Happy 2nd Birthday!

to our little guy... Where has the time gone? He didn't sleep well last night, as is often the case, and I found myself staring at him and thinking so much about his birth-mom. I am so thankful for his birth mom who chose life and to his foster mom who loved him so. I wish his birth mom never had to make an adoption plan for him, yet feel so very fortunate to be his mom. He's so incredibly amazing and we love him so. Happy Birthday Sweetie! Some pics from today. He got a Fischer Price Geo Trax plane set and an inchworm ride on toy.. He's loving life!

Ellie's 7th Bday!

We celebrated Ellie's 7th bday last weekend and had a blast. The weather was perfect. And for once I kind of got it together to do much of my cooking the day before and things werent at all hectic the AM of the party - gotta love that! Had many of her classmates and a princess jumpy house. Unfortunately I was all over the place and didnt get pics of her. Thanks to Kate who acted as photographer for the day! Happy Bday Sweet Girl! We love you soooo much!

Opening presents.. and receiving many wonderful gifts, including this horse t-shirt

Blowing out the candles

Andrew LOVED the jumpy house!

I'm Failing Horribly!

in the blogging arena of my life! So since I last blogged.. geez.. a ton has happened.. which is why I havent blogged.

OK, so in reference to last post, will update:

Little guy was eval'd by a great gal for Early Intervention therapy and she agreed: outside of expressive speech he's doing really well. He was less than cooperative (these are those moments you sometimes - as mom- want to crawl into a hole.... ) and when she wanted him to start a new activity, even threw a few things at her (insert embarrassed face here). She was very cool about it and understood his impatience.

So about a week later, we met with the ST - the gal who has seen our dd for many years . We love and trust her and it was good to see her again (altho wished it had been under different circumstances! :)) And she, too, agrees, little guy is delayed. He's got about 5 words and at 2, should have about 50. I dont care about the "sheer number" aspect but given that I've recently seen more tendencies to use only certain sounds, I wanted him to be eval'd.. That, plus, of course, his pure frustration with not being able to talk to us. He "talks" all the time, just not in a language most would understand. I do.. but noone else would. Which I think, then, perhaps makes me a bad candidate for helping to correct the prob cause I (as mom) *know* what he's saying - right? He continues to get very frustrated but I love that he's trying so hard. I know it will just be a matter of time before he's talking up a storm! Some recent pics.. He continues to love to play with water and in the sink (below):

and was playing with brother and sister a few weeks back on the swing set and loved this shot. It almost doesnt look like him. His hair is so long and that pout amazing1 Just had to capture it!

Well I didnt want to go down this road...
BUT down this road we Shall Go!

I did the EI (Early Intervention) intake for little guy this past week. He's nearly two and has just a few words. I'm NOT worried about the long term. Truly am not! He's overly frustrated tho and been doing a lot of hitting, pinching etc. Everything I've always read, says to "identify 'said' source of frustration" and I do believe it's his lack of expressive language. So I made the call. I 've yet to hear back from the case manager who will be assigned our intake. I do believe he'll qualify. The good news is that we will hopefully be able to schedule the intake eval with the ST who has seen our dd for years. I trust her. I do think whatever it is, it (hopefully) is fairly mild. He wants so desperately to talk... He's "talking" his own way all the time, but nothing is understandable. He uses the same set of consonants to say many things. His favorite is "da" so cat is "da"... dog is "o" or "do".... He has an incredibly clear "mom and dad" or "hi mom/hi dad" but not much else. Hello is "hewo" and this is all consistent. I've been looking at "Apraxi" and not sure anymore if this might fit or not. I kind of hope not as it can be a more challenging disorder to deal with. It may be more along the lines of a "phonological processing " type-thing. BUT I just know in my heart.. while we need to work thru some major frustration on his part right now which is NO fun for him.. I do believe we'll slam-dunk this thing! I do! :) I had a brief 8/12 hour PTSD moment after all we've been thru with DD but dont think this is anything like that! Anyway, if you could keep him in your thoughts, I'd appreciate it. He's come SOOOO far. He had a rough transition and finally after a tad over a year, really settled in and no longer was so afraid of strangers, but now has this new found frustration. My main thing is that I want to spend time in mommy/me play group type things, not on the road to therapy.. some pics taken today.. It was really his first time - seeing and "getting" the rain.. He had so much fun and wanted to get completely wet!

PS: his poor hair and face.. Last week he was stung and has a resolving thing on his cheek. Bugs must think he tastes good cause he gets it all the time!

The kids' Jogathon Last Friday!

Our two older participated in a school jogathon last Friday. An annual fundraiser. It was so cute and I was amazed at how all the kids worked it so hard. Our oldest did 27 laps and dd did 22! It was (I think) a 1/8 of a mile track. I couldnt have done it. I'm not sure what was raised. We're so appreciative to those of you who were willing to sponsor our kids. This fundraiser is one way the school pays for fieldtrips and they've got some really neat ones planned: to hear an Irish folk singer in concert next week.. and to a Museums' opening exhibit in a few weeks. I've been surprised by how many there are but loving where the children are going! Anyway wanted to post a few pics.. Limited as I try to only post pics with just my kids.... they worked so hard! It was a beautiful day too :) !! The school did tie-dye t-shirts one of the first weeks of school that all kids where on field trips!

Catching up and Working Backwards: Halloween Fun!


So it poured - I mean began POURING right before the school parade. The kids were so disappointed. The teachers I dont think knew what to do! Just cause I dont think they've ever been faced with this. Many of the parents arrived at school at noon to help get the kids in their costume for the annual trek thru town trick-or-treating. So we kept giving it "10 more minutes".. Finally close to 1 PM, a few of the parents and the local Sheriff who was there to help "lead the way, lights flashing and all - kids loved that".. suggested tarps to cover the kids. We decided to go for it. The rain had been coming and going and we started out (slow going) and when we got to the first destination the rain almost stopped (thank you Mother Nature). So for the rest of the March, no tarps were necessary. The children got such nice treats from the merchants in town. Both my children thoroughly enjoyed it and of course came home with WAY more candy than I'd want them to have all year, but hey, it's Halloween! I confiscated all the items with gluten and casein (95% of it) and they've been fine with the balance. Little guy has become a candy addict overnight. His first initiation into the world of hard core sweets! I wore him in the Mei Tai in his Dragon costume and he did great (even tho he was awake for the whole thing, never complained and seemed warm and snug in spite of the small sprinkles (but wanted nothing doing with the dragon hood on his head in spite of really being a toddler who loves hats - go figure!). BUT :( I failed miserably with pics.. I didnt get any of him. We returned to the school Carnival in the PM and he refused to get in his outfit, and fell asleep 1/2 way thru things (my aching shoulders!) We'd bought costumes for the kids off ebay and my oldest son's arrived but nothing for dd or little guy. So had to make the mad dash to town and find a substitute yesterday AM. Dd was sooo cool about it all and I was so grateful. She wore an old costume for the parade thru town and I got her a witch costume for the Carnival - she looked darling but I felt badly as she's NEVER had any desire to be a witch.. She's oh so easy going about stuff like this and I'm so grateful :) !! My oldest was Darth Vadar. A Few pics to follow:

She went to town at the Carnival and wanted to do it all! I was so proud of her.. Here she is bobbing for apples. And when she did a cake walk and won.. she was absolutely fine with my re-donating what she won cause she couldnt eat.. Sweet girl! You Rock!! :)

Having to run around a hay stack under a certain time!

She really hates looking at the camera!

And my oldest with his friend (who had one heck of an eerie, blood look alike, pump it in the mask thing).... BUT they had such a blast!