A few days of 'stuff' :)

Yesterday after the normal morning runnings... I dropped off 3 kids at the church, took Emma with me for breakfast with my mom for my birthday then back to her house for her to fix E's sweater (which had a hole at a seam) and we were off to PT for Miss E before returning to the church to pick up the 3 there. Then home again and down for naps. Near the end of nap time E's teacher comes over 2 days a week and works with her so that was yesterday as well! By the time all that is done it's 3:00 and we had 2 1/2 hours to play and hang out and get ready for Grandma and Grandpa to come over and watch the kids!

Oh, and while I was at the church dropping the kids off in the morning I was putting Emma back in the car and buckling her in and turned back around to find a gift bag sitting in her wheelchair! Someone had come over and put it down and was nowhere to be seen in that short time frame... I later opened it to find a gift from a dear friend who teaches at the school. What a sweet thing for her to do :)

Mike and I went to Orlando to Macaroni Grill for dinner but after salad and bread (Mike had soup...) we were pretty full so we brought home a majority of our dinners along with a slice of chocolate cake (which came with my meal). Guess what we're having for dinner tonight... :) We got home around 9:30 and pretty much went straight to bed. There's no school Fridays so I didn't set out clothes, make bottles, make lunches, or anything! I was EXHAUSTED tho so glad to go to sleep a little early.

Today we had a nice lazy day around the house :) Kristopher got dressed first and then eventually Micah... and before lunch Emma and Brianna got clean clothes on (of course everyone had clean diapers when they got up...). I, however, stayed in my sweatpants and sweatshirt until after lunch when everyone was in bed and I could take a shower :) I got a nice surprise visit from my Aunt right at the end of lunch time and she didn't seem to care that I was still in pajamas :) She brought me by a new book by Beverly Lewis which I look forward to starting! I just finished a wonderful book by a new author (whose name slips my mind) 2 nights ago and was about to go searching again :)

Two of the kids went down for naps while my Aunt was here but Emma just sat and snuggled and bounced with her. I think they both enjoyed it! Kristopher, in the mean time, set up his entire Mickey Mouse crew on the coffee table in front of the TV and was acting out a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse tv episode with them while watching it on TV.

Mike's been really busy today and though we often get together for lunch on Fridays, he's had a network problem that's taken up ALL of his time today (as well as a few other days this week) but I'm hoping that it is solved this time and that he wont be pulling any more 3am nights at work anytie soon! Even tho I went to bed at a decent hour last night and we didn't do anything of consequence today I feel like taking a nap- or maybe just going to bed for the night NOW... it's 4:30, isn't that late enough?? I guess I'll wait at least until after dinner, though :) The kids do go down between 7-7:30 so I can't complain. I just have to talk myself into going to bed soon after they do!

Micah is getting very proficient at walking with very little support now! I'll hold under his elbows and he's just about ready to do it on his own! On Wednesday I held him a few steps from Mike and let go and he moved one foot toward Mike before sitting down. He's getting closer and more confident for sure!

Emma also discovered something fun today. She sat with her feet in front of her and her knees to her chest and would rock forward so her weight was on her feet and then put her hands down (kindof like a bear-crawl but with her knees tucked in) and lift her bottom about 2" off the ground as if she was going to stand up! She's really gotten a LOT stronger here recently and her PT is considering starting to use a walker with her soon to teach her how to support her own weight on an object and to work on reprogramming her brain on how to put one foot in front of another!

I saw a little guy at the PT office all suited up in the therasuit which is what they use for the intensive therapy that I hope to get Emma in to sometime in the near future and it is really neat! The little guy was proficiently walking using a walker and you could see where the suit was providing support for the muscle groups that he struggled with. What a wonderful thing for this little boy! I hope we can get Emma in the program soon!!

Brianna's speech teacher caught me after school on Wednesday and said she's beginning to participate in "circle time" more and is talking more and mimicing more as well. Then she told me Bria was immitating the sign for "open". Um... well, she's been signing open on her own for a long time. I guess it will take a bit of time for her to see the skills Bria already has in order to be able to build on new ones :) I'm glad Brianna's opening up more though! She's also VERY in to this baby doll she got for her birthday. When you clap the doll's hands together it says "these are my hands" then will do pat-a-cake or other hand games. She also says "this is my mouth" when you touch either hand to her mouth. She identifies six body parts and does other games and phrases too. She's really cute and all 3 of the older kids really like her. Brianna, however, is pushing her around the house in her baby stroller and loving it :)

Kristopher is doing better at home than he was before break but we're still at a loss for whether we're doing what's right for him or not. He's happy, everyone's happy, noone's hurting, and yet his teacher did mention to me on Thursday that she's noticed some of the behaviors I'd described to her. I don't know whether she's just now noticing them since she now knows about them or whether they're just now showing up at school. I'll keep a close eye on things. Kristopher is, in general, doing great though. I'm so proud of how he's learning to read and write! Right now he's playing a V-Smile game that I KNOW he wouldn't be able to do independently about 6 months ago. He's a quick little guy and I'm so proud of him!

That's all for now... Don't forget to Chip-in for Ilya and get a chance to win the give-away!