Migraines and such

My C. has been having migraines this week. Every day for nearly seven days. Yesterday and today she has been feeling a bit better, so that is hopeful. It concerns me because it came out of no where. She has never had issues with headaches before now. She goes to the doctor on Monday to discuss this and her ADD medication. She needs to have gained weight since her last check up three months ago.

L is on his way with dad to Grandma's house. They will be leaving tomorrow morning for Florida. I am not far behind them! He is so excited.

We are preparing the back yard for the playground to be set up. We figured out we will need to move our fire pit which will be a bit of work, but it's the only place in the yard where the big set will fit. We also pulled out our ugly rotten deck. It was such a hazard and I couldn't wait to pull it down. Now J. will be working on rebuilding some stairs down from the house. When we have some more money we can build a nice replacement deck or patio. The playground has been ordered and we are thinking it will be put in early May. We will have some volunteers (anyone?) to come out to help set it up and do some celebrating too!

E. and S. had a school conference the other day. Teacher G had a lot of good things to say but also noted some of the areas that concern us too. E. will be trying Kindergarten in the fall. He will enter with an IEP and he may have to go two years in a row if we feel it's best. S. is doing pretty well, with learning classroom rules and routines. He bit a little boy a few weeks ago and we discussed that. He were also told he has a willful side and gives the teachers the stink eye often!

Happy Birthday!

My youngest child turned three yesterday. I can't believe it, he still seems like a baby to us. S had a busy day on his birthday, he also had his first day of preschool! He was sooo excited about riding the bus. We had been trying to contact the bus garage to find out the pick up and drop off time so we could be all ready to go. They never returned our calls, and when we called, there was only a voicemail service. Our plan was originally to have J ride the bus with S, then I would follow in our car to drive back home. We guessed at how long E's bus ride is, and guessed a time that S's bus would arrive. Dad made chocolate chip pancakes and we sang Happy Birthday to him. He blew all his candles out and was eating (still in pjs) when the bus arrived at 8 am! His class begins at 9:20. J ran out and talked with the driver, explaining how we hadn't heard from the bus scheduler and we never assumed he would be riding for an hour and twenty minutes. We drove him to school and got him settled, which worked out well. We found out the bus will not be picking him up that early every time, there was a mistake in the schedule. Whew, we were about to start driving him to school! That is a long ride for such a little guy. He will be on the bus for nearly an hour (one way), still a long time. We are on the border of the district so our boys are on the first and last stop of the day. And there is only one developmental preschool in our district. Poor kids. Thankfully the elementary school is just down the road for when they begin kindergarden (the plan is for E to start in the fall!).

S. and Teacher G. finding his cubby

S walked in to class so confident and proud. He owned it and had a huge grin the whole time. J and I were just there a few minutes, and he just gave us a "bye" as we left. No tears were shed, by S, J, or me! He came home on the bus, and was so happy to see me when he walked down the steps. I spoke to his teacher who told me he did great and was so much fun to have in class.

After lunch, I tried to get S to take a nap, but he would not have anything to do with it. I gave up and let him play quietly in his room. E was at school by the time S arrived home so it was nice for them to have a break from each other. We didn't really have a big birthday celebration since we will be celebrating this weekend at a special place. We had ice cream for dessert (S wanted blue ice cream, but settled for Neapolitan) and received a new monster truck.

randomness

K. with S. after his surgeries in 2008

• S. is going to begin preschool on his birthday next month, right after winter break! And he is able to qualify for these services based primarily on his medical needs. He is really not delayed enough in other areas to qualify. Which is EXCELLENT news. He is such a little miracle.

• We are fighting yet another cold with K. bringing it home first. She is still a thumb sucker, and I am afraid this nasty habit is introducing all sorts of fun winter germs to our house. Also, we are trying a restrictive diet on K. this week. She has a lot of food intolerance symptoms, and I have wondered if maybe she is gluten, dairy or egg sensitive. It is hard to cut out all these foods, but I hope soon we will have some sort of idea if there is one type of food she should avoid.

• I have NOT been doing much Christmas shopping and am NOT sending cards or letters again this year. I am nearly finished shopping for the extended family, the kids are almost done (just need a few more stocking stuffers), and then something small for teachers and such. I'm thinking homemade muffins? What do you think?

• The kids have their church play this Sunday. C. has a short solo and is a narrator. K. is one of the 2o or so angels, and L. is the stage manager. Should be good times.

• We've had company the last few weeks, in the form of play dates. The idea of having another child over to add to the noise and chaos used to make me a little anxious. It still does, a bit. But I have decided to put that aside for my kids. They are really enjoying sharing their home and family with their friends. It has also blessed us too.

• I am so excited for the date night our church is putting together on Saturday! The teens are babysitting kids while parents can go out and do some shopping, or whatever for several hours. I can't wait. Not sure yet how we will spend those few hours, but it will be great!

• Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words regarding Mercy. We are still healing and struggling through the process. I kind of feel like I did when I experienced a miscarriage. Nobody really wants to talk about the issue, and the loss is great. I appreciate your continued prayers for our whole family and for Mercy.

• Please be praying for my friend Melissa. She reached out to love and support me while I was in Uganda as she was there adopting another Mercy. She has spent her time in country encouraging other adoptive families, ministering to pregnant mothers, and shining a light for Him. She has been in Uganda since the end of August. For last few months she's been dealing with visa issues, a complicated mess. Her family at home misses her terribly. Pray for a miracle for Melissa and Mercy to come home soon.

E. school update

E. age 4.

E. age 7 months, Nov. 2007.

E. has been home now for over 20 months! Wow, has it been that long already? I can't believe it! This morning I finally got around to cleaning out his backpack for preschool. In it I found his progress report. He has been attending developmental preschool since late spring, after quite a process to get him in. He is loving it and I am so glad I fought for him! I wanted to share with you the nice things that Teacher Gayle wrote about my little guy. And while you are reading it, be amazed by how far this kid has come. At age 7 months, E. weighed 8 pounds. Found at a hospital, he was severely anemic, unable to suck, sit or hold up his head. He was malnourished and suffering from kwashiorkor (protein deficiency).

E. is doing a great job at preschool! He has learned to recognize his name in print and is working at tracing and writing the letters of his name. He is able to follow classroom routines and transition from one activity to another with less teacher support. E. seems to enjoy his time at school and he willingly gives his best effort. He is interested in what others are doing and with some modeling and adult support he joins in other's activities. He is able to stay at a table and work with a teacher for 15 minutes then move to another table to work on another task with a different teacher. He is improving his fine motor skills for coloring, and using scissors. We are learning about alphabet letters and sounds using a program called Zoo Phonics. We practice the letter names and listen for the sounds in words and print. E. enjoys sharing the object in his letter homework bag. It is a pleasure to have E. and his wonderful giggle in our classroom.

Thankful day 10

So I missed a few days. Sorry about that. I have been busy and feeling not so thankful lately. I hate to admit that but it's true. There are many hard emotions that I am feeling. I don't really want to go into all that, so I have been busy. If I am not really busy I try to make myself busy!

• S. had his developmental preschool evaluation today. There are some concerns in his cognitive/reasoning areas as well as his expressive communication. We will come back the first part of December to hear the results.
• I have had to catch up on a lot of paperwork/school work/household things this last week.
• I am most likely going to be starting a weight loss challenge with my sis in law. This may be interesting. More details later.
• I am trying to get things in order to finalize S.'s adoption. He needs to get his name legally changed, it's about time! He's been with us for over two years now!

So, what am I thankful for today? I am thankful for candy corn! I am thankful that it is gone and that I had some kids around to help finish off the bag too!

my baby

My baby turns three in just a couple months. Why am I writing about that now? Because this week he will begin the evaluation process to see if he qualifies for developmental preschool, the same one that E. is in. He will also no longer be part of the wonderful birth to three program he is in now. If he qualifies, he will start going right after his birthday, but will be in the morning class. E. is in the afternoon one.

On Wednesday some people are coming out to our house to play with S. and do the beginning stages of the process. I wish I could be there to advocate for him.

Right now, S. is doing pretty good. He has excellent large motor skills and can run almost faster than K, age 7! He is getting pretty good with his speech too, which he needed help with in the past. I am not sure if he will qualify for preschool or not. But, I hope they will take into consideration how much he is at risk. He does, after all have several brain anomalies, a shunt and Chiari Malformation. He will be having surgery in a year or so too, which could set him back developmentally.

Will keep you posted. Oh how I miss my S. He gives THE BEST hugs and kisses. And I can almost hear his voice and imagine what he will shout when I see him again, "HI, MAAAMMAAA!"

First day of preschool 2010

E. had a great first and second day of preschool. He was so excited about riding the school bus. He seemed a little worried about it at first, but when the little yellow bus pulled up in front of our house, he started giggling and running toward it! He climbed in, met the driver and got buckled into his booster seat. I cried when they drove away. He rode to school and back (about 45 minutes each way) and was still excited about it the next day. He told me that he told his teacher he loves her. He made friends. He said he is learning "about how to walk instead of run", and "how to put stickers on the thing". This is going to be a year of huge growth for E., I can already see it.

First day of preschool

He's in...

E. gawking at his friend's cookie

E. is now an official preschooler!! He is going to be getting special education services and starting preschool on Tuesday. I am so glad that someone else finally agrees that he has some needs. For now we are transitioning him into classes twice a week. Hoping it will be wonderful for him. In the fall he will be able to ride the bus to school and attend four days a week. Hurray!