Chicago Part II

Our second week in Chicago was a little busier than the first. We had Adam there and so we went and did a little more. The first stop was the Naperville Children's Museum. The kids and I had been there a couple times over the years visiting Kelle and they had just as much fun this time as they have in the past. I think their favorite part was the water play area, but they all ended up SOAKED. Poor Alyssa was absolutely drenched. My kids spend a fair amount of time playing in the water and being wet after so they weren't too bothered.

Paul in the music area

My sweet girl

It's typical that she found whatever animals were present and turned them into a family.

Paul was pouring water all over himself (like I said, they were soaked)

We were lucky to have a few warm days while we were out there so the kids were able to play outside. One of those days we went to the park and then over to a river to throw rocks. There was a little play thing at the park that was a dolphin. Samantha thought this was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. We have at least 10 pictures that she took of the dolphin. Every time she sees the picture she'll tell me, "remember that dolphin, wasn't it beautiful?" Throwing rocks in the river was a lot of fun for the kids too. The part we stopped at happened to have some shells in the water. Since Kelle and I told the kids they weren't allowed to go into the river they spent the majority of the time trying to fish out the shells with sticks. It proved to be quite the experience. Andrew told us after that he thought the shells meant more because he'd taken the time and effort to fish them out.

All the cousins before church

One of our favorite places that we ended up going was to the zoo. The Lincoln Park Zoo is really nice, especially for being free. Adam kept telling me that he thought the animals were actually robots since they were all so active. I have never seen all the big cats move as much as they were. The male lion was pacing right in front of the viewing window. It was really incredible. We also heard the male and female lion roaring at each other. I couldn't believe how loud they were. Paul's favorite animals were the otters. They were super playful and kept doing back flips off the glass. He was AMAZED and thought they were putting on a show just for him. I think he would have stayed all day if we'd let him.

Paul "sleeping" on a play structure at the zoo

Samantha and Grant smiling for their lunch. Kelle told Samantha she actually had to smile and look at the camera (two difficult things for her to manage) if she wanted lunch.

Our family with the Chicago skyline in the background, the sun is in our eyes so Paul wouldn't look.

After the zoo we were able to walk to see Lake Michigan. The kids had never seen it so we wanted to give them the chance. They were only there for a couple minutes when Paul threw a handful of sand in Samantha's eyes. Luckily Adam was there and was able to take her back to the car. She didn't seem too disappointed that she didn't get to spend more time at the lake either which was nice.

He sure does make me laugh

One of the kids' favorite activities was jumping on the trampoline. They were SO excited because one night while Carter and Andrew were gone Adam took the kids out to jump after they were all ready for bed. It was fun to watch them having such a good time together.

On our last day in Chicago we decided to go the "tank park." They had 15 or so tanks that were actually used in battle that the kids can climb all over and see up close. It was really cool. They also had a really neat museum that I would have loved to see without kids. Even with the kids I really enjoyed it. My favorite part was actually on the way home. As we were driving Samantha was trying to talk to Grant and every time she would start talking he would say "I don't care." Kelle tried to tell him not to be rude so he started whispering "I don't care" every time she'd start to talk. We were laughing too hard to get him to stop. The kids noticed we were laughing so Kelle told them that I had told her a funny joke. Of course the kids wanted to know what it was. The only thing I could come up with was, "why did the chicken cross the road? To sit on an egg." Dumb. Now Samantha tells me that joke at least once a day and can never figure out why it's not making me laugh that hard. She will also remind me, "remember how funny that was when you told that joke to Aunt Kelle?" 



Paul listening to one of the presentations. All the kids had to have two phones, one for each ear.

I am so glad we drove out there and can't wait to see everyone again. My kids already ask if we have enough money to go again, and if we have enough, could we go on a plane? 

Chicago Part I

Over spring break the kids and I decided to drive to Chicago. I even asked them if they would rather go to Disney World or Chicago and they chose seeing their cousins. Good thing they didn't choose Disney World since we wouldn't have gone there! Not sure what I was thinking when I brought up that conversation.  Before leaving we had the option of waiting for Adam and only going for 1 week, or leaving earlier but I'd have to drive out by myself. I really wanted to stay longer, but wasn't sure if I could do the entire 16 hours with the kids without any help. Luckily I have a saint for a mother-in-law and she drove out with me and then flew back.  The kids did AWESOME on the drive out and we made it all the way to Iowa City to stay with Kate and Jonathan (13 hours) before stopping for the night.

We started out our trip at the Field Museum.

 Samantha "smiling" - she insisted that she was smiling  and when I showed her the picture she kept saying that I must just be missing it. It wasn't just for this picture either, it was the whole day.

 Paul in front of "Sue" the T-Rex. He still talks about the huge dino bones.

Cute Grant

The rest of the week we let the kids play and then we went down to Kim's house. My kids had such a great time with so many friends to play with. I think their favorite activity both at Kim's and Kelle's was the trampoline. 

 Paul and Blythe

 I love the matching crystal light mustaches

The picture right above is one of my favorites from the whole trip. Kim was nice enough to babysit overnight while Adam surprised me with a date. This was one of the pictures she took while we were gone. I guess Paul had a hard time while we were out and Spencer stepped up and became Paul's buddy. You can tell from the picture how Paul felt about that. The kids are so lucky to have such great cousins. I only wish they all lived closer!!

Paul's Apraxia

I know I haven't put up pictures in awhile (I haven't taken ANY pictures since December) but I thought I would take the time to give an update on Paul's apraxia and how his speech is developing. When we started speech a year ago he only had three SOUNDS and no words. I still hoped that it would be a relatively easy fix and that after a few months of speech that he'd catch up. You hear so many stories about kids that are late to talk and do just fine. Well, we only had one speech session in March and then started again in April after we got back from a trip. After Cheri, his speech teacher, spent a few weeks with him she told me she thought he was a lot more severe than just a speech delay. She mentioned apraxia as a possibility. It was around the middle or end of April that she gave him a suspected dx of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). The more we've worked with him we've discovered that he not only has CAS but that he is severe. Speaking is extremely difficult for Paul and probably will be for a long time. We are really hopeful that he'll get to the point where he can speak normally but we probably won't know for sure until he's there. Along with speech there are some other areas in language (reading, writing, spelling, comprehension, overall language development, etc) that he may struggle with. Most of these we won't know until he's older and starts reading. So far we've been lucky in that he has had no other problems. Many kids with CAS have fine motor, oral, or sensory issues that they are dealing with.

With all that said, Paul has made great progress. It has defiantly not been easy for him or us, but we can see HUGE improvements. He now has more words than I can count. I lost track at 80 and he's continued to gain almost daily. I would say about 90% of the words that I understand can be understood by others in our family and about 75% can be understood by anyone who stops to listen. He has added a lot of new word shapes and can make most sounds that you encounter in English. He still really struggles with /s/ /v/ and /g/ but can get most others either as an initial or ending sound. Don't get me wrong, he's still way way behind his peers, but we are at a point where he is able to communicate and that is huge. There isn't a typical path of development for kids with apraxia so it's not like I can expect that at 3 he'll have hit this benchmark and at 4 he'll be here. That's what you learn to expect with your kids, you know about when they'll be able to do things. It's difficult not knowing what's ahead but in some ways it is really nice. I am able to just look at what he's doing and what gains he is making rather than worrying about whether they are enough. I do still worry though...all the time :)

We just has his IEP for preschool and it looks like he'll be getting two 30 min sessions a week at school. At least that's the hope. It's not enough so we are trying to figure out a private SLP for at least one more session a week. Hopefully insurance will cover it, but if not it'll be between $75-100 an hour. Can you believe it? We're just lucky we have gotten as much as we have up to this point.

We have really appreciated everyone's support and prayers this last year, I am not sure what we would have done without such wonderful family and friends.

February

Well, February has been another uneventful month. My morning sickness is starting to let up a little, but it's still enough that we've spent a lot of time not doing much this month. I think my kids are going a little crazy and hoping that we get back to a busier schedule soon. Luckily we've started a little preschool for Paul. It's only once a week for a couple hours but he LOVES it. He asks me every morning if he has school and is devestated whenver I say no. I think it's fun for him to feel like his sister and older cousins.  It's also nice for me to have two hours a week with no kids! Samantha is also doing GREAT in school. She still goes four days a week for 2 1/2 hours each day. Her teacher keeps telling me how great she's doing.  It's always nice to hear positive comments about your kids since it's easy (at least for me) to spend a fair amount of time worrying about them. When I pick Sammi up from school I still have her asking me if she can stay just a few minutes longer and why I always have to come get her.

Winter Park

Adam and I were lucky enough to be able to get away for a weekend and head up to Winter Park. We didn't really do much and it was PERFECT. It was so nice to be able to just sleep in, eat when I wanted, and be able to take a nap without getting woken up by little voices. Adam brought a bunch of movies for us so we made the condo our little cave and didn't venture out much. Usually when we go somewhere I am the one pushing us to get out and do all that the town has to offer.  I wasn't sure if I'd like just hanging out watching movies, but it turned out great.

Other than going to Winter Park January was really uneventful. We did a lot of hanging around the house and taking it easy.

Ice Skating

After Christmas we decided to take the kids ice skating for a fun family activity. Samantha did pretty well and had a fun time. Paul couldn't keep his legs under him and wasn't a fan.

Merry Christmas

Thanksgiving was a really lowkey event this year with just my parents, my Aunt Nanette and Uncle Jeff, and Kevin and Holly. So, we decided to make Christmas a little more of a big deal. We had an advent calendar with an activity for each day of the month. Some days it was small stuff like playing Christmas BINGO, and other days it was a little more involved. It turned out to be one of the best things we've done. The kids had so much fun with each of the activities, even the small ones, and they were SO excited every morning to see what we had in store for the day. It was a great way to make the whole month of December fun instead of just a long countdown to Christmas. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were also really nice. Kevin and Holly went to California so we spent Christmas with my parents and Stacy, Lauren, and Caity.

Our family (Adam, the kids, and I) decided to do a handmade only Christmas. We handmade all of our gifts for everyone. The only exception was the kids' Santa gifts and stockings. I also caved and bought their pj's because it was easier and cost about the same as making them myself. I was really pleased with how everything turned out. It took a LOT of time to make everything but my mom told me it looked like everything was purchased and wasn't "homemade looking." For the kids I made felt quiet books for church which have already had half the pieces lost because they've been played with so much. I also made Paul a fishing set and Samantha a family of frogs. Adam made me an AMAZING sewing cabinet with room for all my notions and that have doors so when I'm done I can close away the mess. Although I will need to start earlier next year I was so happy with how everything came together that I think we will do this every year. It also didn't hurt that we spent a total of $100 on Christmas this year and ended up with some amazing things to give.

Samantha at her preschool party

The Barbie she got from Grammie and Ji-chan (probably her favorite present)

The train from Grammie and Ji-chan (another favorite)

Decorating cookies for Santa. My Dad is his absolute favorite person. Ever.

Opening a present Christmas Eve

New PJ's

Paul playing with his new kitchen