No Pool? Make Do!

Keith has been talking for a few weeks about taking Etta to the community pool at our local rec center. It's really a great pool and Etta LOVES going there, but it is too difficult for me to take both kids on my own and it is usually very crowded on the weekend. So, Keith has been planning to take a half-day of vacation during the week to take her.

He checked their information online several times to find out when they would be closing each day and chose today to take her. He left work around 1:00 and got home around 1:45. Etta had not been asleep for long when he got home so I asked that he let her nap until 2:30. It was not easy to get her going after he went in to wake her up. Poor thing. I got her changed into her swimsuit and slathered her in sunblock. I also packed the pool bag with a towel and a change of clothes and a couple other things and they were out the door at about 3:00!

Daniel and I headed up to the play room and we were just settling in to a yummy bottle when I got this text:

Yeah.

That's right.

In all of that planning and checking to see what time the pool closed each day, Keith forgot to find out what time the pool actually opened. He was pretty deflated when they got back home and I suggested he either take her to the park or fill up our garden tub and let her "swim" in there.

Guess which one they did.

Etta had SO much fun and Daniel squealed watching her splash.

(lol)

After all the fun, Etta got an actual bath. Then, we drained the tub, refilled it, and Daniel got his turn!

An hour or so later, as I went to put Daniel in bed, I caught a glimpse of that messy bathroom and my heart swelled. It's like you can just take in that one image and know that an incredible amount of fun they had. At least, that's how I saw it. I love these kids so much it hurts!

Getting Better! (Daniel Walking) 08/14/12

Please don't mind the laundry pile in the background.

Back To School- 2012

Today was Etta's first day of the new school year! Like last year, she is in an Early Childhood classroom in the public school system. She goes for three hours a day, four days a week. The EC program in our county is so great! It is an "integrated" classroom (with typically developing kids in the same class as kids with developmental delays). The class has one lead teacher, two para professionals (assistant teachers), and an occupational therapist and a speech & language pathologist (who spend every other day in the classroom. So, while her IEP may say that she gets Speech for 30 minutes, twice a week, she actually has an SLP in her room for the entire class day twice a week. Same with the OT). Etta also sees a physical therapist a couple times a month.

We've had some big changes this year, and I'll be honest, I had a lot of anxiety after we left her Open House last Friday. We were SO sad to see her teacher, Ms. Mandy go at the end of last year (but, we totally "get" that she was moving on to bigger and better things). The school had three EC classes last year and now they have four. E's new teacher is Ms. Amy. She seems nice, but I didn't REALLY have an opportunity to get to know her and poor thing has some really big shoes to fill! We also lost Etta's para pros from last year, but I was anticipating that possibility. I was SO glad to see Ms. Pam in her room this year. Ms. Pam wasn't one of Etta's paras last year, but she was one of the paras during this summer's Extended School Year. Also, Ms. Pam has been with the program since it opened in 2007. I was keeping it together during Open House until I opened her information folder and realized that we ALSO lost Ms. Kristi, her SLP from last year. Etta absolutely LOVES Ms. Kristi and her new SLP wasn't there that day for me to meet. Poor Kristi and Kristen (her para from last year) had to comfort me in the hall when I finally broke down.

I know it'll be fine! And I'm sure all of the new staff are wonderful. We just had such a great experience last year and there were a lot of changes! (Also, I'm not sure that I like the idea that we wrote her IEP for this year with her teachers/therapists from last year. Considering calling a meeting just to make sure everyone is on the same page.)

So, we went to Open House on Friday and Etta had a great time exploring her new room. She really seemed to enjoy the Dramatic Play center.

Today was her first day!

And guess who came to get her out of the car at drop off.... Ms. Kristi!! Yay!

"bye, mama"

While she was in school, D and I went to the pediatrician for some spots that didn't go away after his last round of antibiotics. Dr. Hood feels that it is just a virus that needs to run its course. He's not running a fever, his ears and throat look good. She ran a strep test, just to be sure (negative) and she gave me a prescription for an antibiotic ointment but told me to hang on to it for a couple days and told me what to watch for before filling it.

Then, we drove back to The Hill in a monsoon so we could pick Etta up from school.

Her para, Ms. Pam went out of her way to come over and let me know that Etta had a great first day! Yay!

Daniel~ First Steps~ Video

Daniel has started taking a few steps. He's getting better balance each day!

July 2012 Round-Up!

I did it again! I totally let the blog fall behind and then I was so overwhelmed with how far behind I was that I didn't want to post current things without posting the events I missed. *sigh* Anyway, I'm here to get caught up!

A few days after we got back home from vacation, Keith's parents came down for lunch. Keith's uncle Paul was in town and we wanted to be sure to visit with him before he headed back to Arizona. The last time we saw Uncle Paul, I was newly pregnant with Etta. So it was good to have the chance to catch up. 

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Etta continued to enjoy her swimming lessons with Ms. Melissa

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We celebrated Keith's birthday and Keith's mom's birthday at her house in Nashville. I made the cake. It was a "Milky Way cake". I got the recipe from my mom's housekeeper after she made it for my Nana's birthday. It is really rich, but SO good! Happy birthday guys!

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Etta got impetigo. And strep. Again. I took her in to see the pediatrician on Monday the 23rd.

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Daniel turned 9 months on the 23rd. I took both kids to the pediatrician for their "well checks" on the 26th. Daniel went for his 9-month-check and Etta went for her four-year-old visit.

Etta weighs 29lbs (!!!) and she is 3 feet tall. Daniel weighs *just under* 20lbs and he is 28 1/2 inches tall. Dr. Hood was very happy with every one's progress. Etta has incorporated new words into her vocabulary. YOU may not understand her, but I usually do. I love that she dances with her shadow and with her reflection and she will ALWAYS tell her shadow/reflection "hi, shaa-oh" and "bye, shaa-oh". She is really perfecting her dance moves and will act out episodes of her favorite shows while she's watching them (she has them memorized). Daniel is babbling and signs "eat" when prompted. He has also taken a single step a couple of times. Poor Etta got two "pokeys" in her arms and Daniel got one little pokey in his finger (to draw blood to check for anemia).
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So, I guess for fun, we went to the pediatrician again on August 1st (not quite a week later). We went three times in a week and a half. This third time was for Daniel's pinky finger. He had what looked like a bug/spider bite on it. I'll spare some of the details, but it was there when we went to his well-baby visit, but it seemed to be healing so Dr Hood thought it looked ok. By the following week, I was sure it was infected, so we went in.

Daniel also had two tiny spots on his face. Dr. Hood asked me if they looked familiar (impetigo). So, the finger was infected and she felt fairly certain that it was a bug bite that then became infected with the strep bacteria. So, she started him on an oral antibiotic. The next day a bunch of skin peeled of the finger next to the infected pinky. This "ring finger" was the finger that had been poked for blood the week before. ick! We didn't notice that it was also infected while we were at the pediatrician, so we're just keeping an eye on it and hoping that it's being taken care of with the antibiotic.
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Daniel cut his third tooth. :D (yay for a new tooth, boo for teething!)
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A cute video of Etta insisting that Daniel wear a hardhat. ;)

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There were a few more things in there. Including some GiGi's Playhouse board meetings and back-to-school supply shopping, but that was basically our July!