1st Trip to the Dentist!

Last week Grant had his first visit with the dentist, and we are so thankful that it was through Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. I did not even know that they had a dental clinic until Dr. Adams referred us to them! We have been going there for over a year now working with Dr. Adams, their Developmental Pediatrician.
Due to Grant's oral motor sensory issues, going to the dentist has not been something I have looked forward to. Teeth brushing has not happened much with Grant, as he has hated it forever. Literally, we have had to hold him down just to brush his teeth. Let me tell you, it's not fun at all. So with all of the other battles with Grant, teeth brushing has unfortunately gone to the way side.
With all of that said, you can imagine my very pleasant surprise when the dentist told me his teeth look overall pretty good! Yesterday he went back for a sedation visit to get x-rays done and his one cavity filled. ONE cavity! Praise the Lord for good teeth 'cause it's not from this Mama developing good brushing habits!
I am very happy to report that through lots and lots of oral motor stimulation activities that I have done with Grant through his therapy program, he really has overcome his hatred to brushing teeth and this past month has been the best ever as far as brushing teeth goes. He is better than Kate, if you can imagine that! We still have to tell him not to bite as I am trying to brush but he is getting better and better. But I am so encouraged and more motivated than ever to stay on top of brushing teeth. And I am so very thankful for God's provision for excellent dental care! God is so good.

Ten Years Ago Today....

...Joel and I went on our first date! 8-)

Buddy League!

I am so excited; I just want to jump up and down!

A week ago Friday I just happened to talk to a mom in Grant's class who's son is buddies with Grant at school. His name is Jacki and Grant talks about him all the time when I pick him up from school. What is funny is that Jacki's mom told me at Open House - when I met her for the first time - that Jacki always talks about Grant every day! Cracks me up!

So I was talking to her about getting our boys together to play sometime. I mentioned Saturdays about getting together and she said they are about to get busy with Buddy League. I asked her what that is and she told me all about it: It's baseball for kids with special needs and that her son loves it and that Grant would, too. Later she gave me the info about it, and I just got off the phone with the lady who is in charge. Grant is now all signed up and starts on October 3! His team is the Giants and he will have a team shirt with his name on it, too. How cool is that?

You can check out buddy league here!

Pretty Cool

This afternoon when I picked Grant up from school, his teacher told me that Grant is talking so much at school that she almost had to tell him to "zip it!" She said he's talking in 2 and 3 words sentences all of the time and that it is unbelievable. I said in response, "So you can tell a big difference, huh?" and she said, "Oh yeah!" This just makes me so happy and at times throughout the day I am in shock at some of the words that come out of his mouth.
On the way home from school, we helped a neighbor boy get home after being bit by a dog. We brought him to our house first to clean him up. (His grandma doesn't come home until later.) Grant and Kate were very interested in Chad's "boo boo" and later Grant called Joel on his pretend phone and said, "Dada? Cha bi by a do." He told him that Chad got bit by a dog, leaving the ending sound off of each word. I was like, wow, another 4 word sentence!
Pretty cool, huh? :-)

"Hi Mama! I wu You!"

I don't think I will ever forget these words from Grant last Thursday morning on Sept. 3! I was cleaning him up after breakfast and the words just flowed right out of his mouth. After he said it, he gave me a big hug and I just squeezed him so tight. (He has been getting really good at saying "Hi" and then someone's name. It's really cool. This afternoon he said, "Hi Nenni" to my sister Jen, who to Grant and Kate she is Aunt Jenni. He has always said just "Hi" so it was so cool to hear him say "Hi Nenni!") He has been able to say "I wu you" for awhile but this time was different. He said two sentences back to back that flowed naturally, no prompting, no pauses, no chunking...just came right out! I was a bit emotional the rest of the day just thinking about him saying that to me. I have waited so long for him to say those words. I am so thankful to the Lord for Grant's progress and much it blesses me. I love this guy so much and love hearing him talk to me!

And in other very exciting, record breaking news, yesterday and today Grant has gone potty in the toilet at school several times and he stayed dry all afternoon and evening by going potty in the toilet when he needed to!!! Can I say Praise the Lord??? Joel and I are sooooooo thrilled by this. I can not even tell you. I just hope and pray this continues and for now my prayer is that he will be potty trained before the kid turns 6 in December!

Family Fun!

On Saturday afternoon we rode the DART train just for fun and ate dinner out half way through. Grant and Kate love riding the train and it is pretty cheap for all four of us to go and makes for some great quality family time. We hardly ever eat out as a family so this was a special treat for all of us. Although Grant and Kate did okay during dinner, they quickly reminded us by their behavior why we only go to "kid" restaurants when we eat out together!
My camera is somewhat broken; the part that holds the batteries in came off and is now lost, so I am using my cell phone camera in the meantime. The pictures only come out good when everything is very still. Most objects of pictures I am taking are not very still at all. ;-)

Grant was almost mesmerized by the train when it started to go. He loves it so much!

Grant and Kate being so good!

This is at the restaurant where we ate. She really liked watching the water and the birds that would come and go.

At the very end as we were walking back to our car, Grant looked back at the train and said, "Bye, Choo-choo!" Joel and I looked at each other immediately after he said that and smiled very excitedly. He has been able to say "Hi" with someone's name when working with me on his language photos (an activity that we do during our at-home program) for several weeks but just recently he has gotten more comfortable in saying it in natural conversation. A few days ago he started saying "Hi Dog" to his dog and "Hi Mama" and "Hi Kate." Sometimes he says "bye" to Kate, his dog, and me. Sometimes to Joel. So for him to say it to the choo choo was a surprise and a first! Oh how we love "1st's" around here! Hearing him say that made a perfect ending to our day. And a gift. Thank you, Lord!

1st Days of School!

For Grant it was back to school on August 24. Although he has been going to preschool for the last 2 1/2 years, this year is a big change for us (and him) as he is going all day instead of 1/2 day. So far he has done great, although after school behavior has not been that great. He loves school and is always excited to go. I am so thankful for this. He is in the preschool program for children with disabilities (PPCD) and he has the same teachers as he has had for the past 2 1/2 years. We love his teachers and they are so great with him. (Ms. Mary, we miss you!!!)

Here he is with his dog, which was Grant's idea to grab his dog and hold him for the picture. I thought, sure, why not? Kind of cute, huh? :-) This is his dog that Nana gave him for his birthday and he loves him so much. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks he is real. ;-) What is really cool is that Grant just started saying, "Hi Dog!" instead of just "Dog!" and it makes Joel and I smiled so much. Thank you again, Nana, for Grant's dog! He still is very much in love with him as he was on the 1st day!

Here is Miss Kate ready for her first day of "school" at Sonshine Connection at our church's Mother's Day Out program. We have been talking about school for so long and she has been so excited. She had a great first day and shook her head "yes" when I asked if she wanted to go back!

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! :-)

New Posts!

Scroll down a ways...I've blogged quite a bit! Sometimes I don't realize how much there is to blog about until I sit down and take time to upload my pictures from my phone and camera! Enjoy and thanks for taking time to read about what's going on in our lives!

No More Music Truck

I finally broke down the other day and bought way over priced ice cream from the "music man". Now I can no longer tell my children "Here comes the music truck!" and now I will look at their disappointed faces when I tell them, "No, not today. That was only when Uncle Daniel was here." Unless I'm feeling overly generous as I was that day when my sweet brother Daniel was spending a few days with me to help me out with Grant and Kate! Daniel has been a great help to me and I have really appreciated his time this summer. Thanks, Daniel!

Wylie Super Target!

My sister Christina got a job working in the bakery of the new Target in Wylie! Grant and I went to go see her during the soft opening last Tuesday evening. There were quite a few people there but it wasn't too crazy. By the time we got there most of the opening activities were over but we got to visit with Christina during her dinner break. I think Grant wasn't too sure what to think of seeing Aunt Christina at Target all dressed in her white uniform and black hat! 8-)

Last Birthday Post!

Usually for the kids' birthdays we get together with my family for dinner, cake, and presents. However, this year was different as just about everyone in my family was out of town! So we had a couple family friends of ours come over for dinner and cake. It was a fun night! Here Grant is waiting anxiously for our company to arrive:

Silly Boys!

Listening to everyone sing Happy Birthday to her

Taking it all in...

The Pirate and the Angel!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the two of them. I said, "Say cheese!" and without skipping a beat Joel said, "Ay yi, Matey....Cheese!" 8)

Birthday Fun with Nana and Papa!

After naps on Kate's birthday, Nana and Papa came over! We had a really nice time with them and Kate got to open all of her presents from them and from Mommy and Daddy, too. There were even a few presents for Grant!

One of Kate's presents from Nana and Papa was a cute little dog that makes sounds of a real dog. It's just like Kate's dog Lucy, which she loves.

I didn't get a picture of Kate with her big present from Nana and Papa but I'm sure it will be in a later post soon. They gave her a new baby doll that you can feed "real" food and water, too. It wears diapers and even goes potty in the baby potty chair. She loves her new baby and has been playing with it quite a bit lately. It now has a spot in Kate's bed and is usually in the stroller or eating a bottle when she is awake! Kate is becoming such a good little mommy! 8-)

Thank you, Nana and Papa, for all the wonderful gifts and for coming over and sharing part of Kate's special day with us! We are so glad you were able to come over. Grant loves playing with his new car. The foam shapes in the bathtub are a big hit, too.

Kate's Birthday Day!

Kate's birthday was a week ago Saturday and she is now 3 years old! Her birthday fun began with a fun family trip to Costco to eat yummy pizza for lunch and to get a few groceries afterward. Grant and Kate love going to Costco so we didn't tell them that we had originally wanted to take them to ChuckECheese. After thinking more about it Joel and I decided Saturday would not be the best day to go to ChuckECheese, as it would be very crowed between all of the birthday parties. So I am sure we will go later during a less busy time.

This is how Kate has been smiling lately with her nose squinted while saying "cheese". Hopefully this is just a short phase and that we will get back to normal cutesy smiles! It was so sunny that day that she had to wear my sunglasses, as if she doesn't have enough of her own with her 7-8 pair! I finally got smart and put a pair in my purse and now everyone is happy! :-)
Kate's shirt says "This Little Angel is 3 Today!"

eating yummy pizza!

Last Day with Beth!

Beth has been Kate's speech therapist since last September. She has come almost every week to our house since then to work with Kate for an hour. Kate has really become quite fond of Beth and always gets so excited when she comes. Upon turning 3 Kate aged out of the program so July 16 was her last day with Beth. Beth brought donuts as a special treat and a present for both Kate and Grant. She is so sweet and nice! We will miss her for sure and plan on keeping in touch!

More Fun With Aunt Jenni!

Kate is waiting very patiently for her 2nd day out with Aunt Jenni! After getting her all dressed, we got her backpack ready and her car seat by the front door. I said to her, "How about you put your backpack by the front door?" So Kate did and then she proceeded to sit down next to it, as you can see, and said to me, "Sit" meaning, "I'm going to sit right here." So I said, "You're going to sit there and wait for Aunt Jenni?" and she answered by nodding. So she sat there for a good 10 minutes until Aunt Jenni got here!

They had another fun day together and Grant and I were able to get a lot of work done. I'm so thankful for both. It is so great to work with Grant without Kate around to be distracting. We are making a lot of progress this summer and every chance I get to work with him one-on-one helps so much. Grant really wanted to go with Aunt Jenni this time but we told him that his turn was next. It just didn't work out for him to go that particular day, but he did, however, get to go the following week, which was this past week. More on that later....

Thank you, Jen, for giving Grant and me another great day of working together and for loving on Kate!