March for Babies 2010

Our March of Dimes March for Babies walk was Saturday morning.  It turned out to be a beautiful morning for a 3.5 mile walk.  We had 17 people walk on our Million Dollar Babies team:: Me, Drew, Lindy, Will, GrandBob, Suzette, Suzette’s granddaughter Deanna, Mimo, Aunt Anna, Uncle Ed, Jamie, Molly, Janice, Katie, Kris, Micah, and Claire.  Katie, Micah, and Claire have walked every year with us – even though Claire was in the womb the first year! 

I got to the park at 6:30am that morning to help set everything up.  I was on the planning committee for the entire walk this year.  Drew and the kids got there around 9am.  Around 9:30am they started a small program.  We were introduced as the Ambassador Family and Drew had to talk.  I have given enough speeches as the Ambassador Mom that I let him handle the one at the walk.  Then we got to lead off the entire walk.  We had to carry a banner for a little bit.  It was fun to be special that day!

I decided last Monday to make our team t-shirts.  Katie and I met at AC Moore and got all the supplies and I got to ironing this week.  I wanted everyone to know we were the ambassador family team this year! 

We made our goal and actually surpassed it.  As of right now Drew and I got $3770 and our team got $4670.  Thank you to everyone who supported us this year.  We have very generous friends and family!!!

Here are some pictures of our day.

Lisa, me, and Wendy.  Representing AHS ‘95.  We all had preemies.

Crazy Pollen Week

The pollen around here is ridiculous.  We have started eating dinner outside on our porch most nights now that it has warmed up but every night we have to wipe everything down before we can eat there.  The kids go down their slides and their pants turn yellow.  Enough with it already!

Last Saturday we went to a mission fair in Mayodan and drove around the area while the kids slept.  We ended up in Reidsville and happened upon a free kids concert in a little downtown park.  The kids had both woken up so we stopped.  It was this group called the Learning Station and it was great.  It wasn’t so great that, because of Drew, I ended up on stage dancing, but it was still fun.  The kids were still very sleepy and a little overwhelmed.  They sat in my lap for most of it.  It was a perfect spring day and we had a blast.

The week was a fairly busy week.  We started out bright and early Monday morning with a meeting with the preschool transition specialist.  We met to do some preliminary paperwork for the kids IEP’s.  It’s surreal that we are starting this process.  For one I can’t believe they are old enough to be transitioning to preschool services (at 3) and then I just never imagined having kids that needed IEP’s.  Although I don’t suppose anyone really plans on having kids with IEP’s.  Lindy’s portion of the meeting took three times as long as Will’s.  She has a lot more going on and a lot more therapist reports to look over.  We left feeling pretty good about the meeting though.  Lindy will get a comprehensive, play-based evaluation done on May 5th.  Will is scheduled for the same thing on May 12th, but we have to decide if we really want Will to get the entire evaluation or just a speech evaluation.  And actually he doesn’t even need his speech evaluation because the one he had to get qualified for services is recent enough.  So we have some decisions to make about Will.  Our go to babysitter Janice was here playing with the kids.  I’m so fortunate to have someone I can call last minute who can watch the kids. 

Wednesday our cat, Jack, had his yearly checkup and we found out that he might have glaucoma in one eye.   The pressure was high when she checked it.  We have to go back in four months to have it rechecked.  If he does have it then we have to give him eye drops.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  Giving a cat eye drops?

Thursday afternoon we had Lindy’s vision teacher here but she brought the vision mobility specialist with her.  She came sometime in 2008 when Lindy was commando crawling and wanted to come back when Lindy was comfortably walking around.  She seemed pretty impressed with Lindy.  She watched her walk all over the house and the yard.  She put toys in the middle of the floor to see how Lindy moved around them.  We told her our only concern with Lindy and mobility is steps.  She knows our house like the back of her hand but she also does completely fine wherever we take her.  We have never seen her act any different in a new place.  We were told that kids can sometimes be hesitant in new places where they are not comfortable and don’t know the surroundings.  Not our Lindy.  We chase her around so she doesn’t break things in other peoples’ houses.  She felt that Lindy will adapt well to wherever she is.  She didn’t think she needed any kind of walking stick to help her out.  The only steps we have at our house are a couple outside.  We decided that they are really large steps and Lindy is really short so she is going to have trouble with them.  She suggested Lindy continue to bump down them instead of trying to walk.  We always love when people come to check Lindy out and she surprises them.  We love to hear people talk about how well she is doing!

Will has found a new favorite book this week.   Chicka Boom Boom Boom as Will calls it (It’s really Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).  That is what he wants to read every night before bed.  The boy loves him some alphabet!  The cutest thing he says is ‘sunglasses.’  Most nights when we put Will on the potty it is right before bath time when he is naked. Last week I decided to put him on it during the day.  We were walking down the hall to the potty and he said, ‘Shirt off.’  I had to tell him that he can leave clothes on to go to the bathroom!

Lindy’s excitement for the week is that she fell backwards off the porch.  Thankfully she was not hurt.  She sure scared her mama though.  I think she was trying to sit in a chair that was nearby and just completely missed it.  I was blowing bubbles and watched her go over.  It’s just 2-3 feet high, but Lindy hitting her head with a shunt just makes me very nervous.  She didn’t even cry for a minute.  She was walking and playing immediately.  I think the azalea bush softened the blow for her.  I was proud of Will though.  I was yelling for Drew who was inside but he couldn’t hear me.  I told Will to open the door and go inside and get daddy.  He did exactly as he was told and went inside and told Drew, “sissy hurt.”  It was awesome that he followed my directions and then even knew what to tell Drew. 

Enjoy some pictures from the week.

At the kids concert in Reidsville. Drew on stage (second from the right) Me on stage (last one on right). Little Deacon fans.Little cuties.  We tried out the Color Wonder finger paints and they enjoyed them.  I love that there was no mess involved!  Will told me he drew a rectangle.  Can’t you tell?  Lindy does everything on the potty……except go pee-pee. The kids have cheese faces.  At least Lindy’s is a smile. We are reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar for Lindy’s hearing therapy.  The caterpillars have descended upon our house again this year so we caught one and we are going to see if we can see it turn into a butterfly.

Last Week

The March for Babies walk is coming up this weekend, April 17th.  If you had considered donating to our team, then this is the last week to do it!  We are getting very close to our goal and I'm really hoping we can meet it!  Click on the words Million Dollar Babies to go directly to my page or click the March for Babies badge in the upper right hand corner.  One day all babies will be born healthy! 

Week After Easter

We have stayed fairly busy this week, even though our therapy appointments were not on our usual days.

Tuesday morning I had another March of Dimes speaking engagement.  Our March of Dimes exciting news this week is that we were in a magazine!  You might be able to click on the article to make it big enough to read.  We were pretty excited to be interviewed and get some good, free publicity for the March of Dimes. 

On Wednesday we had speech therapy for both kids.  It was the first time Lindy has actually had a session.  She was just tested a couple weeks ago.  Because Will likes to talk for Lindy I had to put him in our bedroom with the little DVD player and let him watch his new monkey movie.  This is a definite treat for Will and I don’t even think he knew Lawson was here!  He didn’t make a peep and was a good, quiet boy during Lindy’s session.  Lawson was pleasantly surprised with Lindy.  At first Lawson was trying to get her to imitate some sounds and Lindy wouldn’t.  Later they were playing with Mr. Potato head and Lindy imitating Lawson.  She did better just in the midst of playing.  I think Lindy surprised Lawson by saying many two word phrases. 

After Lindy was done we got Will and he had a great session too.  His speech seriously just amazes us.  To think that about 3 months ago he had maybe 35 words.  Now he talks all the time and says things I had no clue that he knew about.  He can name every letter, count to ten, say all his colors and shapes.  He has just exploded!  Lawson now wants us working on verbs and trying to get him to say ‘I want a snack’ instead of just snack. 

Thursday morning Will had a hearing test.  Because he is enrolled in speech therapy it is required that he have a hearing test to rule out his hearing being the cause of the speech delay.  We had no questions at all about his hearing so we weren’t worried.  He passed with flying colors.  Drew said he even heard the sound at 5 decibels.  The audiologist was actually very impressed by that and said most kids at his age don’t respond to that faint of a sound. 

Thursday afternoon Lindy had hearing therapy.  We worked with the Very Hungry Caterpillar book and did a few different activities with it. 

Today Lindy had physical therapy.  She did very well again.  We worked on climbing up and down stairs.  She tends to go too fast.  She needs a lot more practice on them. 

We have had beautiful weather and have been outside every afternoon.  The pollen has gone crazy this week.  Everything is covered in yellow.  We have been eating outside most nights this week and we just have to wipe everything down each night.  Thankfully it rained last night and washed some of it away.  I’m still giving the kids Claritin and it seems to be working. 

Anyone have any ideas on how to make Lindy stop playing during meals?  She plays with her bowl, plate, spoon, cup, whatever she can find to play with.  She picks up her bowl off her plate and will turn it over and dump it.  One night she dropped her plate off her tray onto the ground.  Feeding her is the one thing that has never gotten easier.  We just wish she’d eat!  It’d take a quarter of the time if she’d just eat and not play so much.  Any suggestions would be great!

Enjoy some pictures of our week.  Both kids have learned to  say ‘cheese’ for pictures.  Not that they both say it at the same time or while both looking at the camera though!

Will decided he likes his rain boots. Lindy decided she did NOT like her rain boots.Both kids LOVE their sunglasses! Playing outside. Funny set of pictures. I ended up having to bribe them with m&m’s and do jumping jacks to get a good picture! Finally, they are both looking at the camera and smiling!I love Will’s eyes in this one!   “Mama, why did you just wake me up from my nap?” Some of the kids’ new pajamas the Easter bunny brought them.  I love when I find matching clothes for them! (They are doing the hand movements for twinkle, twinkle, in the pictures!) Fun with Daddy on the big blue ball before bed (check out that alliteration!).