Ellies Moving!!!

Thats right folks I can move, don't you wish your baby could move like me?! *lol*

Ellie blowing zoobers as she's moving along.


Right around December 31st or so Ellie started crawling real well, the army crawl. But it's progress. Her most recent development is scooting on her butt while in sitting position. Though it's not what the OT (Occupational Therapist) wants to see her do, it's an improvement to what she's been doing, which is not moving at all. Ellie for some odd reason is delayed in her gross motor skills ( crawling, pulling up ect...) and also fine motor skills ( picking stuff up with her figures and any use of her hands), the doctors and teachers arn't sure why Ellie seems to be developmentally advanced for a baby girl her age, already using 2 signs, not regularly but signs non the less and her social skills before her most recent stranger anxiety have been advanced. Ellie has an appointment with a pediatric neurologist January 25th to double check theirs nothing neurological going on with her or that she hasn't developed my dystonia, which could be genetic we arn't sure. Non the less I don't let anything the teachers say about her or the possibility of health problems still my joy in this event, watching your kiddo develop and make progress in any situation is always a joyous moment and well Ellie is a joy to have as a baby. I'm a lucky Mom and excited to see what 2011 holds for her development. I'm excited to watch her run and play pretend and my even be down on the floor playing dolls with her soon. Praise God for my little girl Ellie.

First Hodges Game Night!!

In this New Year Josh and I decided that Elijah was old enough to start playing a family game night and face it playing games with just two people, board games anyways is very boring, so having Elijah now as an added player is way more fun. For our very first Hodges game night we decided start out simple and we decided to play jenga. We played two rounds and in both Elijah knocked down the towers, in his defense our dinning room table isn't very stable. It was agreed by all of us that the next game be played on our coffee table, well at least the jenga game. The Hodges family game night soon will include board games as well as Wii games. I look forward to plenty more special family game nights with my two big boys, Josh being one of those. This New Year is bringing tons of positive changes and one is every Tuesday night I get to look forward to awesome fun with Josh and Elijah. What a great way to ring in the new year.

Hodges Christmas Chapter six, wrapping it up.

After all the toys were unwrapped and paper and packaging sorted and thrown away it was time for the yummy food, For the most Christmas was pretty good, Though a bit rougher this year due to other things going on, but good. To be truthful it didn’t really feel like Christmas this year. We are hoping at least next year it may feel more like it and the twins will be able to enjoy it more. Though this year is definitely a year to remember and we are thankful for all the things we were able to buy our kids. Merry Christmas 2010 we will see you in 2011. Happy Birthday Jesus.

Hodges Christmas Chapter five, Ellie’s Christmas

We decided to wait on opening Ellie’s gifts until the twins were down for the nap and Elijah his quiet time. Once everyone was down it was time to help Ellie unwrap her presents. She had help, but did a bit of tearing herself. We helped her open all of them and put them in a pile, she seemed to enjoy it and the look on her face when she saw the pile of toys was classic. The look on her face just was almost like she was saying; all of those are for me? It was cute and really did make Josh and I’s day. Ellie got tons of stuff, including her first doll house, a play tea set, a play jewelry box, a pillow pet, and a lot more. Pictures will follow so everyone can see what she got. She also got to open Grandma Chris’s present and loves the baby doll she got.

Hodges Christmas Chapter four, Opening the gifts, the twins!!!

After we opened all our gifts we decided to let the twins out and send Elijah upstairs to his room to play with some of his new toys. At this point Ellie was napping so the twins for a little while were our center of attention while opening gifts. We tried to let the kids open there one at a time starting with Mathias because Adriel wouldn’t hold still. Mathias was a bit interested in his gifts but nowhere as much as we wanted him to be, he would unwrap them with a lot of assistance from Mom, glance at them and soon become uninterested in the one opened. He did this with nearly every one. It was a bit disappointing but this is our first Christmas with Autistic twins, so it was new to all of us. Next was Adriel He was a bit harder and I had to tear through his gifts a lot quicker then Mathias’s. He didn’t really seem to notice them or care. If anything he seemed like he wanted to run away from them. After all the twins’ gifts were opened the realization of their Autism became apparent once again. I think the most awesome thing for a parent is seeing the joy in your kid’s eyes as they open them if anything we were frustrated because they didn’t even seem to notice them. If anything Mathias seemed to run around playing with his told toys and Adriel seemed overwhelmed by the new ones. It didn’t help that we didn’t really know how to shop for them and probably bought toys that were a bit too hard for them to play with. All and all we did the best we could and that’s all we can do. It’s difficult having boys who seem to be frozen in time. Josh’s Mom sent the kids some money so we will be getting the twins and Elijah one more gift. We are not sure what it will be but are leaning towards one big gift for all their boys. We are thinking a trampoline. But we will see. When we get the last gifts we will be sure to blog about them.

Hodges Christmas, Chapter Three Opening the gifts, three down, three to go.

After everyone ate then we let the twins open one gift each at the table so they would have something to play with while we let Elijah open his first. The twins opened up some stuff called Moon dough. At the time it was purchased I thought it was a good ideal due to the texture, but after letting them play with this soon learned it wasn’t, more of it went on the floor, it didn’t hold together well, awesome texture but all together not a good gift for their age. Anyways while this mess and craziness was going on behind us we were busy allowing Elijah to tear into his gifts. We let him open up a lot of them then later on Josh and I began opening ours in between him opening his. Elijah got tons of stuff almost too much for me to list, but I will include photos later. Then we finished opening our gifts. Josh got a popcorn tin, sausage, cheese, mustard, and back massager. I got a Kerug coffee machine that makes coffee in under a minute, a food processor and some coffee. We did promise each other a few other gifts once we get our tax money. Some things we needed and wanted, but didn’t get a chance to get because we wanted to get the kids all their gifts.

Hodges Christmas Chapter two, the stockings.

Christmas morning Josh and I got up and I started on my tradition breakfast for Christmas morning, monkey bread, after the prep was done and it was in the oven cooking Josh and I sat down and dug in our stockings. I went first. I got a candle, some chocolates, a portable water bottle and some scented vent inserts for my van. Then I let Josh dig into his, Josh got a miniature portable back scratchier. After we had dug into ours we got Elijah up to dig into his. Elijah tour into his like you would expect any kid to do. Elijah got to stocking stuffer M and M’s, a hot wheels Mater car and a wooden pop gun. Next was our darling Ellie. We let big brother help her dig into hers. Ellie got a little butterfly toy and several little odds and ends for toys. After Ellie was finished digging in hers then it was time to get the twins up. We decided this year it would be best for them to open there stocking suffers at the dining room table. They didn’t seem to do well opening the pillow pets so we thought this would be a best option because they wouldn’t have too many distractions this way. The twins opened there getting a lot of the same things M and M’s and a candy cane with candy in it and a few various toys ( to be honest they got so much I don’t remember what was in the stockings) We let everyone open there gifts from Grandma Chris and saved the rest of the gifts for after breakfast. Elijah got toy robots from Grandma Chris, The twins got some toy cars and some puzzles. I thought one of the puzzles was really cool it was one that has textures on it, Will definitely be using this in the next year as it’s an awesome puzzle with having sensory boys. Josh got a Budweiser grilling gift set. I got some nice slippers and a nice book. I don’t read the book every day but read it on a regular basis, every few days. We all got awesome gifts. Thanks Grandma Chris.