Exciting week!

We have had a very exciting week so far! First of all, Eli has made some huge breakthroughs in speech. He has been doing speech since last May and always works really hard and practices at home, but it is slow going. He can make so many sounds he wasn't able to before, but hasn't ever been able to make a "k" sound (it always came out as a "t"). His speech teacher at school has really been working on it to the point that she was putting on a glove every time and pushing down his tongue with her finger to force the sound to the back of the throat. Here at home he would put his own finger on his tongue to work on it. I guess all the practice has paid off! This week he can officially do a "k" sound without a finger pushing his tongue down! His speech teacher was just as excited as I was! Today she excitedly pulled me in to show me how he could do it on several words. Amazing! He got a special certificate award for doing it on his own finally. Another breakthrough was at Heartspring. One of his main issues with speech is that he substitutes an "l" sound for a lot of things (which has always baffled his speech teachers because "l" is usually a very difficult sound for kids). For example "soap" he would say "loap" or "sock" is "slock" or "yo-yo" would have been "lo-lo". His speech teacher taught him to do this sort of smile when he does his "y" sound and something just clicked with him and he can do it now! "Les" is now "yes" all of a sudden and it is awesome! We went out and celebrated tonight at Braum's because we are so proud of how hard he has worked!

Another fun thing this week was his preschool Olympic day today. He had so much fun! They got to do a parade with their torches and flags and did all sorts of games that worked on team work and sportsmanship. He asked Brandon to come several times, so I was so glad Brandon was able to get off work for a couple of hours to come. Eli did great and had a wonderful time with his classmates. At the end, they had an awards ceremony where they all got a medal and were so proud. Cora had fun playing with the other siblings and cheering Eli on!

We got Eli's lab results back today, which added to my excitement. His celiac test came back negative (which we expected because he eats gluten free), but he tested high for wheat allergy (they'll retest him next year to see where he is at)! I have never suspected that he had an allergy because his symptoms seem a little different, he has more of the intolerance symptoms. Most parents probably wouldn't be dancing a jig at this news, but I was! Just the thought that this could possibly be an allergy that most kids OUTGROW restored hope. I had a sense of doom at the thought of Celiac because it is tied to so many other cancers, autoimmune disorders and life long health problems. If it is just an allergy there is a high chance he will outgrow it by adulthood. Dear God let this be TRUE for him!