2010 Summer and into Fall

Ok, yes it has been a long time. To finish off the last post, yes, Steve did badly sprain his ankle, and only was able to restart running the past couple months. We did end up getting away together for our birthdays to that wonderful B&B. And the babysitter is no longer having the stabbing eye pain nor is as drugged. But the eye pain could come back at any time, so prayers are appreciated. It is excruciating pain when it happens.

In June we took a wonderful vacation to the Great Smokey Mountains, and stayed in a cabin with 20 people! It was the first time in a LONG time that my mom's family got together, and we all had a great time. That's pretty amazing when you have almost 30 people gathered together. Gabe had his fits because of the change from normal in his life, but didn't do too bad. He got to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Prough while the rest of us went to Dollywood (surprisingly great park), and while Steve, Addison and I went with a group of us on a white water rafting tour. Ok, it was more like floating down a bumpy river, but Steve and I got to stay and do a second round with a few brave others and do the higher level rapids. What a blast. And Steve managed to do it despite his sprained ankle.

The rest of the summer I spent babying our blue blow up pool (the kind with a ring around it). It was it's third summer, and I got such a great deal on it, but the top ring had a hole in it that we couldn't find. It made it all the way to the end of August before it turned green and I couldn't get it back to the right color. The girls absolutely LOVE the pool, and can spend hours in it playing. At the end, even Gabe was having some fun in the pool, especially when he could walk around by himself with the innertube around him. The girls also had Tennis and swimming lessons.

Gabe turned two and we celebrated by having Grandpa Edwards come down and we all went to the Taste of Tippecanoe. Good food, just expensive. But all had a good time. The next day we had a Korean feast and some cake. Gabe's speech was still very limited, and he wasn't running, so we got a second referral with First Steps. When I thought it was his speech that was lagging, he actually didn't even qualify for that, but he did qualify for physical therapy, so that got us in the door with First Steps and he is with Speech and Physcial therapy weekly. He is making some gains, but it hasn't been that long.

Gabe continues to make strides of attaching to us and working on his sensory issues. He still doesn't like change (as was well exampled when the kids went back to school and Daddy went away for the week for work), but it is helpful to talk with him about what is going to happen. He may not like it, but at least it doesn't blind side him. He is also quite the charmer. He actually scored better than average on his social ability with First Steps. That was encouraging to me, as many children with sensory issue have Autism. But only God knows.

Lauren is loving Kidnergarten, and usually comes running at me with a big smile and hug at pick-up. Gives me something to look forward to. Socially she has come a long way, but she will never be an extrovert. Her reading is phenominal to me. She can read things that I think she shouldn't be able to do. Her reading level is not too far off of Addison's in 3rd grade. Yeah. But she has the same Kindergarten teacher as Addison had, and Addison's Kindergarten classmates were reading chapter books in Kindergarten. Her teacher told me then that kids learn to read at different paces, but they all catch up in third grade. So Lauren may just pick up on things a little earlier. Of course, she does want to be a doctor:).

Addison has continued to grow in many ways. But I feel like I have a budding lawyer on my hands, with all the questions and comebacks as to why I should change my mind. She can be quite the helper with her siblings or things around the house. She decided this year to do American Heritage Girls and Ballet. Unfortunately, ballet lasted only one session, and her heart went back to gymnastics. Since it's in the same place, we are back to gymnastics on Saturdays for both girls. They love it and it is great exercise. And Saturdays were much more peaceful last year (maybe that is because I didn't have Gabe with me to watch).

Steve's work is going well, but the work just continues to pile on. We are hoping the next year is a better that the last.

I'm still trying to figure out how to handle everything with three kids, school, extra-curricular activities, therapies, cleaning, cooking, shopping, and trying to have some fun. Add in there that they house is feeling tighter by the second, and low interest rates, and the bug to move to something bigger has bitten very hard. There were several houses for sale in our neighborhood this year, but none of them worked out. Now we just have to figure out where to go from here, and are considering the crazy idea of just adding on.