October

Cadence and Grace in their almost matching pj's
Dad surprised at his party

Evan's 1st time on the bus....my little boy is getting so big!

This past weekend we visited my parents house to celebrate my Dad's 57th Birthday. He is in the middle of his chemotherapy treatments, and powering through his 3rd month, with three more to go. It was a fun party, and the cousins enjoyed playing with each other.

In the meantime, my schedule just got a little crazier. Grace will be starting school an hour and a half earlier than before, starting next week. She needs a little help with reading. She will now have lunch at school too. I think she is ready for this now that she has eased into her year. Evan now has to ride the bus to Early Intervention. I thought this was going to start next week, but as I am getting the kids loaded in the car today, the bus was waiting for Evan. The person who was supposed to call me was sick, and I never got the call that it was starting today. Evan was so excited to ride the bus. I was a bit nervous, but I got a good report. Now I will need to be in more communication with his teacher's via phone and e-mail to see how he is progressing.

Yesterday I took Evan to see a pediatric Urologist. We have noticed since Evan was potty trained that whenever he urinated, that the stream went straight up, making it difficult for him to learn how to pee standing up. The Dr. was able to take a look and said that he had Meatal Stenosis. You can read more about it here: https://www.google.com/health/ref/Meatal+stenosis

Anyway, Evan will have to have a minor outpatient surgery in November to correct this. We are happy it is nothing serious and that he will finally be able to urinate standing up.

Until next time................

Fall is here

Let me first start off by saying, what a beautiful fall we have had so far. I am so thankful that the real rain has not started yet. We have had some brisk mornings, but I sure do love that sunshine that has been coming in every afternoon.

We have been in school for about a month now. It is hard to believe that it has already been one month. The weeks are full with the kids activities. Evan and Grace now fight a lot more. I am not sure if it is a battle of wills or if they are just adjusting to a new way of life right now.

We are all getting over our first fall cold. It was a doozy, nonetheless. I am hoping that we are healthier now that we got that out of the way, and that we all have our flu shots. I am still waiting on word on when the swine flu shot will be available. Speaking of which, every week as most of you know, I go to Doernbecher with Evan for speech. Grace comes with me since she is in afternoon Kindergarten, and this is the easiest set up. Next Monday, Evan has an earlier appointment with a Dr. I was going to take Grace with me to that, followed by his speech appointment. Today when I called the hospital to verify insurance information, the person I spoke with told me that I could not bring siblings to the hospital because they are scared that more people would spread the H1N1 virus. I know this thing is serious, but this really makes appointments difficult for me now that I can't bring Grace. I have small windows that I can take Evan to appointments because of Grace's school schedule. Not only does this affect me, it affects a ton of other families that have young children and have to travel several miles to get to the hospital for their sick or special needs child. I am not making light of the situation, but I am wondering how long they can really make this a "policy". There will be a lot people who just won't be able to come because of this policy. I am covered for next Monday, but I am going to have to figure out childcare for Grace on Monday's from here on out, until this is resolved.

I am now 33, and am not sure what to do with that! It seems like a weird age to me. Anyway, I'm off to swimming lessons with the kiddos......until next time.

Florida and Kindergarten

Evan and Gracee on her 1st day of Kindergarten
Our Family with Grandma Garcia (90th Birthday)

It was hot in Orlando! We had a blast...and here are the mouse years to prove it!

And of course, who doesn't love Cinderella!

I am not sure where to start, since I am so behind on blogging. We had a fabulous trip to Disney World. The first day we were there we powered through a 10 hour day. The next 2 days we did half days. The highlights were breakfast with the princesses and David and I loved the animal kingdom. Disney really knows how to run a park, and make things as comfortable as possible. We can't wait to go back when the kids are a little older, and can really go for longer periods of walking. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon by the pool too, which was an added bonus. We also visited a local park in Tampa, the beach and a science Museum. David's Grandma was happy that we came. We are so glad we were able to spend that time with her, and I think the kids are old enough to always remember her. We are so grateful to David's Aunt Jean and Uncle Bob, for hosting us for the week, and to his Uncle Rudy and Aunt Carolyn, who provided a car while we were there. This sure makes it a lot easier on the pocketbook to take this kind of a vacation.

Grace started Kindergarten last week. She is adjusting better than I had hoped. I am excited to watch her grow and learn and find things that she really loves. She is such a precious girl and we are so proud of the young lady she is becoming.

Evan also started speech classes again. His improvement each day is unbelievable and gives us so much hope. He is now out of his day braces and wears them only at night. He is wearing little orthotics, which really help him stay stable when he walks. What a blessing this is for all of us. We are thankful that God is watching out for Evan, and giving us the strength to parent him through some hard times. These kids are such a wonderful blessing!

I am just getting back in the school groove. My mornings are a bit hectic, but I am getting a rhythm down now. The kids also start swimming lessons next week, for the next 2 months. We are trying to keep this momentum going so that they can be good swimmers at an early age, and we can move onto other activities. The next thing: Piano lessons....but I think we will wait until spring....or until we get a piano!

Until next time...