A Four Word First!

Today while at Costco with some friends eating lunch and getting some groceries, Grant looked at me and casually said, "I....want....more....water." I looked at my friend and said, "He just said his first four word sentence!" For several weeks now he has been saying, "I...want...water" but today he plugged in 'more' and used it very appropriately, as he had already had a lot to drink and I kept telling him that he couldn't have any more!

Other news related to Grant: He is counting to three! It goes like this, "One...two...phree!" If you are reading this and a mom or have been around children a lot, you know that counting "one two three" is used all of the time, like "ready set go!" So for him to be counting to three is just fabulous. He just started saying 'one', a few weeks ago he started counting "one two" and then last week he started counting to three. While he understands the concept of counting to five, one of his goals at school is to verbally count to three. This goal has been on his program at school since last fall. And now in one summer, after working with him a ton, we are getting there!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!

Prayers for Mary

This is one of Grant's teacher's aides, Ms. Mary. She has been one of Grant's teachers since he started preschool 2 1/2 years ago. We have grown close to Mary through our school relationship and she is a really sweet woman. She and Grant have a special relationship, and he just loves her so much.

Thursday afternoon Mary called me to tell me some news: She won't be returning to school this fall because she just found out she has Leukemia. She wanted to tell me before school started so we wouldn't find out during open house. We are so saddened to hear this and I am still in shock. Right now she is in the hospital getting chemo treatments, which have already started. She will be back and forth between home and the hospital over the next several months. Please pray with us for her! She is married and has a 14 year old daughter at home. Also, please pray that God will help me to reach out to her as I can. She is the first friend for me that has gotten cancer and I'm not really sure what to say, what to do. It's hard to relate to someone when you haven't walked down their path. I can only imagine what it is like for her and her family to go through this. Please also pray for Grant's teacher Patsy as she starts the school year without Mary. Patsy is Grant's special ed teacher and Mary and Paula have been a team with Patsy for 8 years. I know they are really close and it will be so hard not to have Mary their with them under the circumstances. School will not be the same without her, but I am trusting in the Lord that God has it under control in who he will use to replace her during this time!
Thanks for lifting her up with us!

What Happened to my Boy???

Normally Mondays around here are full of tiredness and crankiness. Today...today is a gift from above! And I just want to shout about it from the rooftops. Instead, I will just shout about it from my blog! :-)

All morning long Grant has been talking soooo much saying without any prompts, "I want water" "My name Grant" "I want more".

This morning at the beginning of tv time (in a dark room - one of our activities), Grant tells me he needs to go potty. So I said, "Ok" and check his diaper. It was dry! AND he went pee pee in the toilet!!! What hope this gives me!

THEN when our tv time was over (20 minutes) Grant asks to watch MORE tv!!! This is the kid for years wouldn't hardly watch any tv, to speak of, and when we started watching it daily as a program activity, we constantly had to tell him to sit still and watch tv pretty much the whole time we were watching tv. He has gotten a lot better over the summer, and we are having to tell him less and less to sit still and to watch tv. Usually now just when we are watching a new movie. So today when he asked to watch MORE tv, I was in shock! Wonders of wonders!

All of this encourages me to keep on keeping on with Grant's daily program activities. Sometimes I get beat down and tired of working with him because it is draining physically and mentally but mornings like this make it all worth it.

My boy is making progress, and boy do I love it!!! Praise the Lord!

I know it's not the greatest picture but this is what it looks like during our tv time in a dark room. This picture was taken a few months ago when some friends were over to play. Trying to get program done, we all watched tv for a little while. When the older boy found out Grant had a tv in his room (it stays in the closet and only comes out during tv time) he thought it was so cool that Grant had a tv in his room. :-) And then the younger one asked why it was dark in his room, I said, "So it will be like a movie theatre!" Hmm...ok. cool. At least that's what I know he was thinking by the expression on his face!

Good bye, Horse!

I'm sad to say that Kate has out grown her pretty pink horsey. A few months ago she slid off of it as she was rocking back and landed on her bottom. She didn't hurt herself but it surprise her more than anything and was kind of funny at the moment it happened. That's when I knew she was getting too big for it. I had put it in the garage around that time but somehow it ended up back in her room about a month ago. She did ride it some more but she kept sliding off the back when she rocked up on it. So now she is definitely too big for it and it has to go.

Good bye, Horsey. We sure will miss your cute, pink, girlie-ness!

Lately, Grant has been into wanting his picture taken. Isn't he a sweet boy with his arm lovingly around his sister? I need to look at this more often so I will think to myself, "They really do love each other!" Sometimes with all the fighting that goes on between them, I feel like I am about to loose my mind!

Tutu Time!

Last Saturday Kate and I went to a birthday party for a sweet little girl who just turned 1. She wore a tutu at her party and was the cutest thing ever! Kate was taking it all in and I noticed she was watching Miss Emmerson tuddle around in her tutu. I told Kate that she has a tutu at home and she could wear it later if she wanted. She just kind of nodded indicating that she might want to do that. (She's had a tutu for awhile but hasn't had much interest in wearing it.) So the next day on Sunday Kate wanted to wear her tutu as soon as we got home from church. And then she wanted to wear a necklace. And then she wanted to wear some bracelets. And of course the matching clippie....She got all dressed up and she actually wore it for more than 5 minutes!

still the cheesy 'cheeeesssse'

"playing" mario kart with Grant

time to sit down!

Kate hasn't really hit the dress up stage yet so it was fun seeing her play in her tutu. She was so cute walking around and being all fancy. So fun having a girl in the house! :-)