Halloween 2011

We had a fun time this year. Nora wanted to be a witch and go trick or treating. The pumpkin patch was a bit muddy but we made it through. Other than that, things are pretty boring around here. Thanks for checking!

Lori

Fall 2011

Getting off at school
Waiting for the bus


Holy moly, it's been a long time since I've blogged.

Nora has started kindergarten at a public school, in a self contained program. There are 7 kids (she's the only girl) and 3 teachers. Her teachers are great and are really interactive and supportive. She is doing great although I have only been in twice to observe for myself. I get daily reports sent home and she seems to be loving everything. Nora is still working on "staying with her group" at lunch, walking in the halls, on the playground, etc. But is getting better at listening, I hope. The bus comes at 8:55 and she gets dropped off at 4:25ish. It's a LONG day for the girl.

We don't seem to have time for outside therapies right now. We haven't been to the OT or speech since mid summer. I am not sure how we are going to fit it into our schedule. She does receive services through school but I am not sure how or when yet. I think the SLP comes into the class to work with the kids and the OT may go to PE with them. They are still working out the kinks. Nora also should be going into the general ed K for some social time with her peers but that is still in the works. It is so hard to sit and wait for all of these things to happen. It has been 3 weeks so far.

I did sign Nora up for swim lessons on Sundays. She is not the best student. She just wants to be able to splash around and swim her own way. (vertically) She usually just screams and tries to get away from her instructor. She hopped out of the pool last Sunday, her instructor was in the shallow end, and she RAN to the deep end, looked around at all of us who were screaming "Stop, NO NORA, Stop! etc" and went ahead and jumped right in. The lifeguards and the instructor and I were all there within seconds so I wasn't worried about her drowning. But seriously, she is so naughty. Then, when she gets in trouble she puts herself in time out. She walks calmly to the spot then puts her head down and sobs (usually fake). But she doesn't really get any learning out of the whole T.O. thing.

I am getting used to being home without the kids all day. A whole 6 hours! Ollie has been enjoying his walks.

Well, hopefully I will be better about updating. Probably not. Thanks for checking in!
Lori

N-O-R-A

Today is Nora last day of pre-school. Last day at the perfect safe little bubble of a school, our school. The EEU. And this morning, she wants to write her name. She was watching Sesame St. and they were writing. And guess what? SHE DID IT! She can write her name. I am so proud of her and all that she has accomplished at school.

She started in the Birth to 3 program.

She was 13 months old. Not crawling, not making eye contact, not babbling, not responding to her name, couldn't hold a cup. And now look at her! LOOK at my baby girl. She is the sweetest, most open hearted, loving girl ever. And she can write her stinkin name.

WOW~

Love that girl

Camping

Big lollipop, little girl
backyard shenanigans


Summer birthday party
Pool party

Oh lordy. we are going camping this weekend, in a TENT, mind you. No fancy RV for us. This should be challenging. Nora is loving it now, in the back yard. We'll see how she does in the wilderness. I'll have to tie bells on her and tape glow sticks to her so if she gets away we'll be able to find her.

Emma's last day of school was Friday and we had a pool party to celebrate. SO fun. 3rd grade, here we come! Nora still has a week left then a few weeks off until summer camp starts.

Hopefully the weather will warm up here in the NW soon. We have lots of swimming planned so it better!

Thanks for checking in!

Hallelujah

I don't know the guy behind us so ignore him.

My BFF Lisa is Nora's godmother and her husband Tian is the godfather. Emma is holding Nora's candle.

Is that how you spell Hallelujah? Looks weird.

Anyway, Nora was baptized yesterday. It was quite the production. It was a group deal and Nora was by far the loudest. "Hi Father John, HIIIIII!!!! what's your name? (to everyone), where's my pink phone? etc etc"

I only lost hold of her once but that allowed her to run up onto the alter while EVERYONE else was seated and Fr. John was singing or something. I had to go up and get her. Not an easy task, she's a slippery little devil. And I had on heels which I don't normally wear so I was a bit wobbly running after her. Fun stuff.

But it went well until she got the water on her head which dripped onto her dress which she decided she couldn't wear for one minute longer so she took it off and was running around in her Hello Kitty undies. Nice.

All the other parents were taking pictures with their newly blessed infants, toddlers and such while I was trying to cover her up with my sweater and get her to a least wear the dress as a skirt. nope. no go. I finally got her to put her own shrug/sweater on UNDER the wet dress so she couldn't tell. Phew.

I was sweating bullets by the end of it and had to go home and drink 3 mimosas just to make sure I calmed down a bit. :)

Emma had her baptism and 1st communion on Easter Sunday which was super nice and she was super excited.





My parents came to visit from NY and to be Emma's godparents. I guess it would have been a whole lot easier to have done the whole baptism thing when they were babies but we didn't have a church or anything. Now that Emma goes to Catholic school, she really wanted to have her 1st communion so we went with it.


Onto another subject...
Last week I had to go to IKEA and thought I'd put Nora in the playroom. I don't go often and usually try not to bring her with me but we were on our way home from OT so I decided to try it. I never felt that she was ready to be left there (a-she wasn't totally potty trained and b- she wouldn't have been able to handle it.)

So IKEA has this awesome playroom with soft climby toys and a ball room and crafts and TV. And 3 really old crotchety ladies watching all the kids. One rule they have is only 3 and 4 year olds can go in the ball pit. Hmmm... this may be interesting. I tell them Nora is dev. delayed and has special needs etc. I try to tell her that she gets to play on all the cool climbing toys etc. and get the hell out of there so I can get my stuff before my restaurant pager goes off to come get her. Sure enough, no more that 10 minutes go by and I get paged. Apparently because Nora is 5 she isn't allowed in the ball pit which is EMPTY of 3 & 4 year olds. She's the only one in there. But of course she doesn't give a shit that she's 5 and rules are rules. They kicked her out but she wouldn't listen so they tried to grab her and she flailed her arms and legs. They said she was a danger and threat to the other kids (what other kids?) and couldn't stay.

First of all, she has never, and I mean never hurt another child. She just doesn't do that. She does get a bit feisty if you try to man handle her. Needless to say, I was pissed and can't believe they are so rigid they wouldn't give a kid with special needs any slack. If they let her, they'd have to let everyone etc...

Whatever old lady IKEA workers.

I am sure this won't be the first time she's kicked out of somewhere.

Thanks for checking in
Lori

change

First time on her bike with training wheels


After (sneaky little girl) eating a bunch of chocolate caramels that I made and left on the counter


I changed the blog background. All the blogs that I read have custom fancy stuff. I have NO idea how to do that. You most likely have to pay for it. I do like orange. I don't really even post so much anymore. I am past the point of really stressing out and obsessing over everything Nora.

She is doing great. Don't get me wrong- She has some major delays -socially, cognitively, communicative and has some behavior issues (she runs away from me or whoever anytime its time to transition-to the car, take a bath, get on the bus, at school, in the store, where ever) it's exhausting trying to reason with her and then I end up just dragging her to where she needs to be. She is heavy. Very heavy. And she won't poop in the damn potty.

She's going into a self contained kindergarten next year-not a typical general ed class which bums me out but hopefully someday she'll get there.

She is such a happy and fun and loving little girl. She always puts a smile on my face. I love her to pieces. I was remembering when I found out she had arachnoid cysts- they sound so awful-I assumed I would have to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy or not. Obviously that wasn't the case-arachnoid cysts aren't that big of a deal, or so they said. But I remember thinking for a split second I didn't want a child with a disability or have a special needs child. I couldn't imagine having to deal with it. I only wanted perfect. Turns out, that is what I got. She is perfect for us.

People used to tell me "thank god Nora got you as a mom, otherwise who knows what could have happened to her" I would get so mad and think that just because I am dealing with it all, do I deserve to have a non perfect child? Why me and not someone else? and I would think, what else is there to do? let her sit in a corner and not do everything I can to help her thrive and grow?

Turns out, we both lucked out. She got us and we got her. She is perfect just the way she is. Except the poop part. That I could live without. I am ready to be diaperless. Really, I am. 7 1/2 years straight. Enough already.

I'll be 40 in 4 days. Yikes.


Emma's new favorite song- Just the way you are

Thanks for checking in

Lori

Random pictures of Nora and Emma

Sledding at Snoqualmie for K2 Family Fun Day

Pajama Breakfast/concert at Nora's school
Emma looking super little next to the 2 tallest boys in her class
Eating green pancakes for St. Patrick's day
Waiting for the bus

party girl

Head first down the slide-totally against the rules!
Presents!
Family photo-we all look a little greenish






Nora had a good birthday month. We had a family party, a school party, and a friend party. She LOVED her party at the YMCA with all her school buddies. Emma had fun too!

Alex is traveling a lot lately. Emma is doing great in school. Nora is staying busy with OT, speech, gymnastics and swim lessons on top of school.

I am trying to keep up with everyone! I had Lasik done on my eyes about a month ago and my left eye isn't healing properly. My vision is really blurry so they had to go in and scrape the lens. I think they'll have to do it again b/c it is still blurry. Such a bummer.

Thanks for checking in!

Lori

Birthday girl

Here is Nora at her birthday celebration at school. She was sick with the flu on her actual birthday :( We'll have her friend party next week at the YMCA so she'll be able to run around and have lots of fun with all her friends.

Still looking at all the special ed programs around our area to see what her options are for Kindergarten. It is so over whelming and nerve wracking to think about change. More for me than her.

I'll post some pics after her party.

Thanks for checking in!
Lori

Almost 5

Seriously, in 5 days Nora will turn 5. How crazy is that?? She is such a happy girl. She really is. She is on the go from the minute she gets up until she falls asleep. She loves to play with her cars, read books, go to the park, go to school, play with friends, watch Tom and Jerry...

I am so happy that she is here and that we have her for our daughter. I just love her so much I want to squeeeeeeeeeezeee her all the time. She hates that. Sensory issues and all...

I'll post pics soon. I have been very lazy taking pics lately. Alex has been traveling and I've been single parenting.

Thanks for checking in
Lori

Infantile Spasms

I just watched this that I found from another blog that I read. It saddens me so much that children have to go through such radical surgery to get rid of their seizures. There are a few friends that I have met via blogs that have had this done. What a scary thing to have to watch your child go through. I am so thankful that medication worked for Nora. But I don't know how much damage her seizures did to her brain before she was finally diagnosed with Infantile Spasms. She went at least 4 months undiagnosed and untreated. That is a long time to mess with a developing brain.

I know she has come so far since then but she still has such a long way to go to catch up. If she can.

She is doing great so I should be so thankful and grateful for what we have and how far she has progressed but some days, it is hard not to think into the future.