Photo 365: Day 20 - 27

{Day 20} One of the many reasons why we love when daddy is home

(which has been very rare lately)

{Day 21} This girl is growing up too fast. 

{Day 22} Daddy-daughter date. A much needed night of attention for this girl with her dad. Weeks when he is away are tough and she is my go to helper. Taking care of the dog, entertaining Zoey while I cook, getting diapers, jammies, keeping me company, the list goes on. Not sure how I would make it through without her.

We just wanted her to feel a little special so they went to dinner and a movie and had a great time.

{Day 23} Would you guess this is Occupational Therapy? Still working on brushing his teeth. He has graduated to allowing us to brush with water but any other flavor is a melt down. So his Therapist was trying juice here. He got a few brushes in but it was still a challenge. Just keep trying, just keep trying, repeat, repeat, repeat. Never give up.

{Day 24} Experimenting with a Macro lens, I have a lot to learn, ha ha.

{Day 25} A beauty even with pink eye.

{Day 26} She will sit and do this puzzle over and over and over again.

Thankful to have another puzzle lover in the family.

 

{Day 27} She may be growing up too fast but she is still my baby girl who loves to snuggle.

(wearing the pants I knitted)



The start of something new

Turning 8 opens a new opportunity for Owen. He is now eligible to participate in the Special Olympics. Each season there are different sports to try and a chance to play. There are not very many programs like this available so we are thankful to have this outlet. We are a few weeks late for the swim season but made it to a practice this last Friday. The practice started at 7pm (Owen's bed time is typically 7), and of course he gave it his all. Excited to swim and have fun in the water. He did a few laps in the pool on the kick board before deciding it was enough and then went to the shallow pool.
The first meet is February 9th at Gustavus Adolphus College. Beyond that I am not sure what to expect but we are excited!

Photo356: Day 13 - 19

{Day 13} After my camera took a tumble my prime lens was damage. I decided to upgrade as a little present for learning how to better use my camera. It arrived and it is a night and day difference.

{Day 14} She stole an iPad.

{Day 15} With Dad in Germany, it's been nice to have a little extra help. The girls were thrilled to have Grandma over!

{Day 16} Drawings - Owen made this fine piece of art at school. A perfect representation of "Mario". It is awesome to see the detail he is starting to add to his pictures.

{Day 17} Olivia is LOVING her swim class. I think this is her favorite part. I also love to get to practice capturing the moment!

{Day 18} What mom?

{Day 19} Bath time. Finally not screaming through her baths.

I skate. You slide.

The weather was finally warm enough for us to venture out for some winter fun. We are lucky that we didn't need to go far, just across the street to the pond. Where our neighbor has been keeping a rink maintained and ready for skaters. Olivia is the only one in the family with a pair of skates so the rest of us cheered her on and did a little sliding. I was quite impressed with how well she did for her first time out.

 

A little help from dad in the beginning.

 

And then she was off. Skating away.

 

 

Owen did some spinning.

 

Zoey did some bonding with the neighbor.

 

 

We need to look in to getting Owen some skates and figure out how to support him to learn how to skate. His ankles are still pretty weak so it will be difficult but I know he will really like it.

Photo 365: Day 8-12

Completing a photo challenge every day has proved to be a little challenging. I may need to expand my mission for the year. The challenges occur when Jason is out of town for the week  and the only times I am able to use my DSLR is when the sun is not out. I will need to get more creative. But for last week, this will have to do...

{Day 8} Slim pickings for photos on this day.

{Day 9}They like to cuddle after school. I think they both need the down time. They clamor to get on my lap and usually end up fighting about it. Thankful on this day they decided to cuddle each other.

{Day 10} She loves to color with the big kids.

{Day 11} Coloring, puzzles, yup we celebrate it ALL. This is a big deal.

{Day 12} Thankful for warm weather.

Dragon's new adventures

Olivia, AKA Dragon. When she was 3 she asked if we could stop calling her Olivia and instead preferred Dragon. She has reverted back to her given name but we still call her Dragon from time to time to get a good giggle out of her.

 

 

She turned 5 in October, missing the Kindergarten cutoff for the year. She is ready for the academics but we are happy for her to have one more year to mature a bit and learn from experiences. She is however still counting down the days until she gets to go to Owen's school.

 

We attended a Kindergarten preview night in November where we got to see our favorite Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Schnackenberg. Olivia did great sitting right up front to listen to the story. Normally she would cling to me in those situations so it was nice to see that she is building her courage in these situations.

 

She has been attending her current preschool for 1.5 years. We are noticing that the 2nd year is the exact same content and same program. Things she has already learned and we can tell she is seeking more. We looked in to where Owen goes to before/after school and decided we would see how Olivia would do there a few days a week. The cost is crazy but after just one week I can tell it will be worth it. She is being challenged and she has already made "2 best friends".

 

Here is the difference in the 2 programs. The 2 on the left are her new school. The 1 on the right is the old school. We still have her enrolled in both places 2 days a week at each. Zoey is still there and it is a place of comfort for her.

 

She was a bit concerned about needing to wear a "uniform" but they still let her personalize it with leggings.

Moderate Loss

Over the holiday break Owen had a big appointment with his audiologist. A full booth test was overdue. The results weren't spechtacular but we have been here before.  One ear showed pretty similar results from the last screen and the other has dropped into the moderate loss category. We will just wait it out and test again hoping it was participation and not getting worse.
We have been doing these booth tests for as long as I can remember. We used to go every few months just so he could understand the concepts of hear a noise and turn your head towards it. At age 8 it is really impressive to see how much he has matured. He actually goes into the booth without us now. He listens and tries to follow the directions they are having him do.
One of the problems this time was he wouldn't stop talking. His audiologist would try to test him but he kept talking. It was pretty comical to listen to them. He would ask a question, she would say shhhh listen. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. As you can imagine the process took a while.
One of his zebras did reach it's end of life so we had to send it in to be taken care of. It was exciting to see a package in the mail today with a new one. Would you believe this pair has lasted 3 years! That is pretty impressive considering they have been lost a gazillion times and even went through the wash once.

We were supposed to go in this week for an ENT follow up but I had to cancel due to the school and daycare closings. There was no way I was going to bring 3 kids to that appointment by myself! So we will head back to the office at the end of January to see if there are any changes we need to make there. Hoping things are just status quo for a while. I would like an easy year of nothing new.

 

I know to him it doesn't seem fair to have to wear glasses, hearing aids, foot orthotics and a CPAP machine. But that is his life and we will continue to do what it takes to give him everything we can to help him succeed. Maybe one day he will appreciate their value and not tell us "no" when we try to put them on.