Catching up this week

Summer is flying by! Before long, we will be making our road trips and then school will be starting again. The boys have been keeping busy with play rehearsal and reading books for the library reading program. William and Spencer have just made it to the finish line and Jacob is reading to finish up this week. Hopefully all the reading will continue even once there is not a big prize they are working towards. Luckily they all really love to read.

Next weekend will be the performance of the Wizard of OZ at the QCPAC. This is the play that John, William, and Jacob have been practicing so hard for. I attended one of the rehearsals last Saturday morning and got a few pictures of the munchkins. I haven't seen any of John's part yet, so that will be a surprise for me. I am very excited to go watch them perform.



















Today we spent most of the day in Phoenix. Bryce had another MRI. Since Sheri had the day off, she met us at the hospital and took the other 4 kids to her house for a couple of hours and then came back and picked us up. Bryce did pretty well, all things considered. He did wake up pretty cranky though and ended up sleeping all the way home. We should hear about the results from that by next Wednesday.

After the MRI we went to visit Brock Dieu, a little boy about Jacob's age in our ward, who has been in the hospital 10 days now. He has been having trouble with stomach, neck, and head pain. They don't seem to be able to find out what is wrong with him, but this afternoon they were going to be doing a nerve block that will hopefully help with his headaches. Poor kid.

Last Tuesday we got some exciting news. Since Bryce's wonderful speech therapist is leaving the end of the month, she wanted to test Bryce so that she could leave the results for his new therapist. She used a standardized preschool test that goes up to age 7 on cognition skills. When we stopped, because it was time for the therapist to leave, Bryce was at an age 5 level! Crazy. He knows his colors, shapes, numbers, categories, and many other things. The therapist and I were both floored! She said that she will bring the test materials back this coming week and see if he can go any further. It truly is amazing to watch him. Since it is sometimes hard for him to stretch his arm out, he often uses his head to point to the right answer. He is also a little stinker sometimes and will choose what he wants rather than what the right answer is. Funny thing is that he totally gives himself away by looking at the right answer, then he will look up at us with a huge grin on his face and then pick the one he wants instead of the right one. He only did this a couple of times during the testing, so he had to redo those later to make sure he knew the right answer. He did! I am so thankful that Bryce has had Alyson as a therapist and that she was willing to work with him and realize that he does have great potential even if he cannot speak or move as others do. She is awesome and we will miss her greatly!