Blue Trendy Treehouse

I’ve seen a few other blogs taking part in the Shutterlove Tuesdays at the Trendy Treehouse and decided to submit a picture today. 

The theme is ‘blue’ and when I saw that I immediately thought of a picture of Will from the beach in 2008. 



To see the other entries, click here:

First Full Week of School

That’s right, Lindy went to school all five days, Will went to school two days and he went to speech two other days.  We managed to stay healthy this week and make it to school everyday. 

Lindy’s teacher likes to have parent sessions to show the parents what she is doing in class with the kids and what we can carry over working on at home.  Our first parent session was on Monday.  She is done with class at 11:30am so we did it right after class.  Lindy was NOT cooperative at all.  It was a little frustrating.  She wouldn’t do things I know she can do!  She did do a couple things her teacher couldn’t get her to do (like say her animal sounds) so I guess that was good.  I’m sure she was tired and when we got home and I took her hearing aids out for nap time, neither one was on.  Her teacher checks them every morning but the batteries must have died during the morning.  We will do these parent sessions every Monday so hopefully she will cooperate a little more tomorrow!

Lindy has been doing a strange thing at school.  She has been throwing/spitting up.  I have no idea what it’s all about.  Her teacher says she seems fine and then lets out a cry and throws up.  The first time she did it it was quite a bit and I had to go pick her up.  She’s done it 2-3 more times and her teacher said it’s just been a small amount, she doesn’t have a fever, and seems fine, so she has let her stay.  We feed Lindy breakfast every morning but some of the other kids eat at school.  Because Lindy saw them eating she wanted to eat so I started taking her a banana so she could sit at the table with them and eat something too.  So she spit that up a couple times and I said no more banana.  Next I tried cheerios and she did good on those for a few days and eventually spit up again.  Now I think we won’t be having any snack when she gets to school.  She doesn’t do this at home, never on the weekends.  I don’t know if she is just getting full or what.  We are going to skip the early snack and hope that helps.  I haven’t seen her throw up in months.

The other Lindy thing of the week was that Drew took her to school for the first time on Friday.  I thought he’d taken her before but he hadn’t.  She is completely fine when Will and I drop her off now.  She never cries anymore.  Well apparently she isn’t fine with Drew dropping her off.  I guess she just wasn’t used to it because Drew said he left her on the floor pitching a big royal fit!  Her teacher said it was over in a second but she showed them a new side Friday!  Hopefully she’ll be fine when I leave her tomorrow!

Will kept busy with preschool on Tuesday and Thursday this week and speech on Wednesday and Friday.  His preschool teacher told me on Thursday that he had talked a lot more that day.  She said he has been very quiet at school but finally opened up a little.  I have been wondering how he acts at school.  He is shy around new people but they hadn’t said anything before so I didn’t know he hadn’t been talking much.  I hope he continues to come out of his shell so they can see his cute little personality.  Of course once he starts talking he might not stop!  Although Will really likes going to speech and seeing his speech teacher, he totally doesn’t need to be there.   Right now he is still in the preschool intake system and they have to release him from their system.  As soon as they do, he will go into the system at the school we go to for speech and then we can retest him.  He’s doing so well that she is working on things with him that she said she normally does with 7 and 8 year olds.  Yeah, he doesn’t need speech! 

The kids had their music class on Wednesday and they both love it.  The first class we went to the parents all stayed in the class but this week it was just the kids in the class and the parents waited outside.  The teacher said Lindy did great in there.  I’m happy to hear that.  I think they are really enjoying music class!

Friday at lunch we took GrandBob to the Deacon Grille for an early birthday lunch.  Today (the 26th) is dear old GrandBob’s birthday.  Happy Birthday old geezer!  The Deacon Grille is the restaurant up in the Deacon Tower at BB&T Field where Wake Forest plays football. The Deacon Tower (the press box and luxury boxes) is only a couple years old and a really cool place.  GrandBob had never been in it so I think he really enjoyed his lunch.  Ed and Jamie joined us and we had a great time.  We got to the see the field from a different view and we got to dream of having a luxury box.   It’s a nice dream!

Saturday we had Katie, Kris, Micah, Claire, and Ed over to watch Wake play.  Wake is not good this year, but it was still fun to have everyone over.  Katie taught me how to make bows so we kept busy doing that.  Now if I can just get Lindy to wear the bows we’d be all set! 

This afternoon we got to celebrate Miss Claire’s second birthday.  Although the rain cancelled the original park plan, we still had fun at Claire’s house.  Because Claire is about the same size as my kids and talks pretty well she seems older than 2.  We hope Claire had a good party!

And now our week in pictures:

Lindy is usually an easy going kid.  But she does have a temper.  I think this day she wasn’t happy that I wouldn’t hold her.  So pitiful! So mad and yet still able to drink from her cup! It’d been awhile since I took bath pictures.  I like to have fun with Lindy’s hair in the bath!  Lindy’s favorite bath toys are the little Elmo and Ernie. Will likes the letters and numbers. Will still thinks Lindy is the funniest thing ever when he’s already out of the bath and she is still in the bath. Dressed in yellow for school on Thursday. Will thought this ad from the paper was super fun to play with.And the only thing more fun than the ad was the box that arrived in our mail filled with hand me down clothes from my sister to Lindy.  Heading to church this morning. No clue what they are doing but it’s funny! The Deacon Tower where we took GrandBob for lunch. Playing today at Claire’s birthday party.  Katie, Kris, and Claire Claire blowing out her cute owl cupcakes. Will and his ladies! The last few Sundays we’ve had things going on so we’ve eaten popcorn for dinner.  Lindy loves her some popcorn.  Popcorn tastes better when eaten from a box. OMG – this popcorn lover is so cute!!!

More Sickies and a New Music Class

We seemed to have a really busy week.  It went by so fast we must have been busy. 

I thought it was going to be Lindy’s first full week of school.  But the girl ended up getting sick, a couple different times.  They called me on Wednesday morning and said she had thrown up.  They said that she was acting completely normal, even after she threw up but if they throw up at school they have to go home.  She came home and acted completely normal and ate normal.  She went back to school on Thursday and was fine, then woke up from her nap with a fever.  She kept the fever all night and in the morning, so she missed school on Friday as well.  The strange thing was that she was acting normal.  Eating and playing as usual, she just had a fever.  She actually kept the fever all day Friday and most of Saturday. She hasn’t had a fever today so she’ll be going back to school tomorrow.  I hate the unexplained fever.  Drives a mama nuts!

To cut down on some of my driving around town like a taxi service, I’ve taken Will with me a few days this week when I dropped Lindy off at school.  Monday morning he got to stand outside with one of Lindy’s teachers and help her with car rider duty!  The other two days he walked inside with me.  One morning they held hands and walked down the hall.  This was all their idea too.  Then another student, in 4th or 5th grade came up and thought they were cute and held Lindy’s hand and they all walked down the hall together.  It was so sweet!  After we dropped Lindy off a couple days we went to a park near Lindy’s school.  One morning we met and walked with Katie and Claire and then another morning we walked by ourselves.  It was nice to save gas and be outside doing something.  I think we might continue to do this.

Will didn’t have speech Wednesday morning but he did have it on Friday.  We are just waiting for him to get into the school system database so we can retest him and exit the speech therapy. 

The most fun thing we did this week was go to a music class.  I thought this would be something fun they can do together since they both love music.  We went to the first class on Wednesday afternoon and they did have fun dancing around.  There were 4 other kids, in fact a set of twin boys were in there as well.  The twin boys did not enjoy music class so I don’t know if they will be back.  I think we will join the class because they did seem to have fun. 

We had a busy weekend full of fun activities.  Friday night we had an old friend of Drew’s from middle school and his wife and daughter over for dinner.  Hannah will be 3 in December.  The kids had a lot of fun with their new friend.  Although Lindy seemed more interested in Greg.  She likes the men apparently.  Saturday afternoon Mimo and Aunt Anna came to visit.  Anna and I had to run some errands so the kids got to wear Mimo out for a little.  Saturday evening we went to a spaghetti dinner at our church.  Today we had church and then a wedding shower for Uncle Ed and soon-to-be Aunt Jamie.  It was a fun weekend with friends and family.

Preschool has seriously cut into the number of pictures I take each week.  Here is what I have from the week. 

  He’s a mechanically minded little fellow.  Trying to figure out how things work. Like mother like daughter. Lindy’s first school art project!  Have no clue what it is or how they made it, but it’s the most beautiful red thing picture ever! I got the kids their first board game recently and we tried it out this week.  It was interesting.  They liked spinning the spinner a lot! Mimo! Aunt Anna The happy couple we showered today.  Ed and Jamie Lindy with cousin Molly My biggest coup of the week was finding CUTE church shoes to fit Lindy’s new braces.  I got so lucky and the first pair I got worked.  That has never happened!  So excited!  I’m pretty bitter about the fact that Lindy can’t have all the little cute girly shoes I dreamed about my daughter having.  So I get excited when I find something besides white and pink sneakers to fit her braces!

The dress Lindy wore today is actually a dress she had last summer.  Yeah, she grows so slow that she can wear some dresses from last summer.  Man, she sure has changed!!

July 5, 2009Today!

A New Schedule

We are trying hard to adjust to this new schedule we have.  Right now I’m tired!  Preschool is wearing me out!

Will had a great first day of preschool.  Tuesday was a busy day.  We picked up Lindy from preschool and then picked up Will from his school.  We got home, ate lunch and I put the kids back in the car.  Lindy had a 2pm physical therapy appointment.  I didn’t want to put them down for a really short nap in their beds so I put them back in the car and drove around.  They both fell asleep and they got a little nap.  I woke them up and we headed into her appointment.  Lindy got new braces made and they were in.  Heather had to cut them down and get them ready for her.  Her right one is an SMO (a low ankle brace) and her left one is an AFO (a tall ankle brace).  They seem to fit well although we are slowly letting her break them in.  I had to go out and buy her new tennis shoes.  Now I am going to have to start the search for shoes that will fit these new braces.  Something I dread.  It’s so hard finding CUTE shoes to fit over her braces.  The kids did pretty well at the appointment.  Will must have been really tired because he pretty willingly stayed in the stroller the whole time.  That doesn’t usually happen!  Our PT is about to give birth so that was the last time we’ll see her for awhile.  She has decreased Lindy to once every four weeks so we’ll see another therapist until the end of the year but it’ll only be a few times.

In addition to Will starting preschool, he also started speech therapy.  I have to take him to one of the elementary schools in town for him to get therapy twice a week. Wednesday was his first session and it went well.  His therapist had a kitchen and a cash register and he loved playing with those.  I didn’t think he talked as much as normal but she was brand new and he was interested in playing.  She did say that he seemed to be doing pretty well. 

We enrolled Will in speech because we thought it would be good for him to continue it.  He qualified based on his evaluation from December, where he was only saying about 25-30 words.  Well, Will is talking in full sentences these days.  He has come really far, really fast.  He has continued to talk up a storm this summer, singing full songs, repeating full books.  By the time school started it seemed like he didn’t really need speech therapy, but we had written his IEP in May.  I wanted this new therapist to come to her own conclusions and on Friday she confirmed what I suspected -- that he’d met his goal on his IEP and that he was doing well.  She said his vocab is good, his grammar is good, his articulation is good, and he said letters like s and z perfectly.  She was working with him on blends, which she said she doesn’t usually do until kids are 7 or 8.  I think Will has caught up and maybe even gone beyond his age in speech!  The plan is to retest him soon and see if he qualifies.  But his teacher pretty much said he won’t.  So it looks like Will might be getting discharged from speech soon. 

He also had his second day of preschool and he did just as well.  He didn’t cry a drop and was happy when Lindy and I picked him up.  I’m so proud of him.  I hope he is a good boy in class.  I can’t wait to talk to his teacher and see how he is.  I wonder if they act the same as they do at home or are they different?

Lindy went all four days to school this week.  It’s worked well with her starting school.  Last week she went three days and this week four days.  She is working up to her first full week this week.  Lindy had a great first day of school but has cried almost every day since.  She cries every morning when I drop her off.  Friday was the first day she did not cry.  Her teachers assure me that it is very short lived, but it’s still hard to walk out of there knowing she is crying!  They got two new students this week so there are now 6 kids in their classroom.  Although the attendance for the other kids is very spotty.  They have never all been there at the same time!  I’ve only seen one kid twice since Lindy has been going. 

Lindy’s vision therapist made her first visit to her school this week.  She said Lindy did well.  She said Lindy saw some small items in a book and they were surprised about that.  She seemed very pleased with how Lindy did.  She stayed in the classroom after her session with Lindy and talked with the classroom teacher about how to make modifications for her regarding her vision.   Pam, her vision teacher, said that Mrs. Asbury, her classroom teacher, was very open to doing what she could to help Lindy.  We are so happy that they all seem to be working together so far to make it a successful time for Lindy.  Lindy is getting speech three times a week.  We haven’t seen or heard from her physical therapist or occupational therapist yet.

We made it through the school week and celebrated yesterday with a Wake Forest football game.  We tailgated with GrandBob and Anna, and our friends Kris, Katie, Micah and Claire.  The Deacs won but it rained almost the whole game. It was pretty light for most of the game.  We all had our raincoats on and were fine.  In the 4th quarter it started getting a little heavier so I took the kids out in the concourse so we didn’t get completely soaked.

We came home to a crazy situation.  When we got home our power was out.  I assumed the whole street was out.  After about 30 minutes Drew asked if I’d called to report a power outage.  I’m glad he said that because when I did call, I was informed that our power had been disconnected.  WHAT???  She said that someone with the last name Parker had called on Sept. 7th to set up service.  This person gave them our address and said they wanted it connected on the 9th.  In order to connect service here on the 9th for this Parker person, they ended our service.  Without ever having been contacted by us.  She said what probably happened was that this Parker person gave the wrong address.  How dumb do you have to be?  We got home around 4pm and we didn’t get power back until 8:30pm last night.  We’d been gone since 10am that morning so we have no clue what time it went out.   That was definitely a first, and I hope a last. 

A few pictures from our week:

Crazy girl! My cousin Lauree sent us a package this week and there was a hat in there.  Will claimed it for himself and wore it around one day.  I eventually had to get Lindy her own hat so they both had one. I consigned clothes in a sale this weekend so I went through all the kids’ old clothes.  I found some preemie stuff and I tried it on some dolls.  These outfits use to swallow the kids when they were first born! Lindy came in the kitchen one day with her sweatshirt, purse, and phone and said, “I go Wal mart!” The kids were sporting their ‘Go Deacs’ gear for the game Saturday.  They also got their first tattoos!  Temporary Wake Forest tattoos.  Lindy also sported her first real ponytail for the game. They weren’t too sure about these tattoos at first. They kept saying ‘Go Deacs’, but at different times. Finally, same time! Tailgating with their new Wake chairs. Hey Claire, wanna see my tattoos?  I’m cool ya know! Avid cheerers, even in the rain! Getting out of the rain.  Lindy hardly touched the ponytail so she may be sporting it more often.  She pulls everything else out!