update

Well, it's November already. I guess I'm due for a post. On opening day of our local ice skating rink, they offer free skating from 6-9a.m. This year Truman, Jack, Baylie, Zarah, and Matt went. The children made it on our local TV news channel. Fun was had by all ,minus one pair of ripped pants and Matt's sore ankles.

The children made/ put on a trampoline performance of Robin Hood for us. This was followed by a short dance performance by Baylie, Zarah, and Daniella. They all did well. For several weeks they were practising; whether they wanted to or not , thanks to their oldest sister. :)

Here's the Halloween photos for this year.

The lineup consisted of a tomato, bumblebee, cheeseburger with very tall lettuce hair, blonde airline stewardess, clown, spiderman, batman, and superdog. Yes, Jack made the dog a costume. I was impressed that he could use my sewing machine. Good job buddy. I kind of got carried away with Halloween this year. We went to a community party, a puppet show, and a visit to our neighbors. Getting everyone dressed up for 3 seperate occasions. What was I thinking?!? We enjoyed all the activities though.

Our schedule has gotten a little more complicated. Zarah is doing gymnastics twice a week. She is doing very well. They moved her from the beginners class, past advanced beginners and intermediate, to the competitive team. She certainly doesn't get her skills from me. I was always more of a flop flat on to your back kind of gymnast in PE class.

Jack is doing well in his boxing. He possibly has a match coming up in a few weeks, so he is practising 4 days a week.

Baylie's flag football is over with. She did well this season and really enjoyed it.

Dan and Daniella are still working hard 5 days a week on their neurodevelopmental program. Daniella is up to speaking mostly in 4 word sentences. She is running faster, can recognize 13 site words, add single digits, remember 5 auditory numbers, and remember 5 visual numbers. Dan is mostly potty trained during the day, he can walk on most all uneven surfaces now, running faster with his arms down at waist level, make several animal sounds, knows and is able to say 7 body parts, and is saying about 7 other words.

Truman is riding his bike now without training wheels. He looks so little as he fearlessly jets in/out/over things. He had 2 bad food reactions again this last week. He gets hot, from head to toe turns bright red, and begins wheezing as his lungs fill up with fluid. Thankfully so far, benadryl and the humidifier seem to resolve most of the reaction in about an hour. I haven't had to use his epinepherine pen thus far. Thankfully. I just hate to see him go through that. Maybe with time he will outgrow it. I don't know. For now, no chicken, turkey, pork or almonds for him!!!

Charlie is still as fluffy as ever. We thought he would slim down with more activity, but he may always be a bit stouter built. He loves practising his animal sounds and body parts with me and Dan. Even though he is the littlest, he lets his needs and wants be known. Usually quite loudly. :) Too funny.

I guess that's about it for now. Hope you all are doing well.

until next time,

Vickie

Free

The weather was so nice today. We decided to take advantage of it. Every year there is a local attraction that allows residents of our city to go for free in the months of October and November; so we always try to go. Fun was had by all (except when Truman was allergic to his lunch and it came back up in the bushes, Charlie missed his nap which resulted in loud screaming and mom having to carry him most of the way, sore feet from walking 2 miles, pulling/pushing 80-90 pounds of wagon with small boys can get heavy going up big hills, loud barking noise terrifying Dan, etc., etc., etc.) Anyway....................























































































Have a great day,
Vickie

apple picking

The weather has been so nice here lately. Mid 70's. Cool breeze and sunshine. As soon as the weather starts feeling like fall, I start thinking about camping. An activity our family loves to do.

Our school support group has a camping trip planned for next week. Can't wait.

Our fieldtrip for this week was apple picking. Such generous people to let us pick all we want for free. The children always love it. Dan and Charlie had a great time picking apples up off the ground and putting them in their sack. Most of those apples were rotten, so they got dumped out. Then they would just fill it up again.

Then their attention turned to eating apples. Eating---one of their favorite all time activites. That fun lasted until Charlie bit into a rotten one. You should have seen his face, when he tasted that. Yuck!!

We got lots of apples. I see applesauce, dehydrated apples, apple cobbler,and sharing with others, in store.

The man also has a pond stocked with white catfish. They were fun to feed. What a nice day.

Hope you all are doing well. Talk to you soon.

The Big "4"

Dan's birthday has come and gone. It was a great day. He has changed so much over the summer. Here are some of the changes:

--the toddler look is gone

-- he's taken another growth spurt

--can mostly dress and undress himself minus socks/shoes

--potty training is going really well

--is shaking his head "yes" and "no" and trying to say the words. As communication skills have increased, the whinning has decreased.

--coordination is getting better; is running faster

--standing on his head to zone out is gone

-- he no longer is refusing to eat certain foods because of their texture

--is able to chew up his food without just swallowing it

--when he tries to jump now, his feet come off the ground just a little bit

I love to see his personality emerging. He is such a joy. Full of love, always offering a hug and kiss. He has a gentle spirit which makes for a good playmate. He loves to be silly. The children "helped" Dan decide to have donuts for his birthday cake. Of course, he liked the idea. Here's a video of him having fun. They are singing the "ice cream and cake" song. Warning-- it does sound a bit chaotic. I guess that is part of having fun.

Guess Who's Starting To Talk!!

Dan is looking older this summer. He's grown again and slimmed down. He's loosing his toddler build. His wonderful personality is really starting to emerge.





He is mostly potty trained at home during the daytime. I haven't figured out yet how to let him wear his underwear out in public. There is no way for him to tell me he has to use the restroom when we are out. I am teaching him the sign language signs for #1 and #2, but if I'm not looking at him how am I going to know he


needs to go?? I guess we'll figure it out eventually.


So, now for the biggie. Dan and I were sitting outside for a bit this Friday afternoon. Our neighbor/adopted grandparents pulled their car out of the garage. Out of the blue Dan says, "Nana". I looked at him. What did you say Dan. He said it again!!!! Then he said, "Papa" as Papa got out of the car. Wow!! He continued to say the names, so I walked him over to the neighbors, so they could hear him talk. How exciting. He has been saying Mama and Dada for a bit, but we hadn't heard any new words for awhile.

His running is getting faster and more coordinated. He seems so receptive to his neurodevelopmental program. After only a few months, he seems to show improvement. Pretty quick.


Now, Daniella makes progress too; but hers is much slower and requires a lot more work. I am so thankful she is willing to put in as much time as it takes. She is such a good/hard worker. What a sweetie.

All of our children are such blessings.




Have a great day,
Vickie

Another New Experience

Our latest trip was to the lake to see extended family and have fun out on the water. Dan and Daniella did amazing. They loved it, surprisingly. Fun was had by all. Now it will take us a few days to recover from the sun and activities. The Aunts, Uncles, Great Aunts, Great Uncles, Grandma/Grandpa, Great Grandma/Great Grandpa just love seeing all the children and spending time with them. The kids love all the attention.

Have a great day,

Vickie

A Fun Filled 4th

I just love the 4th of July! What a great day of celebration and fun. The day started off with going to the TEA (taxed enough already) protest. I feel our country is in a state of transition. Many of our freedoms are being threatened, and it seems most of the U.S. is asleep about it. Frustrating.










The rally got us all excited about the day and feeling patriotic.











Then we slowly moved onto the RiverFest event. Here the children rode rides, enjoyed the park by the river, listened to music, watched dancing, and enjoyed spending time together as a family. This was one of our first major family outings, since the addition of our 3 new family members. It went quite well. Dan is able to fall asleep now while being held, in his own bed, or when snuggling with mama in the morning. He still has not mastered falling asleep in the stroller or car, when occasionally nap time is missed. This led to a bit of crying on his part at the Fun Fest. Thankfully the music and rides were loud, so most people did not know he was loudly proclaiming that he was tired. After a short time, this passed


and he/we were all able to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.



















Unbelievably, Daniella rode all the rides and slid on all the slides--and loved it!!































Way to go Daniella, you have come a long way from a yr. ago when you were afraid of the baby slide and swing. Before we left the park, the children got a large snow cone. The largest rainbow colored snowcone I have ever seen.

After a great dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and biscuits; we were off to see the fireworks. We were too late for the fireworks by our house, so we went on down the rode a bit further to the next town. It was a nice cool night (amazing for a 4th of July) and great fireworks.














Hope you all enjoyed the day.