A Pew All Our Own: A Drew Update

Sunday, January 4, 2015

A Drew Update

We had an Advent Angel in our neighborhood who would leave secret gifts on our porch all Advent. There were seven families who drew names and everyone was an Advent Angel to someone else. The first gift that was left on our doorstep was in a bag. Drew jumped out the door, picked it up, and before I could say anything, he tossed it into the house. You guessed it. It was breakable. I heard the crack and reached into the bag to find a snow globe of the Holy Family totally busted open. So sad, but a good lesson not to throw bags when you don't know what is inside them.

Drew covered his own arms in stickers.

One day after Drew disappeared to go potty, I realized he never came back. We were doing school work and I just didn't notice how much time had passed. I went to check on him to find him playing in the sink with hand soap bubbles and a couple toys. He had plugged up the sink, so I explained that it could overflow if he kept the water on and that the water has to stay in the sink. I figured it kept him happy and quiet, what's the harm if he knows the rules, right? I had let other kids play in the kitchen sink before. The next day the same thing happens, only before I could realize he had disappeared again, he runs out of the bathroom and we could hear the water was on full blast. I sent one of the girls in to quickly turn off the water, only for them to discover that the sink was plugged up and overflowing at a high speed. I ran to the basement to get our clean up towels and discovered a dripping sound in the shower while I was down there. Yes, the water was leaking through the ceiling into the bathroom below! Are you kidding me? Do you remember when Brian caught the boys in the bath with water covering the floor? Well, that was the second floor bathroom leaking into the first floor bathroom. That still hasn't been fixed and we have all been exclusively using the shower in my room for almost a year. So now the first floor bathroom is leaking into the basement bathroom too. Lots of plumbing projects to work on now that the basement is complete. Pictures to come soon, when we get it all cleaned up and camera ready.

You may also know that Drew is taking soccer this winter. He improved in the fall and I thought we'd give it another try to see if he enjoyed it more since Isaac wanted to do indoor soccer and the practices were at the same time. Well, he loves the first part of the practice, where they run and have races, but he doesn't like the part where they use the ball. The first and second practices he would randomly run off the field and tell me he was done. Usually, I could get him to go back and give it another try. One day he ran off the field in the middle of the practice (I thought because he was discouraged about the game or something, but he runs straight into my lap and gives me a kiss, then ran right back out to play. I don't think we'll be continuing soccer for him in the spring.

We gave him hot cocoa to keep him quiet one night during family prayers.

Drew is going to be evaluated for his speech in January. I had been giving him time to be normal and struggle with speech longer than the other children did. I have even gotten used to his mispronunciations. G and J sounds are D's. K sounds are T's, Most blends are hard for him which I am less concerned about because that is more in the normal range. The thing that brought my attention to it recently is that it is now frustrating him when people can't understand him. He'll stay, "I tan't say it wight, Mom." The other day he asked me what his name is in the middle of co-op. I said, "Why are you asking me that? You know your name." He asks again in a different way, "What do you call me?" I told him we call him Drew or Andrew. He replies, "I told him that!" Turns out another boy was asking his name, and he could not understand his answer. I decided that it wouldn't hurt to have him evaluated just in case some early intervention is necessary.