No more therapy!!

After Matthew's medical problems when he was a newborn it was stressed upon us that putting him in rehabilitation and therapy was imperative. So as soon as possible he was enrolled in Occupational and Physical therapies. He did them several times a week with a specialist and then we worked with him ourselves. It was pretty upsetting at first. His first evaluations were not very positive. At three months old, they told us he was functioning at only a newborn level. But we worked very hard - all of us did! My mother did therapy with him at her house and Ben and I practiced all his exercises with him every chance we could. We showed others how to help him too. Some days Matthew was tired and cranky and didn't want to participate but we continued to do what needed to be done. Then suddenly things began looking up! We would get new therapists every once in a while and they would not believe this was the same baby on their files. He was doing incredible. Before we new it, he was up to par with his age level. In the beginning he had therapy twice a week. By the time he was two, it was once a month. Then by age three he had graduated both Physical and Occupational therapy. It was recommended he begin speech therapy although he barely qualified to receive it. Then this past week he was tested again and they told us he was doing so well they did not feel he needed Speech therapy anymore either! One therapist even said he spoke better than some Kindergartners.
Wow - I could not believe it!

It feels odd not having to take him to therapy. But I will be happy to get used to this change! Now the next step is to try to take him off his medication. Fingers crossed for that but even if it doesn't happen, to know that he is doing so well is more than I could ever hope for. I love my little boy so much and am SO very proud of all that he has accomplished!

Loving Husband

My hubby and I at the beach over the summer

I had a birthday in December and am now officially 32. Although I really thought I was already 32 so it doesn't feel like I'm much older! I guess you get forgetful in your old age.

Ben and I don't normally do too much for our birthdays or our anniversary. We just have too much going on I guess. This year I suggested we have a nice dinner at home. I told Ben he could make me some Salmon and we could eat with the kids. So when I got home to find the kids missing I was a little confused. Ben had planned the evening so we could go out to dinner alone while the kids stayed at my Mom's house. So sweet of him! I enjoyed the Salmon I ordered at the Marietta Fish Market and I especially enjoyed a peaceful meal with my loving husband. I didn't have to cut up anyone's food. I didn't have to tell anyone to hurry up and take a bite. I didn't even have to get up in the middle of my meal to take someone to the restroom. It was just perfect!

Ben also did a great job with my gifts. I received a gym membership that I really really wanted. Some new headphones, a movie, and tons of other stuff I probably don't deserve. He truly is the best!!

Baxter

Emma's teacher told them about a special friend at the beginning of the year: Baxter the Bear. Baxter comes from Maine and the entire class waits for him to arrive to the school. They track his travels down the East coast and learn a special song about Baxter "the lovable bear from Maine". When he finally arrives, each child gets to take Baxter home for a weekend and then write about it in the class journal.

We had a turn with Baxter in November. Emma asked if we could take Baxter to Disneyworld but I had to explain to her that it wasn't quite possible! But even without Mickey, we tried to make it a special weekend. We started with going out to see a movie - something we rarely do. We watched The Care Bear movie in honor of our guest and snacked on Gummy Bears. Matthew and Ben came with us to the movies. Poor Ben - he isn't a big fan of the movies and this cartoon one was a little bit too pre-school even for me. But the kids loved it! We took Baxter out to lunch and shared ice cream with him too. On Sunday we dressed him up and took him to church with us. So although we didn't do anything too exciting, Emma had fun with him and especially enjoyed introducing him to all her other stuffed animals. We may be lucky enough to get Baxter one more time before the year ends. We will have to start planning what other fun things we can do with him!

Bringing Baxter to our house

Emma, Matthew and Baxter at church

Baxter meeting Emma's other animals

Eating Ice Cream!

At the movies

Family Halloween

Emma asked to be a witch this year for Halloween. I was hesitant to get her a witch costume since she usually wants to be something "pretty". Luckly I found a perfect Princess Witch costume on EBay that was a decent price. She looked perfect! Matthew was such a struggle last year. He doesn't like dressing up but since he has been so obsessed with dinosaurs lately I made him a dinosaur costume. It was really just a hoodie with spikes and a tail sewn on. I dyed it his favorite color (green) and since it was a jacket it didn't feel much like a costume. He kept it on all night and really enjoyed roaring to all the people we saw.

I was so excited because this year Ben could actually join us for Trick or Treating. He didn't have a game, he didn't have a competition, and he wasn't sick! I think this is the first time we all went door to door together as a family. It was such a wonderful evening.

We did our normal tradition and went to my wonderful brother's neighborhood in Marietta. Earlier in the week some of my Dad's family from Ecuador came to town. They really wanted to see how Halloween was celebrated in the United States and asked to come join us. It was a treat to have them tag along. They enjoyed seeing all the decorations and costumes.

The weather was much better than the rainy night we had last year and the cold night we had the year before that. In fact, at one point I even got a little too warm. We went our normal route but this year with Ben helping out we cut our time down a bunch. He would put Matthew on his shoulders between houses and would encourage the girls to rush to the next house. The usual 1 hour plus trip took less than 45 minutes!! Ben was such a good sport. I know Halloween really isn't his thing but he even dressed up. What a great Dad he is to our kids. I hope the entire family can do it again next year.

The beautiful Princess Witch

Dinosaur for Matthew and Skull for Emma
(They picked out what they wanted on their own)

Vampire and Dinosaur

My first semi-homemade costume

New Phone

I had a Motorola Razor phone for YEARS and YEARS. I loved that phone. It was small and sleek and did just what I needed. I could receive and send phone calls with the push of a button. Then as the years went by, I started to text. Just one here and there - nothing major. My techno savvy husband got an IPhone as a gift from his loving wife one year and he loved it. I thought it was ridiculous to have a phone that could do so many things. Why would you need all that? And he was ALWAYS on his phone. So when I needed an upgrade on my phone and saw that they no longer offered my beloved Razor I switched to a Pantech Slide phone called the DUO. It slid up and down and also had a slide keyboard. Pretty fancy for me! I became an avid texter after that but I still mocked my hubby's phone with all it's bells and whistles I didn't need. THEN I dropped my phone in the toilet and it was Dead. I needed a new one and I wanted something modern. So Ben convinced me to get a "real" phone this time.

I've had my HTC Aria for a few weeks now and I am in love. I can check my emails as they come in. I can check my facebook. I can have the Internet at my finger tips. It even flashes a little light when I have something new to look at. But the best thing is that I can send and receive pictures! That is the one thing I always hated about my simple phones. So thank you Ben for bringing me up to date and for getting me such a cool phone! And I apologize in advance if you find me always on my phone ;)

Talent Show 2010

I was in charge of the church Talent Show again this year. Once again we had a great group of kids perform things from hula hoops to telling jokes. It was a great night. The theme was based on "America's Got Talent!" and boy do my two kids have some talent!! I actually got Matthew to participate this year. Initially I was going to just have him do his dinosaur impression but then decided to try to get him to sing. He sang his favorite song "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" and was so proud of himself. I was so very proud too!

Emma of course was born ready to perform. She decided to sing HER favorite song from her favorite singer - Justin Bieber. I bought her a Justin shirt for the performance and she did the rest, hair and all. She looked like she stepped out of the 80's. Last year she couldn't decide to sing or dance so this year I told her she could do both. I was having some trouble with the music in the begining and I think it threw off her singing but she did an incredible job dancing! When you watch the video you want to skip to about 45 seconds where she starts.

Once again, I don't know where these outgoing children get their courage. Definitely not from their SHY Mama!

The Beach and the Tooth

An old friend of Ben's got married in September. She was getting married at the Beach in North Carolina. We took this as an opportunity for another family vacation. It was the kid's first trip to the beach and the first time for Ben and I to go to the beach since our Honeymoon. It was an amazing trip. The kids loved every minute of it. We started in North Carolina and ended up at Myrtle Beach. We spent some time at a civil war museum and at a battleship (the USS North Carolina), but their favorite part was the sand! I think we spent hours and hours building walls, castles and holes. The weather could not have been better. It was sunny but cool and the water was just right. Matthew was more of a water baby than Emma was. He would go into the water with Ben and let the waves splash over him. I could only get Emma up to her shins before she would want to run back to the sand.

All was absolutely perfect until our last day. It started normal and exciting. We had checked into a fancy hotel for the last part of our trip and were extremely content in their comfy beds and 10 swimming pools. We decided to start out at the beach for the day. Unfortunately I had a run-in with a jelly fish - Ouch!! It was pretty painful but I tried to tough it out for the kids. I didn't want them to be afraid of getting into the ocean. So all was well after that....until we headed toward the pool. Emma had asked to be wrapped up all tight in her towel and then began dancing around and being too silly. She tripped over her feet and since her arms were restrained she fell face first on the concrete. Blood everywhere, a busted lip, and when she looked up her tooth was knocked inward. I was already drained from the jellyfish and seeing her like this made me sick to my stomach. But once again as a Mom, I stayed as calm as I could. It turned out her lip wasn't so bad and the bleeding quickly stopped. Since it was her baby tooth we didn't feel it necessary to rush her to the hospital although her tooth was obviously out of place. I didn't know what to do with her so we ended up going for ice cream. I couldn't think of anything else she could eat! She thought it was fantastic - "this is the best night ever" she told us as she ate her ice cream dinner. Then later that night as I was getting Matthew in his pajamas I heard her squeal "OUCH!". I turned to see what happened and she said "Mommy! I put my tooth back into place all by myself!" And she grinned a big bloody grin! She was right though, her teeth looked straight once again.

We spent one extra day at the beach and it truly was perfect. It was so hard to leave but we had school days and work waiting for us in Georgia. I think we might do this beach thing again next year - minus the bloody tooth and jelly fish of course.

(Ben took lots of pictures but hasn't sent them to me yet- I will post as soon as I can)