! Ryne two and potty zero! Ryne is potty trained. He's doing so well with all of it. Once a month we reward him with a Thomas train, which now has become a massive collection. I think we should buy stock with M&M's and Thomas the Train.

Ryne saw a speech therapist on Saturday, Ms.Maripeg. She says that he definetly has a little delay, he has trouble with ending sounds and two syllable words. Ryne will definetly need some work. Her advice is to take him to NREP where he could get evaluated and see where they can benefit him the best. He's gotten better since 6 months ago, but we want him to get ready for school in the "near" future. Plus, Scott and I would like to put him in preschool part time in the fall.

Ryne and I have been working on our alphabet one letter at a time. We started yesterday with "alphabet art". Which is really fun for the both of us. I'll post some pics later on. We put them up in his room on a piece of poster paper and work on them before we go to bed. He's doing well. Colors, shapes and numbers are coming along great! He can now say he numbers 1-10. I'll post a video soon too.

He is my little sweetheart. He's really growing into a little man, it makes me sad and happy at the same time. Stay posted for more there is more to come.

Big Brother Rules

Ryne has gotten into this new phase now with his little siblings. He always wants to hold them. Not that that's a bad thing, its just different. So I'll put them on his lap and say "are you done yet,"because he would kinda of push them off of him, if I don't. This picture you are seeing, he wanted to hold the two of them at the same time. He did really well and held them longer than 5 seconds. It gets kind of scary now though too, because they would be laying on the floor on their playmat and he would come up to them and say ''I hold the babies" and try to pick them up. Yikes! So we had to have a talk the other day because he was doing this more often than I wanted. He is getting more and more excited about them, and it has just been the last week or so.

On the potty training issue, we have had a breakthrough. Woo hoo! Rynomite is using the potty throughout the day and saying he has to go. He has had very few accidents and staying dry through the night. The other day I was on the phone with my mother in law and I heard him flushing the big potty in the bathroom. I walk in and he's sitting on it backwards and pooping. I think he found sitting on the toilet the way we all do is uncomfortable. It's not pleasant when he has to pee cause he uses the lid for a backboard. I was still so proud of him. He did good. He has used the big potty like 4 times now in the last couple of days so...may be on our way to throwing diapers away in the next few months. Yay!

I'm a Big Boy!

Ryne started to use the potty on his own yesterday,without me asking him. He pooped and peed and only had one accident. I'm such a proud mommy. Then this morning he refused to wear a diaper instead he wanted to wear his big boy undies. I was so shocked, this happened overnight? Scott and I have been implementing the whole "big boy" thing and he finally understands it. So proud of him and his independence.

Ryne had a great day yesterday. For a January day, it was warm enough to go out and play. Ryne and his friend went out to play kickball and sidewalk chalk. Ryne is going to be an amazing athelete. He was dribbling the ball very well. His dad is so proud. We are working on sharing and taking turns. He doesn't like to do either. His favorite word lately has been "mine". Sigh. Hopefully he will get over that, cause it seems like everything is his. He is counting to ten now with a little assistance. He knows some of his letters of the alphabet by sight. When he's focused he knows his colors. Sometimes I think he's just being silly. He loves to put together puzzles. He's putting together 50 piece puzzles. Now that we have done most of them like a thousand times he has it memorized.

Ryne had been doing really well with the babies. In the beginning not so much. Now he just goes over to them kisses them on the forehead and then goes back to what he was previously doing. He doesn't pay much mind to them as he used to. I'm proud of him though. He's a great big brother. If they cry he will go upstairs and say "it's okay babies" then come downstairs to tell me "mama the babies are crying." So cute. If they are crying and he's trying to watch TV he will try to put binkies in their mouth.

Battle of the Potty, is it finally over?

Ryne finally peed and pooped in the potty this week. He's been doing really well with it and staying dry in this "big boy" undies. I put the potty in the living room so he can sit and watch his movies. It keeps him distracted. My son is not patient whatsoever! The other day he stayed dry for four straight hours! It was amazing how well his bladder control is. So I know it's time. He receives M&M's for pees and he gets a special toy if he poops in the potty. We are collecting the Thomas the Train Trackmaster sets. He loves them. I'll ask him every fifteen minutes if he has to potty. He'll sit on the potty, but I'll have to have the M&M's in my hand ready so when he's done they are there at the moment. It seems to be working for the most part. I think he's a little "shy" it takes him awhile and when he starts to pee he'll stop then start again. So I don't know what that's about. I'm looking to see how long this lasts and if we are on our way to success with the potty before the fall. Here's hoping, fingers crossed. :)

We went to his three year doctor appointment on Tuesday. He is over three feet tall and weighs in at a whooping 42 pounds! He's right where he needs to be as far as how tall he is with his weight. He looks great! The doctor suggested a speech therapist, of course we knew that was coming. We still need to find a good ped-dentist too. Other than that he's looking healthy!