Ooops.....

On Saturday Morning I took Will to get his flu shot and Jared stayed home with Jet and Bell. Jared hasn't been feeling well and was feeling "foggy" brained. I had bought Anabella a few things with gluten in them, because I don't feel the need to make her go entirely gluten free. Well guess who got a gluten filled cereal bar for breakfast... that's right - Jet. I think my reaction to that news was, "Well, Poop!". The upside of that - we get to see his reaction to it. I think that if we would have known the literal hell that the next few days would hold - Jared may have thought a little more about doling out cereal bars.
Jet did not take a nap that day (and he is a faithful napper), he threw up that night, and he eventually passed out around 11pm that night. I have learned that when Jet fights sleep = he doesn't feel good. He woke up early Sunday Morning in a terrible mood and he has been in that mood ever since.
But that's not all. I had bought donuts for Sunday School. The leftovers were in the kitchen, because I was going to take them to MOPS. I heard Jared in there Sunday night saying, "eat it, eat it". What was he talking about? Well, apparently Jared gave Jet a donut and Jet was looking at it like... "are you sure I can eat this?" Jet came waltzing into the living room with a donut. My response this time... (casually) "What's he eating?" Jared's response, "Oh No!!! A Donut!" My response, (not so casually) "What!!!! Get it out. Get it out."
For Jet eating gluten is like a vampire getting a taste for blood, he has to have it.
Monday morning, I had to stop by the donut shop and get more donuts (because Jared and I have the same reaction to gluten as Jet and we ate all the donuts... oops!).
Jet practically jumped on the donut box trying to get a taste of at least one donut. He manage to mutilate two, but wasn't able to get even a bite down. However, when MOPS was over the first thing he went looking for was a bite of leftover donut and he succeeded in findinf a small bite hidden under the chair.
Wait... there's one more. Anabella was snacking on small Gerber cookies and he decided that he should help her get those eaten. So there's some more gluten you can add to the pile.
So Jet has pretty gotten a bite of gluten everyday this week and my weak has been HORRIBLE!!!! Jet has cried pretty much constantly.
I just gave up today. I called Jared in tears.There's nothing I can do, but listen to him cry. He wakes up crying and goes to bed crying.
It has to be the gluten right? Or is this just a terrible two season? I don't know, I guess we'll find out next week. Hopefully, it will get better.
You know some days are just hard. The constant drooling, the absolute messiness at meal times, the "uh uh" grunts instead of words all day long, the tantrums, the clumsiness, not being able to follow direction, constantly asking for food and milk, stealing Anabella's binky all day...
I am not a hero Mom. At least once a day, I say a silent prayer..."Please take over, because I can't do it anymore." I loose my temper, I yell, I feel like the majority of my day is filled with a to-do list and that I get very little quality time with my children. I go to bed most nights wondering, "What the heck am I doing?".
I asked Jared today at lunch, "When is this season going to be over?" It feels like we've been here a long time and I'm ready for it to get a little easier.
But on the upside - we got good reports this past week from all of his therapists. He seems to be making improvements. Here's a few pictures and video of this past week.

 Here he is holding Sissy while she drinks her bottle.

I was getting dressed this morning and I Jared go do a kid count and this is how he found them. They are so much company for each other. This one of our sweeter moments of the week.

Last Saturday Jared had the boys out at my parents house. My folks got this for Will last Christmas. Jet did a pretty good of driving it - difficult steering it, but figured out how to make it go.

Please be praying for my family this week. My heart needs to see God move in a big way. I hear things like,"What an amazing story he is going to have." And I know that is the truth. But honestly, at this point I'm ready for the happily ever after part of the story. 

I'm a loyal watcher of Kathi Lee and Hoda and Hoda said something yesterday that rings very true to our lives...

"I know that we have it better than some and worse than others and I don't want to hog our Journey." 

So, on that note... thank you for joining us on this journey and most importantly praying for us. We need it!

Proud of him!!!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog.

Last week proved to be an interesting week. Found out that pretty much the only ketchup with Gluten is Hunt's, and guess what kind of ketchup we had in the fridge - that's right.... Hunt's. So that sucked. Gluten is tricky and it likes to hide.

If I haven't mentioned it already, Jet has 3 obsessions... (1) chocolate milk, (2) bananas and (3) power lines. And now you can add a 4th - Marshmallows. Last week he said his first sentence - "I want one more." And he even held up his finger. Pretty impressive. He of course, was talking about marshmallows.

Jet's OT was very impressed with his improvements. She had not seen him since he started his gluten diet and thought that he had come a long way in just a couple of weeks.

Jet's ST that only sees him twice a month saw him today and very pleased with his progress. She noticed that his attention span has increased, he tried to imitate her, and was very attentive for the entire hour.
He has become more purposeful in his communication and is trying a lot harder to get his point across. For example, the other day he wanted Anabella to play with him in his kitchen, so we went and tried to drag her over there. That didn't work - so he pointed to her and then pointed to the kitchen. She got the drift and followed him over to the kitchen. He's been doing a lot of things like that.

And finally, let's talk about his gross motor. Oh my goodness, it is actually really amazing. For the first time ever, I sat on the park bench at the Green Park and Jet went and played all by himself and he didn't even break his leg. :) Or fall down. :) He did great. And we went to Chic-Fila tonight and he played all in the big playground, covering every square inch. There were a ton of kids in there and he didn't even care. Normally, he would have been overwhelmed and just stood watched from a quiet corner, but not tonight. I was EXTREMELY proud of him.
His gross motor is absolutely where I have noticed the greatest improvement and it seems like it happened overnight.

This is Jet at the Green Park. It just makes my heart smile, because just a couple of weeks ago this would have been very difficult for him to do.

In this next video, Jet made it very clear to us - by matters of pointing - that he wanted to go down the slide with his baby sister.

Another amazing moment - we went to Toys R Us tonight to look at getting Anabella a birthday present and they had one of those big wooden train tracks set up. Jet took a train, put it on the track, and made it move. This may seem mediocre - but trust me this is HUGE, with a capital H. Once again I was very proud of him.

One other thing that makes me so very proud of him - He has been around gluten filled food here recently. We took a little trip with Jared's family where there were Pancakes, cupcakes at life group, last week we went to a Mexican restaurant with fried tortilla chips and tonight we went Chic-Fila with fried nuggets. And you know what - he could have cared less. He just ate his food right up and didn't even ask for foods that had once been some of his favorites. It is such a God thing. Because to be perfectly honest, it would be heart wrenching to see him beg for food that he couldn't have.

Here's a picture of Jet at the Chile Cook off in Kansas that we went to this past weekend. He missed his nap and is just searching for someplace to lay his head. 

Notice in this picture and all of the videos that Jet has his mouth open and his tongue out. His oral motor still needs a lot of improvement. He went one day last week with just a little bit of drool, but we are still dealing with a consistent amount of drool on a daily basis. And he's grinding his teeth Horribly. I'm not sure what to do about that.

Generally at meal time Jet will literally become dirty from his head to his toes. There are times when we have to rinse him off in the bath tub because that is just easier than trying to wipe him off. However, one day last week he used his spoon so much that he only became slightly dirty. So we're starting to see hope in that area. Meal times are usually very stressful because he struggles so much to get food in his mouth and then swallowing it and everything else that goes with eating.

So here's my moment of truth - - I desperately want to see his speech improve. My heart desires to see a miracle happen. For me, that will be a sign of his healing and that this Gluten Free diet is doing him good. It may very well be selfish on my part, and if that is the case I pray that God will make me selfless and allow me to see the bigger picture. Because honestly, I have a gigantic fear that he will never be able to talk.

Thank you all for reading and I'll do a better job of keeping you updated.