About A Boy - Part 2

He was still a difficult (although very loving) child. He didnt start talking till he was 3.5 almost 4 years old, he had a vocabulary of 4 or so words. During that time he had a hard time understanding directions and had a problem with communicating even using sign language. In Idaho they have a program for kids to get free speech and sensory therapy till they turned 3 years old. We jumped on it. We tried going to speech therapy for a week - it was a disaster and did not last long. The program then sent Maureen :) to our house twice a week to work with Eli. He was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder. It is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses. He was very sensitive to sound and light, certain materials, lots of food (he ate a total of 5 things). There was only one kind of string cheese he would eat. If you had his string cheese and another unwrapped he could tell you which one was his. We sat for an hour trying to get him to take a bite of a hot dog, tears and fits later we gave up.... He would get punished for throwing fits at times, alot of other times we blamed it on his condition - not very smart on our part....Eli's first couple of sessions with Maureen were very difficult. He would throw fits, try to hit her, refuse to participate. After 2 weeks he started obeying her and me. He started understanding what she wanted him to do. When he would rush ahead and get frustrated and upset, she would stop and wait for him to calm down and then explain to him that he has to follow the instructions. He started to get it. It was incredible to watch. I started to get it. I started to use it all day long and it was working. It was amazing. Eli turned 3 and we had to stop the therapy. I continued to work with him and Gabe and I both saw so much progress.
At 3.5 years more and more changes took place.. His attitude was different, the way he responded was better (still a hard one though) and he added alot more words to his vocabulary. At 4 years old the movie Ratatouille came out and we took Eli to see it. He told us in "Eli's language" that he wanted to become a "Cooker". Gabe's parents came out for his birthday and he told Nana he wanted to be a "Cooker". She asked him if he wanted to cook with her and he said yes.. He has never ever wanted to do this before. She told him that all "Cookers" had to try everything they make. They need to know what their food taste likes before they serve it.. He got it. She had green onions chopped up and sour cream out, he grabbed a few onions and plopped them in his mouth. Our jaws dropped........ he loved them. He then took a spoon full of sour cream and love it. From that moment on Eli was a eater. He tried EVERYTHING... He discovered he loved sauteed mushrooms. He loved every type of mean, vegi,, fruit. He loved brussel sprouts. It was amazing. It was something we never thought would happen and felt sorry for his future wife ;)

It was embarrassing when we would go over to someone's house and i would have to bring his food.... We gave in. We created a monster. We could have some what prevented it, if we were wiser, but we weren't. We could have (at a very early age) disciplined him correctly and taught him No and worked on his fits and eating habits, but, we were hooked on his "Disorder" and fed it.

From this moment on he responded with words, his actions were still changing. His reactions were improving. He was getting older and we were able to see more progress.

Gabe's parents came up for his 4th birthday in June and noticed a big change.

Then his mom came back to stay with Eli when i had Cora in September and worked with him while i was in the hospital.
Easter of 08 our church was having baby/kid dedications and we decided to have Eli and Cora dedicated. Lucy came back up for that - even though in a few short weeks we would be visiting California, there was no stopping a Nana on a mission. She saw Eli's progress and was his biggest supporter. They had a very special relationship, a very sweet one.

The night of us finishing up our packing to leave early the next morning for California, we received a phone call from Gabe's eldest brother, Lucy passed away in her sleep. Big John (Gabe's dad) woke up that morning, got ready for work, kissed her and left. By the time he got home she was still in the same position. I was holding Cora when Gabe told me and i nearly dropped her. Both Gabe and I were sobbing. Eli was very aware of our reactions. He stared to loose it, so we had to pull ourselves together for his sake. We put Cora down for bed, put Eli down as well and made plans to fly out the next day instead of drive.

This was 2 weeks before Eli's 5th birthday. Lucy created a Star Wars/Pod Racer birthday party for him at Vasquez Rocks. She made him a Anikin Skywalker pod racer outfit. We bought him 2 pod racers and a bunch of Star Wars figures. Lucy bought cake stuff, she made masks for everyone. It was going to be so much fun. Now we were trying to figure out if it should still happen.

Eli was so excited to go on a plane, he was happy the whole time. We arrived in Cali and it wasent till he saw his Papa that it clicked. He asked were Nana was. Papa cried. We had to explain to him again what was going on. You could see his little mind trying to figure this out. He kept asking were Nana was and we kept telling him. He asked about her owies. She had psoriasis on her hands, we told him they were all better. It was an open casket funeral - he were very scared to let Eli see her. He handled it well. It didnt look like her very much, he pointed that out. There were tears and laughter. Cora was in the nursery so we could "protect" Eli.

A few day's later, we had his Pod Racer party. We pulled it off - probably not as Nana would of done, but it all came together. Aunt Bethie made him his cake and placed his Star Wars guys on it. UJ bought pizza and we had a good time.
Papa's house started to look like a flower shop and Eli would tell us that his house was so pretty. After Nana's passing, Eli's favorite topic of conversation was death. We talked about it all the time. At this time he spoke very well.

  His death obsession went on for over a year, which brought alot of other neat topics. We talked alot about the Lord, Heaven, Eternity, Salvation. Eli had a very tender and fragile heart. He ended up crying alot of the times, over loosing Nana, over sin , over hell and worried about where he and Cora would go if something were to happen to me and Gabe. Once we told him that they would be going to live with their cousins and Mimi and Uncle Bret, his worries were gone and excitement took over. It was a bizarre feeling - but i was happy that he no longer needed to worry about that ;)

Although he didnt understand it all very well, it was still an emotional conversation. Then he would get over it and go about his day like nothing ever happened. He was a very silly boy.