Add it to the list of milestones today....

Just as soon as I started bragging about our baby crawling and getting her first tooth, she goes and surprises me even more! Tonight at dinner she said her first word (not counting mimicking "hey" when we say it to her) and signed it at the same time! "All done!" She signed it and said it each for the first time- simultaneously!

Annalisa (yes, she has a real name-- we rarely use it) also started purposefully putting poker chips in a slotted box on her own today. It's a little Montessori skill jamesie loved when he was a baby. I'm always amazed when my tiny little babies start doing things on purpose on their own. She's still a newborn, isn't she!? How can she control her own little hands? I was lucky to snap a pic of her latest skill this evening-- enjoy our rapidly developing baby!

Teething and crawling

On Thursday I took jamesie and sis to their well-checks. After a week of sissy uncharacteristically fussing and fussing some more I asked the doctor to look at her teeth (or, rather, gums) and tell me she has a tooth coming in ASAP. Well, he looked and said "i see her swollen gums, but that tooth has a few more weeks to go still. Don't expect it to come through tomorrow, or even this week." Ugh-- a few more weeks of this. Well, mothers, always trust your instinct. The said tooth did poke through just two days later after crying through sean's soccer game saturday morning as i lamented to the other mothers "no, the doctor said the tooth isn't coming any time soon. i swear she's usually so happy...." And, adding to her milestones this week, our little baby girl started crawling right at the 9 month mark as well! It is so cute and she just looks so tiny and petite to be crawling! (She is still at 20th percentile for weight-- just a little whisper of a baby!) Enjoy!

Following in Flannery's Footsteps (that's alliteration, Sean).

Sean is possibly the most literary 4 year old we have ever known.  I could sit here and describe all the books he's reading these days or how he's the smartest kid in his class or how he's taken it upon himself to learn the parts of speech.  But, I will let the pictures do the talking.  The first is a picture of Flannery O'Connor as a small child-- one of Cody's and my sister's favorite authors.  Apparently she was a bibliophile like our son, and also precocious to the point of calling her parents by their first names for her whole life.  Sounds familiar.  She grew up to be a famous author integrating her Catholic faith in her writing.  One could do worse things with a life.  The second picture is of course our little man, pouring over On the Banks of Plum Creek, which he read out loud to me while I folded clothes today:

 

 

First Day of New Speech Class

Now that Jamesie is three he aged out of at-home speech services.  The GREAT news is the charter school right down the street from us agreed to take Jamesie for speech lessons twice a week.  Sean will go to kindergarten there next year and when Jamesie is 4 he'll start K-4 there.  However, since it is charter and Jamesie isn't actually a student there yet, they weren't required by the school district to implement our IEP, so our other option was to go to our "home school" which was actually about 25 minutes away and less than desirable.  Basically, our charter school exactly 1 mile from our home is doing us a big favor by giving him speech lessons.  Even better though, the speech therapist doesn't act like she's doing us a favor, she's so kind and gentle and fun with Jamesie (and Sean!).

The not-so-great news was I was completely emotionally un-prepared for actually leaving Jamesie at his first speech lesson today.  Since he might have another little one in his speech lesson, I can't stay and watch as I have with his speech for the last year.  Leaving him with Ms. Mary to walk down that big hallway was awful.  He was so little in his Curious George hat and converse high tops.  He let go of my hand and took Ms. Mary's and off he went... for his first "school" lesson... without me.  I went and sat for the next thirty minutes in the car, nursed the baby and listened to Mother Angelica on Catholic Radio and let the tears flow.  I wasn't expecting that. 

28 minutes after I left him I was waiting for him to come back to me.  And he did-- all smiles, bouncing and running into the office.  He loved the new friend he made in speech today and said he had fun in his lesson.  He was so excited that he learned Ms. Mary's name that he spent much of the afternoon saying "Maaa-wee!  Maaa-wee!"  For the first time in 3 years of bedtime prayers he said "Hail Ma-wee!" tonight.  When I asked who was Jesus's Mommy he was so excited to yell "Ma-wee!"  He was so proud of himself after his lesson today.  I'm looking forward to this next step in his therapy. Even before we went to school today he had his shoes on for a good hour, saying "ready-to-go-now!" 

Our perseverant little boy :).

 

We are proud of our little guy.  This new speech situation will be good.  If I don't cry every time. 

Well Hello There!

I have no excuses for our month long absence from our blog.  Yes, I've been busy, but we're all busy, right? That's life.  And to make up for it, here's a glimpse of what we've been doing in our buys life over the last month:

Jamesie Turned Three!
Jamesie is just such a joy to our family.  At three years old we usually describe him as "stubborn," but I think I'm going to change the language to "perseverant."  He can persevere to not eat his lunch or conquer the most complicated fine motor challenge.  If he falls while trying some gross-motor challenge he cries, gets a hug and a kiss from his mommy then whimpers through his tears "try again. try again," and sure enough returns to jumping off the bed or the couch or the stairs or the chairs or the footstool....etc., until he masters the skill.  Jamesie loves Thomas the Train, bothering his brother, kissing his sister, sitting on his brother or his brother's chosen toys, cutting with scissors (mostly paper), Mickey Mouse and trucks.  His speech has come so far in the last year. To think that less than a year ago we were teaching him to say "go" or "no" in his speech lessons and now he says full sentences....its just amazing.  Again, he just decides to persevere through each and every lesson, often sitting still for a full hour twice a week, just repeating his words over and over.  Sometimes at about 40-45 minutes he will quietly put his head down in his hands and take a minute to gather himself.  Sometimes if Ms. Mollie and I are talking he will quietly and quickly grab all the treats on the table and stuff them in his mouth before we can do anything about it!  He is sneaky and sweet and just has the softest cheeks and hair a mother could ever wish to kiss.  Here is in on his 3rd birthday:

GG and DaDa brought a special delivery for the Birthday Boy!

I loved Jamesie's birthday because our normally quiet and reserved boy was the center of attention (and head of the table) all day long.  It was great seeing him in that role.  

We all know of Sean's undying love for Greta.  Well, Jamesie now has Cora, his very own special lady-friend.  Cora invited Jamesie to spend the night at her house last week but James was the chivalrous gentleman and politely declined.  Lets hope he has enough self control if the situation ever arises again....in about 14 years....after prom.  Looks like Cora's ready for prom for his birthday.  Dress to impress, girlfriend. Jamesie stole some time away from his birthday to spend time one on one with his lady, and play the Thomas theme song in her ear.  He also got her a juicebox.  

I made this Thomas Cake for our little man. I love him and I prove it by creating character themed birthdays.  

Happy Birthday sweet baby boy!  He is such a lively addition to our family--a spark when we need it and a sweet cuddle bug when we need it. And soft as soft all the time. 

Sean learns and learns and draws and learns:

Sean is now so adept at reading we often find him reading books on his own and whenever we go out in public he is transfixed by all the signs and words he can now read.  Its like a whole new world has opened up to him: "Mom, at Publix, shopping is a pleasure!"  He spends most of his free time reading or drawing lately.  I LOVE his drawings and his artwork.  He just started drawing people which is the sweetest thing in the world.  He drew a family portrait in which Sissy is wearing her baby lion shoes and a hairbow, Cody is wearing an ND shirt and his badge for work, and I am wearing soccer cleats.  Classic. What was once our "homeschool room" has now become our "art room."  What were once plain red walls are now covered in his artwork, mostly portraits of Mickey Mouse and the Clubhouse gang, with the occasional Pope Francis thrown in: 

Meanwhile, Sean keeps an ongoing list of reasons for me to home school him next year for kindergarten, even though we are currently signed up for him to go to the Charter school down the street.  Included in his list are: 1. I will miss my nap (he has not napped in about a year and couldn't care less about his nap at home).  2. I will miss lunch.  I will consider your points in turn, young man and get back to you.  Its still on the table.  

Here are some shots of our genius at work: 

Yes, that is a carseat box, and if you look closely amidst the rubble you will see his little legs poking out of the carseat box because he is drawing inside of it. 

Sissy turns 9 months today!

That means she's been out of me as long as she was in me!  Crazy!  She is amazing.  She is army crawling all over the house, combing the floor for debris to eat, and starting to pull up to her knees on furniture.  She is moments away from crawling on hands and knees and the other day she actually crawled up one step (time to use those baby gates) and then freaked out.  The boys LOVE this little girl.  Last weekend Sean said to GG: "I am just in love with Sissy.  I know, I can't marry her because you can't marry your sister, but I am just in LOVE with her!"  She can do no wrong in their eyes. Lets hope it always stays like that. She is such a good and happy baby all her waking hours.  She is silly and giggly and soft and sweet.  She is affectionate and funny and definitely our most active baby.  

Easter.  She wore a flower the size of her head b/c I couldn't find a bonnet her size. 

Just for fun: 

I hear a baby waking up.  I will try to do more frequent posts so they aren't so long and trying to update an entire month of our lives.  Off to our next adventure--chic fil a and soccer tonight!