Fun Times

We have had a fairly quiet week with appointments but from the pictures I’ve taken the kids have had a good time this week.  The weather turned gorgeous, almost hot today, so we have been outside most every afternoon.

Tuesday morning we had hearing therapy with Chris.  We played with Easter eggs and Lindy did better picking two critical elements. Wednesday morning we had vision therapy with Lesley.  Lesley made the kids the neatest action books.  All the pictures are of Lindy and Will doing things (eating, drinking, swinging, kissing).  Lindy needs practice recognizing pictures like this so they are great.  She also made shakers with the kids and they both really enjoyed it.  Lindy did awesome picking up little beads and putting them in a water bottle.  The kids really have played a lot with these shakers this week.

We played outside a lot this week.  One day we cut back monkey grass and yesterday we put out pine needles.  We have two little helpers when we are working.  The kids have both learned to climb up the ladder on the swing set which is great but makes me nervous!  Yesterday they came in with grass stains and chalk stains and they had a great time.  Mama has to get over the kids getting dirty outside!

Will’s speech has continued to amaze us.  He talks in two word and now three word phrases all the time now.  He is repeating a lot and just surprising us often with words he knows.  It’s just such a crazy transition from just two months ago.  When getting Will to go into his room I often have to count to three.  One day this week Drew told him he was going to count to three and Will said, “One, Two, Three.”  He counted himself! 

I’ve heard of older kids or one kid talking for the other kids and I wonder if that is happening a little with Lindy and Will.  I ask Lindy a question and Will answers.  I ask Lindy to say something and Will says it.  I think that will hurt Lindy as far as her speech goes though.  She needs to get assertive with her voice!

The kids have had lots of runny noses (and drainage for Lindy).  We finally got some Claritin and started both kids on it.  Lindy had a horrible hacking cough in the beginning of the week and that has thankfully gone away.  She has thrown up a couple times too but I’m just sure it’s from the drainage.  I spent one night with her on the couch but she is sleeping better since the cough has gotten better.

Happy Easter weekend!  We are excited to see my parents who are driving down and should be here in a couple hours.

Opening early Easter gifts. The Thomas Easter egg train has been a huge hit this week.  Will loves his belt and Lindy loves Drew’s watch.Apparently, she was really excited to get Drew’s watch. Perhaps we have some future Mountaineers on our hands?? Will really can count to three. Lindy can pretend to count to three.  She knows she is supposed to be doing something with her hands when she is counting! Playing with the fun new shakers the kids made.

Happy Easter!

Busy Week on the Go

Hope you have had a good week.  Ours was quite nice. 

Last weekend I got to have a day/night away in Raleigh.  My first roommate in college is getting married so I went to her bridal shower and bachelorette party last Saturday.  It’s always fun to hang out with old friends. 

Instead of preaching at our church Sunday morning, Drew did a pulpit exchange with a friend in Asheboro on Sunday morning.  Since I was out of town and Drew was headed out of town, Drew’s brother Ed and his fiancé Jamie came up to watch the kids.  They took them outside which is the best way to our kids’ hearts.  I know Will and Lindy had fun and Will has been saying ‘Ed’ all week.  Jamie must be a hard word because what he says sounds nothing like it!

Tuesday was a busy day for us.  Lindy had PT at 9am in the morning.  We all rode into town together and Drew and Will dropped Lindy and I off.  Lindy did well at PT.  Our therapist said she felt great.  She said if she continues to do so well and feel that loose that we can decrease her to once a month.  We are going to start working hard on steps.  Steps are tricky because of her vision.  Drew and Will came and picked us up and we headed to get pictures taken of the kids.  They were their 2.5 year old pictures and Easter pictures.  They turned out great.   After pictures we met up with Ed, Jamie, and Drew’s sister Anna for lunch.  After lunch the kids and I headed home and all the Southern kids went to visit their grandmother.  Then Anna brought Drew home and stayed to play with the kids and eat dinner. 

Wednesday morning we had speech therapy and we actually got Lindy evaluated for speech services.  I don’t have the official report or remember the official numbers but she was in the normal range for receptive language and showed a moderate to severe delay in expressive language.  Not a great shock but I think she is more moderate than severe.  She didn’t get credit for a couple things because I wasn’t sure about some of the questions.  Lindy does have words, quite a few, but she talks mostly when she is prompted.  Anyway we signed her up for services and hopefully she’ll blossom in her language like Will has.   After evaluating Lindy, Will had his regular speech session.  He did great.  He said almost everything she asked him to.  His speech has taken off.  It’s pretty crazy how much he talks now.  He says two word phrases all the time and is adding in some longer ones.  The other day he said “help sissy applesauce’ when he saw me helping Lindy.  I got him to then say, “Mama help sissy eat applesauce.’  He has got a ridiculously sweet little voice so it’s fun to hear him talking!  Lindy’s voice is so raspy because of her paralyzed vocal cord.  She sounds so funny!  She has recently started saying some two word phrases too.  She pretty consistently says “Hi mama’ or ‘Bye bye Dada’ and has started saying “glasses off’ as well. 

Wednesday afternoon we had hearing therapy with Chris.  Lindy got to play in the dirt and plant a  little flower.  We were introducing some new vocabulary words.  She loved making a mess! 

Thursday the kids got to go to the mall shopping with me.  They did pretty well but I think they get tired of sitting in the stroller so long.  I decided I didn’t want to sit in the house all day so we went to look for a new dress for me. 

Finally yesterday we loaded up and headed down to Charlotte.  We first stopped to visit some friends who have moved to a nursing home in Charlotte.  I think it wore them out to just watch Will and Lindy but I think they enjoyed seeing them.  Then we headed to GrandBob’s in the afternoon.  Last night I got to go to their church consignment sale.  I got in with Suzette and got first pick of all the clothes.  I got a ton of stuff for $43!  It definitely helps supplement their summer wardrobes.  I wish I got an entirely new wardrobe each season! 

Today we met Mimo and Aunt Anna for lunch and we got to play outside a bit.  Will fell and scraped up his knee again.  The first skinned knee was healing and he ripped the scabs off and tore it open again.  It might be a long summer of skinned up knees at the rate he’s going.  They both passed out as soon as we started driving home.

The only other news is that the runny noses are back.  Will’s has been running a tiny bit since his last cold but yesterday morning someone turned the faucet back on full blast.  Lindy has had some snot too.  They really seem fine and I really think they have allergies.  We’ve been outside a lot this week and there are all kinds of things blooming right now.  I’m going to have to look into some allergy medicine soon.  The snot is out of control!

We  had a fun and busy week and the kids enjoyed seeing their aunts, uncles, and grandparents so much!  Now I need to get the house cleaned this week for Easter and our visit from Nana and Papa next weekend!

Me (the incredibly short one), Nicole, Julie, Joanna (the bride to be) and Heather celebrating the upcoming nuptials.Will has played all week up in the chair with these balls.    Inventing new ways to play with the pop-up tent. Planting her first flower with Chris. Lindy was being silly on the car ride to Charlotte!Will stood at the door saying ‘outside’ until GrandBob took him out to play basketball! The silly girl. Lindy and GrandBob picked me a flower. Lunch with Mimo and Aunt Anna today. 

Don’t forget about our March for Babies walk!  We have less than a month and we are still aiming for our $3500 goal.  If you have been thinking about donating, go ahead!  It’s the perfect time!!

Winner Announced!

Random.org choose number 6, so the winner of my first blog giveaway is Lynn! Congratulations Lynn! The Heirloom set should be coming your way soon!

March Madness 2010

It’s that time of year again…where basketball is on in our house for four days straight. I haven’t watched much this year though. But our beloved Wake Forest Demon Deacons squeaked out an overtime win Thursday night. Go Deacs!

The kids have had a rather quiet week but I sure have been busy. Lindy had hearing therapy on Tuesday morning and the kids had a ball opening Easter eggs. We are working hard on the ‘o’ sound so we have been saying ‘open’ a lot lately. I finally brought up some eggs for Will to play with and he’s had a ball with them. He says ‘egg’ pretty clearly.

I have been busy doing March of Dimes Ambassador stuff. I delivered goody bags to one of the NICU’s in town and had to give a speech at an elementary school. The community director emailed me today with a couple more speeches. I’m getting a little tired of hearing myself talk :)

The weather has been beautiful this week. Wednesday we ran an errand and stopped by the park for a few minutes. I pretty much can only go to the park with Drew. I can’t be at the bottom of the slide and helping Lindy crawl up the equipment at the same time. The kids had a blast crawling up and going down the slide, over and over! We were able to get out today too – this time we actually had to put shorts on since it was so warm. The kids are loving their swing set this year. Both are figuring out how to climb up the ladder and they love the slide. They have been swinging a lot too. All the hard work Daddy did last year is being put to good use this year!

Lindy and Will did get haircuts today. We went to town and went to Target first and then they got their haircut. They both did great today. I had them sitting on my lap but neither minded Anita messing with them. I hate taking them to get haircuts and hate paying for it, but they look so cute afterwards. I’m more of a once or twice a year kind of girl and they are getting theirs cut every two months.

We had a couple bad diaper days this week. One morning I went to change Lindy and found her diaper had exploded. The actual diaper. All the absorbent stuff inside was everywhere. It was a mess to clean up. She had footed pj’s on so thankfully it was contained inside that. Later that evening at the park Will went poop and we waited to get home to change it. I guess the sliding on poo over and over will make it come out the sides of the diaper. Learned a lesson on that one. Then the next morning both kids were soaking wet. They even had to have their sheets changed. I think it was a freak thing because they haven’t soaked any diapers in forever.

I’ve lost track of how many bed changes Lindy has had this week. Monday night she went to sleep fine but woke up crying a little later. We could hear she was getting really worked up so I picked her up and rocked her. But she wouldn’t go back to sleep so I took her back to her bed and she threw up. Another night I put them down and she immediately started crying and eventually made herself throw up. Then the urine soaked bed. It’s been a tough week for Lindy’s bed! I even woke up sick in the middle of the night one night. Hopefully no more throw up for awhile. We never really figured out why Lindy is getting sick. Other nights she goes to bed completely normal. She keeps us on our toes.

And now for some pictures……

Sharing a toy…a rare eventCute Will pictures. He was matching the animals up with the pictures in the book. We’ve had some temper tantrums this week. They are getting good at them. Lindy likes to hold her breath and fall to the ground. Will immediately falls to the ground and has added in some nice rolling around moves to his tantrums. Lindy has had some crazy hair this week. Will learned to blow on his hot food this week. By the way, he was eating spaghetti squash and had no clue he was eating a vegetable! By the end of St. Patrick’s Day Lindy had pulled off all her clovers so she had a no leaf clover. I gave the kids pink lemonade and it didn’t go over well. Good times at the fridge together. Good times in mommy and daddy’s bed this morning. New haircuts…. Both kids got boo boo’s outside while playing today. And I did too. Three of the four of us were bleeding. The kids got skinned knees and I got something in my thumb. We still had fun outside. Will wore his first band-aid today. Future t-ball stars, even if Will refuses to hold the correct end of the bat. The kid’s hairdresser told me how to get rid of Will’s dry scalp. She said to put baby oil on him before a bath and then scrub his head in the tub. Here’s the slick Willy version of his hair!

Don’t forget to enter the blog giveaway. The contest ends at 11:59pm on Sunday, March 21st. I announce the winner on Monday morning.

St. Patrick’s Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from our lucky charms.

Dont forget to check out my first blog giveaway. Click here to see the cute picture frames that All Children's Furniture is giving away. Only six people have entered so you have a great chance of winning!

First Giveaway! Free Super Cute Picture Frames!

Lindy and Will are 2.5 years old and still happily sleeping in their cribs. I suppose the day will come when one climbs out or I just finally feel the urge to take them out of their cribs. I don't feel the urge just yet though! We bought the cribs that turn into toddler beds and eventually full size beds. We hope they will use these beds for a long time to come!

Of course I occasionally like to check out bedding for these new, future beds they will one day have. I found a good website for kids bedding, All Children's Furniture, that has lots of cute bedding sets. Some of the ones I really like are:

I love pink/brown and blue/brown combinations and I love the fact that they are matching. All Children's Furniture also has some really pretty and modern duvet covers that I really like.

Allchildrensfurniture.com has graciously agreed to give away a free set of Trend Lab Two Picture Frame Sets like this one to one of my lucky blog readers:

They have 21 color combinations you can choose from, should you be the lucky winner of my first blog giveaway!

The contest will begin today and will last until Sunday, March 21st. I'll announce the winner on Monday, March 22nd.

To enter the contest you need to head over to All Children's Furniture (click on those words) and pick out your favorite set of Trend Lab Two Picture Frame Set. Leave me a comment telling me which pair you like. Make sure to leave an email address so I know how to get in touch with you, if you win! This blog giveaway is only open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

Want more entries?!

1 extra entry - Become a follower of my blog
1 extra entry - Blog about this giveaway on your blog
1 extra entry - Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter
1 extra entry - Put it in your status on Facebook
1 extra entry - Donate to our March for Babies team


Make sure you leave a separate comment for each entry.
If you are already a follower or have already donated to our March for Babies team, leave a separate comment telling me.

Remember this giveaway ends March 21st. I'll pick a winner using random.org and I'll notify the winner by email.

Good luck!