Bye Bye 2010!

Do you remember when it was 1999 and everyone thought the world was going to end...Y2K... and here it is 2010, soon to be 2011. I'm looking forward to the day when Christ returns and sometimes I wonder how close we really are, everything is changing so quickly these days. Maybe it just seems that way because we get so much more information instantaneously.

I don't know where 2010 went, ok, actually I do, 2010 was the year of the baby. Most of it was spent being pregnant! I'm so grateful for a healthy baby, thank you all for praying! The last 4 months of 2010 have been a blur trying to sort out two children who want their mommy ALOT. I'm learning to appreciate being needed so much. Of course if a grandparent is around I immediately am needed much less by a certain 3 year old who will remain nameless... :)

For Mia, 2010 has been a year of change. She became much more independent after she started walking. She started a new school and stopped needing to go to the doctor quite so much. We've loved watching her personality develop and have had to start thinking about being much more consistant with discipline as she "tests" the boundaries quite often these days.

For 2010, Calvin has pretty much eaten, slept, and dirtied his diapers. We've really enjoyed the laughs and smiles we now get regularly, and just today he started rolling from his back to his tummy. Of course he then gets stuck on his tummy. He's never really liked tummy time.

Praise God for a wonderful year! Praise Him for all the growth we've seen in Mia. Praise Him for being our constant in this ever changing world. We serve an awesome God, I'm looking forward to 2011 and all that He has planned!

Just Another Day In LA

It has been so nice not having to go to LA for the past couple of months, can you believe we haven't been there since October?! We needed to see Mia's ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor and so we also scheduled an appointment for her to see the Opthamologist in LA today. I try to consolidate appointments as much as possible, but it doesn't always work out that way. Mia has become a great traveler, but now Calvin doesn't like the trip. It actually brings me back to the first year with Mia when she didn't like the trip either. Thankfully they both slept most of the way home.

Mia's ENT visit was just a routine check up and we talked about when she would have her next surgery to reopen her right nostril again. He said he'd like to wait until she's 4 or 5 and so he says we can think about doing it that summer before her 5th birthday. I'm happy with that because now is not the time for us to be in the hospital.

After that we went over to CHLA to see the Opthamologist. This is the first time that they've actually tested Mia's vision. They gave her a sheet of paper with different shapes and asked her to point to the one that was on the screen. We'd been practicing with the shapes at home, so she was super familiar with them and thought it was a great game. So, she sees 20/80 right now. And they said that since it is her first vision test, they can't be certain of the accuracy. They don't know if she puttered out at the end (she was less enthusiastic as the test went on...) or if she just couldn't see the different objects. Anyway, they said that they'd know more after she has it done a couple more times. We didn't change her prescription or anything, it was just a baseline for the next time around. We talked about Mia's lazy left eye and asked about surgery. She said that she'd rather wait until Mia is 4 or 5 because if they overcorrect, Mia can then correct that herself and the surgery is much more successful. She said it's harder for Mia to correct an overcorrection at this age because eyes haven't matured enough yet. That's fine with us, we plan on getting a 3rd opinion here and seeing what that doctor says.

You can be praying for wisdom on our part and the right direction from the right doctor regarding this.

We have a few trip to LA scheduled for January, hopefully Calvin will enjoy the ride better in a few more weeks!!

Merry Christmas!

Before I get into the fun stuff, I just wanted to remind you that Jesus is the reason for the season. Really. I think this is appropriate today.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'". (Luke 2:8-14)

We had a great time at grandma's house for Christmas eve with lots of cousins, and a great time at nana and papa's house on Christmas day! Here are some fun pictures!

some good looking family members

Lisa shows Mia an ornament from Mia's stocking.

Can we all agree that huge packages are great gifts?

Mia loves her stay at home "ball pit"!

Calvin and Mia

4 Months Already?!

It is hard to believe we have a 4 month old. Calvin is growing up so quick. Today he weighed in at 13 pounds 10 ounces. He's gained an inch in length this month also. I knew he was getting bigger because his sleeves were getting shorter! :). Having Calvin has made me realize how normal Mia was as a baby. It's been 4 months and Calvin is getting stronger and more aware, but he pretty much still just eats, sleeps, and messes his diaper. I was always worried because Mia slept so much in the NICU those first 10 weeks, but now I am realizing she was just being a baby. It's been very eye opening to me. I've realized that my babies need sleep. Some kids can survive on less, but mine need their rest. After Calvin is up for an hour or so he becomes rather grumpy because he needs that sleep. Mia was exactly the same way, lots of sleep. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because I sure enjoy my sleep too!

Calvin got another shot today, we've chosen to slow down the shot process and give them one at a time. We wanted to do this for several reasons, mostly because if there were a reaction, how would you know which shot caused it? Anyway, he was a trooper! So, I was going to take pictures this morning, but he was cranky, so I will post some this evening after I take some.

Thanks for all your prayers for our babies! We are so grateful!

All Is Calm...

We are sort of settling into a routine these days. I'm so grateful for the help and support I get from the grandparents, it has made our lives so much easier and we are thankful! It gives Calvin a chance to not have to go everywhere as the grandparents shuttle Mia back and forth between various therapies and school. Calvin says thank you too!

Today we went to the Christmas party at MARE. They had some fun activities for the kids to do, decorating cookies, coloring horses, face painting...and of course Santa. When we got there we parked right next to Santa and he ducked down in his car, oops, I mean sleigh...because he didn't want Mia to see him, I don't think she would have any clue who he was if she had seen him, we just don't talk about Santa much in our house. This is the first year she has really enjoyed all the Christmas decorations. Anyway, we had a great time at MARE and now we have a break for a few weeks because they follow the school schedule and don't do sessions during Christmas.

Yesterday, Mia was playing with several different magnetic alphabet sets that we have and she noticed that she has 3 of each letter. So, she was asking for 3 A's, 3 B's, 3 C's, etc. and I would hunt over the house to find them and bring them to her. When we got to the G, she already had 1 and she looked at me and held up 2 fingers and then signed the word "more". 2 more! How awesome is that, the girl can count! I thought that was great that she is beginning to have a better understanding of numbers. Way to make your math teacher mommy proud!

We just continue to be amazed at God's goodness in her life and how He continues to grow her beyond what was expected of her. We are forever grateful for that.

Here are some more photos of the kiddos...

Decorating cookies at MARE.

Snug as a bug in a rug in my winter snowsuit!

Decorating a horse!

Daddy's #1 Fan

Hold me close Daddy, I love you!
(Hey, there's Uncle Tim and Aunt Rachel in the background!)

MARE and More

Mia continues to ride her horse Sally at MARE and loves it. They have it set up where she has to put different colored rings on different colored poles. Anything that is a game is fun for her. They also have her speaking more, which is great too. I've noticed that she is trying to be more verbal at home also. She asks me for "Bu-Ne" crackers all the time, she's even signing longer sentences, she can now put 5 signs together at a time. Today at MARE they had the horses step over poles and the first time it was quite a shock for Mia because they said she had quite the surprised look on her face.

At physical therapy Mia now can step over something herself, this is huge because it requires quite a bit of strength to lift your leg over something while maintaining your balance. It's great to see her getting stronger.

Something I find amusing is when I ask her what color plate she wants for dinner or which hair clips in her hair, she now has to have one of her animals pick it out. In fact, they do everything for her. At therapy yesterday she wasn't too interested in doing the activity until her "red bird" asked her to do it. She does love her animals.

Calvin is getting bigger and stronger every day. He attempts to communicate more, but it sounds more like a screechy bird.

To Nap or Not To Nap

So Mia hasn't been napping well these past couple of days...I'm not sure if we are slowly getting ready to depart the nap stage...at least the 3 hour nap no longer exists...right now she'll nap for an hour, if I'm lucky two. I really really really loved the 3 hour nap, I'm kind of hoping it will come back, but we'll see. We are going to keep the nap as long as we can though.

Today I learned that Mia's teacher is being replaced because she is not "highly qualified". It made me angry and sad because she's been really great and I know that she's working on becoming "highly qualified". It made me think back to my teaching days and how just because a person has a credential, doesn't mean they're a great teacher. You have to have the heart to be a teacher...she has the heart and she's a great teacher. I pray that our new teacher will be great too, we'll see.

December...

I can't believe it's December! We put our Christmas tree up a few days ago because I realized if we didn't do it now, we wouldn't be able to enjoy it for the maximum amount of time. :) We still haven't finished decorating it, but at least it's up! I've also put out a few other Christmas items, but I'm choosing to do less this year just because I don't have the motivation to do more. Mia's favorite is the nativity set and she is now tall enough to reach it on the table in our entryway, so we have to remind her it isn't for playing with. Mostly she'll just go over there and get on her tiptoes and stare at it, every so often she'll try to move the pieces around.

Calvin is now a 13 pounder! He was sick a few weeks ago and hadn't gained any weight for awhile, so I'm happy to say he's back to gaining. It's hard enough having 1 kid who won't gain weight, so I'm hoping he continues to be a good eater and keeps growing well. The pediatrician commented that he was "long and skinny", so I guess that's what we produce...long, skinny kids. :)

Mia has started reading her books to us at night instead of us reading to her. It's so cute. She doesn't say the words completely, but she gets the rhythm of the story right. One of her favorite ones to read is, "Mr Brown Can Moo Can You" by Dr Seuss, we have to get it on video because it is so cute. She'll say, "Mia" because she wants to read it herself and then she'll read each of the pages. I just love it! Keep praying for more sounds, my desire is for her to be able to communicate better. We are grateful that she keeps making progress.

MARE

So, Mia had her first horse therapy session yesterday and she LOVED it. She ended up staying on her horse Sally the entire time and she was so sad when we had to leave. They did several different exercises with putting rings on polls, they were making her use her left hand, which was great. They also made her say the commands to get the horse going and to have the horse stop, they said she was trying real hard to talk with them. Here are a few pictures.

Calvin has started blowing bubbles. It is so cute, I think he is rather amused by the way it feels on his lips. :)

Thankful

We've been enjoying a great Thanksgiving holiday with our family. And even though we've been battling colds here, we have so much to be thankful for. This is our first Thanksgiving since Mia was born that we've actually been home and not at the hospital. The first year Mia was in the NICU, the second year she had heart surgery over Thanksgiving, and last year they took down her colostomy over Thanksgiving. It has been so nice to be home this year!

Mia has been enjoying playing with her cousins and eating, she keeps asking us for more food and has been eating quite well at meals, I hope it's a new habit that is here to stay. I think it just might be all of Grandma's good cooking.

We hope that you had a blessed Thanksgiving too!

3 Months!

Today Calvin is 3 months, where has the time gone? In the past couple of days he has become so much more alert and a much happier child. We get lots of smiles from him and his giggle is great. He's getting stronger, much better at holding his head up, just not completely there on his own yet. And he weighed in at 12 pounds 9 ounces today. The other major milestone is that he now consistently sleeps from 7pm ish...to 2am ish...and if I go to sleep around 8pm (totally not unusual), I can get a good 6 hours of sleep, yippy! :) He's still not a great napper, but we are instituting some routine things and hoping that he'll get the hang of that and become a better napper. Here are some new photos of the little man.

MARE

So we finally got a chance to make it out to an appointment for Mia to get started in the MARE program. It isn't official where they are going to put her, she will be evaluated by their OT next week, but if she qualifies she will be put in one of their hippotherapy classes. We would love for that class because it is 2 kids to 1 teacher while the general classes are 6 kids to 1 teacher. We will find out more next Tuesday.

We didn't know how Mia would react to a real live horse. She loves animals, but there is a big difference in a tiny, stuffed animal and actual size one. She was slightly tentative at first, but within no time at all she lost any fear she had. In a way that is good, but also not, but there is alot of training to respect the animal as part of the classes, so I think she will learn how to be careful around these animals.

Needless to say, she did not want to leave. :) I kind of didn't want to leave either, horses are such neat creatures.

Time Flies

So, I wanted to blog on Thursday and then before I knew it, it was Friday. Then I wanted to blog on Friday and now it's Saturday...when did it almost become Thanksgiving???? I love the cooler weather, I especially love a cup of hot cocoa during this time. Time has been going so quickly, but I still feel like I'm in survival mode most of the time. I haven't completely adjusted to having two kids and I feel kind of inadequate at times. I feel like I should have adjusted by now, but I haven't. I guess that's why I haven't noticed it's almost Thanksgiving, because I'm just trying to make it through each day. One of these days it will get easier, in fact, it already has...one of these days, I will feel like I have adjusted. I'm looking forward to that day.

So, what have we been doing? Thursday we were supposed to go out to MARE to have Mia evaluated for their hippo therapy (horse therapy) program, but the gal who was evaluating her had an emergency and had to cancel. We were really disappointed because Brad had the day off and we were looking forward to him being able to partake in the adventure too. So, we are waiting to hear back from them to reschedule her evaluation.

Then, yesterday we went to a local pediatric opthamologist. A friend recommended him and I thought we'd try it out because I'd rather not drive to LA if I don't have too...I liked him alot, he noticed Mia's lazy left eye immediately and said that we can first try to patch her right eye to force her to use her left eye and see if that helps, and if it doesn't, then the second thing would be a surgery to loosen the muscle to allow her eye to turn inward normally. He recommended we still go see our LA opthamologist and get a second opinion from them and then decide what to do. So, we'll be patching her eye for the next few months and PRAYING that it makes a difference because we don't want her to have another surgery if she doesn't need one. So, we'd love any other prayers for her too.

A Photo Shoot

This hat was hand made by a dear friend's family member. How cute is it?!?!

No news is good news, right? Well, that's how things have been at our house...we've been plugging along. We did get some trees planted in our backyard, finally...we've only lived here 4 years now...maybe by spring time will have grass??? Calvin will be sad because I know it is a boy's dream to have a dirt backyard. Speaking of Calvin, he is now 12 pounds 3 ounces! Halfway to Mia. He'll probably catch her by the time he is 1. Any day now he can start sleeping through the night, I won't complain if it happens...somehow though, I think it might still take us awhile. Brad prayed that I'd get 8 hours of sleep last night, he forgot to ask that they be consecutive hours. :)

Mia has finally learned how to sit herself down on a stool. It's really cute how she'll slowly back up until her legs hit the bench and then she'll sit down. We take for granted that these things happen naturally with a child, Mia is a constant reminder to me of God's grace and His miracles...she also reminds me that everything happens in God's time and we just need to be patient.

November already?!

I can't believe it's November...and it's been November for several days now, but it just hit me today that in a few short weeks it will be Thanksgiving. Wow. We have been super busy as always. Mia is adjusting to her new school and loves it. I admit I had some Mommy worries before starting her there and I almost didn't want her to go because I didn't know how she would do, but I am so glad that she is there. Her teacher is wonderful, a perfect fit for Mia. First off, she signs. That's huge for us because so much of Mia's communication is through signs. Her teacher told me today that she has been signing the songs during circle time and she sees how Mia watches her so intently and is trying to do the signs herself. Her teacher doesn't have to do it, but does it for Mia. I'm just so grateful that she's in this particular class with this particular teacher!

We saw a different pediatric neurologist last week and he observed Mia for a short time and diagnosed her as having Encephalopathy with Disorganization. The short of it is that she has brain damage with non-fluid movements. She doesn't move smoothly like we do. He also called it Clumsy Child Syndrome. We felt like he was spot on with his observations of Mia. He said that kids like Mia will do really well with as much early therapy intervention as possible. He also said that kids like Mia relate much better to animals then people and that any kind of animal therapy we can do for her will do wonders. So, we have an appointment next Thursday to go out to a local program called Mare and have them evaluate her for their horse therapy program. I've wanted to do this for some time, but have held back because we have such a busy schedule, but it sounds like this will be worth the amount of time we invest in it, so we're going to see what happens. You can be praying for our evaluation, she may or may not qualify for the therapy program, I'm hoping she does. If she doesn't qualify, then she can still be involved in another program, it just wouldn't have an occupational therapist working with them. We'll see what happens.

How's Calvin? A trooper...poor little guy gets carted everywhere, but he seems to be doing ok with it...and one of these days he'll get on a schedule...

Happy Halloween!

Here is our princess with wings and our little "mummy". His outfit says "I love my mummy!" One of Brad's coworkers let us use it, it's quite adorable!

24!

Yes, we are finally at a true 24 pounds...no rounding up just because we are close. I thought I'd never see 24, so I'm so excited we are there. Mia was very excited too. Calvin on the other hand is still 11 something...we'll weigh him next week and see where he's at. Right now he's talking up a storm with Daddy. I'm not sure what he's saying, probably something about the football they are watching. Mia also learned a new word, she can now say "pony"! Praise God for progress with her speech.

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we took Mia and Calvin to a local pumpkin patch. Mia loved it, she wanted to crawl amongst all the pumpkins. We'd ask her which one she wanted to take home and she'd point to all of them. She realized they could roll and then wanted to roll them all. Anyway, it was lots of fun. Calvin on the other hand wasn't too amused. When we were taking pictures I realized I forgot to put on his pumpkin hat, so at that point he became very angry with me. :) So, we only got a few pictures with the hat on. Enjoy!

Two Months

Wow, two months already! Calvin is growing like a weed and we think getting cuter and cuter every day. He's a little bit more than 11 pounds and is 24 inches. Every now and then we'll get a little smile out of him and lots of wonderful little noises. For the most part he is a good baby, he eats a lot! Ask me, I'm the mommy who so desperately wanted to breastfeed, maybe I'll rethink that the next time around. He sleeps pretty well at night, but in the day he only sleeps when he's being held or in something that rocks him, like his swing...or the car seat in the car. We're just grateful he'll sleep in his bassinet at night. Here are some new photos of the little man.

First Day of New School!

Yesterday was Mia's first day at her new school. It went great. We walked in and she immediately was down on the rug with the ABC's crawling around on it. The letter H was under a chair, so she crawled under the chair to get to it and got stuck. She was then off to check out the book corner of the room. Needless to say, when I told her goodbye, she didn't even look at me, just said "ya" to acknowledge she heard me because she was busy working on a puzzle.

I still didn't get to meet her teacher because she was out again, but she should be back tomorrow. I did meet her aides and I expressed some of my concerns with them as they aren't familiar with all of Mia's nuances yet. I'm sure we will communicate much more in the next few weeks as things continue to come up.

The really hard part for me is not knowing what happened at school as she doesn't tell me and I don't get a complete run down from the aides. Such is life. :)

We also saw Mia's GI doctor yesterday and he was very impressed with her weight gain over the past few months. We drew her blood today to see if her iron and other levels had improved since this summer. We should hear back in a couple of weeks. He is really encouraging us to start potty training Mia now and so I think our goal is to start by the new year. We hope that Mia's bowel movements will become more normal by then, please be praying about that.

Calvin weighed in at 11 pounds 2 ounces today. He keeps on growing like a weed, I love it. Thank you Lord!

The Birthday Party

We finally had Mia's birthday party on Saturday. Grandma Cheri, Grampapa, Nana, Uncle Paul and Amy, Jonah, Jacob, and Grace attended our party. We played with our new toys and ate pizza, but the highlight was the ABC cake. Mia has never been interested in a birthday cake yet, but she actually ate the letters off of it and ate some of her cake, she really liked the cake. Thanks Nana and Grampapa for helping cut out the little letters and make the shapes! Here are some pictures of the event...take note of the "birthday tree" which always comes out at birthdays. :)

Check Ups

Today we saw the pediatrician for Mia's 3 year old check up and Calvin's 2 month check up. Mia weighed in at 25 pounds with all her clothes on and she was 35 inches. Calvin is now 10 pounds 14 ounces and he stretched out 2 more inches to 24 inches...the boy is long. Both of them are doing great. Calvin got his first immunization today, the DTaP vaccine. Please pray for no adverse reactions for him.

Tuesday we went to LA for our final follow up with the NICU clinic...they only follow kids until they are 3. They did one final assessment on Mia and she's doing so well. She pretty much came in average on most things, she was slightly below average on her expressive communication and of course extremely low on gross motor skills, but what was most amazing is that she tested so high on receptive communication, that she was borderline gifted! Praise God! That is such a miracle since they told us she'd have absolutely no higher cognitive function. We realize it's just a test, but it's so neat to continue to see God's hand in her little life. We are always so grateful for his grace toward her.

Happy 3rd Birthday Mia!

Dearest SweetPea,

Wow, 3 years ago seems so long ago, but that is when you made your amazing entry into this world. At 1:03 pm, you came out yelling and we were so excited to hear your little voice. A girl, we had a a girl! What an incredible journey God has taken you on these past 3 years.

One of our big prayers last year is that you would only be in the hospital once this year for your final intestinal surgery. That happened last Thanksgiving and we are grateful it went well. You did end up going under anesthesia one more time after that for an intestinal biopsy, but otherwise we haven't had to see those hospital walls. We've still had quite a few doctor visits, but no hospital stays, Praise the Lord!

Another big prayer was that you would start walking and we are so excited that you are there! Walking has given you so much independence and confidence. You used to cry when Mommy left the room, but now you just wander around and find me. That has been such a blessing.

Another one of our prayers was that you would start talking again and we need to say Praise the Lord because you are using your voice! You can't always say everything correctly, but we love how you try. Over this past year you learned your ABC's and how to read words and have an absolute passion for those. We love how you have become this little sponge that wants to learn, it's so awesome to see your personality develop. We are forever grateful that God has given you a second chance when science said you wouldn't have one.

This past year you were diagnosed as celiac and then not celiac and then maybe celiac and then definitely not celiac. We're happy you are not celiac, but it has been quite a journey to try to get you to gain weight. You are pretty much 24 pounds, which is only 2 pounds bigger than last year, but we think you are finally on the path forward for gaining weight. You are also 35 inches which is only 2 more inches than last year, but we are convinced you'll grow much more this year.

This year one of your favorite words to sign was "help" because you love helping, dishes, laundry, cooking...you are everyone's big helper. This year you also became a big sister and you love your little brother. You've already started teaching him about animals and ABC's. One of your favorite games is to have Daddy chase you around after you say "Mama" and he says, "no...Daddy!" because you tease him by not saying "Daddy".

We love you so much SweetPea and have so much fun watching you grow up. We look forward to all the praises we'll have to report after another year. God has been so gracious and good to you. Our big prayers for this year would that you would improve your speech and learn to control your bowels. They seem like large goals, but we know that with God, anything is possible.

All our love,
Mommy, Daddy & Calvin!

New School

So I went to visit Mia's new school today. She doesn't start until next week, but I got to see her classroom and get her registered. I was really disappointed that her teacher was out today, but I will get to meet her on Monday when I bring Mia. The classroom is great, it's colorful and has lots of different stations for different activities. There is a huge rug with the ABC's and numbers on it, so I know she's gonna love that. I got to meet with the speech pathologist and she explained that she works in small groups with the kids and then she'll pull out a couple and work on specific sounds that they are struggling with. They have a pretty consistent schedule and it looks like she'll have a great time. It made me feel a little bit more at ease seeing the structure in the program. Right now there are a few girls in the class, but it is mostly boys, so they are excited to be getting another girl.

Another huge blessing is that we know the principal, he used to be in one of our small groups, so I got a chance to sit down with him and give him a little background on Mia. He's excited to have her at the school and he said that they are really pleased with how the pre-school program is going since it's new to their school this year.

I can't believe our little girl is going to be 3 tomorrow...has it been 3 years already?

IEP

We met for Mia's IEP today. It ends up that they are going to qualify her for school, so she'll start in two weeks. She'll be going to the school that's about 2 miles from our house, which is great! Right now she'll be going 3 days a week and if we decide she is thriving there and really likes it, we might push it up to 5 days a week, but I just wasn't ready to commit to all of that time from the start. I think it will be really good for her. She'll get extra speech services there and they are going to evaluate her for OT also. I could even put her on the bus to go and come home, but I'm not ready for that yet, that is going to be a big step for me! Next week I will go and visit the school and meet the teacher and that will give me a chance to ask some more questions and find out some more information about the program.

Calvin weighed in at 10 pounds today! He's growing like a weed, that makes me so happy. Daddy has been able to get him to giggle occasionally, which is really sweet to hear. Now if he'd just learn to sleep through the night...

We've been battling our colds here, Calvin's stuffy nose is better, but still there a little bit. We all seem to have the same thing...some of us are on the mend thankfully. Today was the first day it has really felt like fall, so we put Calvin in some of his knitted hats (thank you Jennifer!) and took a photo shoot...isn't he cute!

Average

Mia has been getting tested for her exit out of the infant development program. There has been quite a bit of discussion about where she'll be placed because she's doing so well in her testing. The psychologist looked at her yesterday and determined her cognitive ability as "average", which is great, considering what her initial prognosis was after her stroke. I asked her how good of an indicator the test was for how she'd be later on...she said the test is only 30% reliable. Ok, what kind of test is that! That's horrible. There's a good chance that Mia could be higher than average or even lower if she guessed well. :) I'm pretty sure she's average though because we've now tested her by a variety of means and most of those always come up average.

The speech pathologist also evaluated her and scored her as high average, if I recall correctly. Needless to say, all of this is making it really difficult to determine where to place her. They see that she lacks skills in several areas, mostly her self-help skills, like feeding and dressing, and also her gross motor skills...walking, running, jumping, climbing stairs, etc. And then also in her actual speech, she struggles with producing all sounds. So, they are not sure that she fits into the 3 year old program in our district. They think that she's too smart actually, she knows too much cognitively. They think she'd do much better in a regular pre-school program with other kids without extreme delays. So, we'll see what happens Tuesday when we discuss her IEP. At a minimum, I think she would qualify for actual speech help through the district, but we'll see what they say.

What I love most is that she is such a sponge these days, she wants to learn, learn, learn. Praise God!!!! They test are on things and tell us she has gaps in certain areas and we start working on those areas and within days, she's getting it. It's so neat to see. So, I'm looking into my own pre-school program for her at home and it might just end up that is where she's at and we do our own thing. We'll see. :)

We are all getting over colds here...the saddest is Calvin who has a stuffy nose and hates it being suctioned by the nose bulb. I fear the worst always...whooping cough...so pray that it wouldn't become anything serious and that he'd heal quickly. Calvin has also started to be interested in the things around him, he loves his hands and he's become a fist sucker...and occasionally I can get him to sort of smile at me. Tomorrow he'll be 6 weeks!

Has it been a week?

I can't believe I haven't posted in a week...I think about posting, but then I just don't ever get around to sitting down at the computer. I know we'll fall into a routine one of these days, we just aren't quite there yet.

So how are the kids? Mia is doing great, she weighed in at 23 pounds 12 ounces...we are almost to 24 pounds, I would love for her to be there by her birthday. My goal was to get her to 26 pounds by her birthday, so we are still short, but we've made progress because that was when she was only 22 pounds. Slow and steady right? She is doing really well with her braces and I've noticed an improvement in her feet. I made it to therapy today and got to see her in action, her therapist also has noticed a big improvement in her over the past 6 weeks. Part of that is the braces and part of it is that she's getting stronger. Praise God for this success!

At Mia's school, they've been testing her because kids transition out at 3. Right now they are figuring out if she qualifies for more school and where and what that would look like. The speech therapist looked at her yesterday and tested her at high average. She's high average because she has a lot of receptive language, it's just her expressive language that we continue to struggle with. That is an area where we could use continued prayer, for her to be able to produce all the different sounds of our language and then be able to make words out of them. I have complete hope that God will get us there eventually, I just know it's going to take some time.

Her occupational therapist tested her today and said that her struggles are mostly with things that are bilateral. That makes sense because she has the left sided weakness and struggles with that.

How's Calvin? He's doing great, gaining weight like a trooper, thank you Lord! Today he weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces, so he's up 8 ounces from last week. It's almost too unreal for me to see the scale go up significantly each week, I keep wondering when it's going to stop, but we are grateful that we have been blessed with a boy who likes to eat. :) How's his sleep? Or should I say my sleep? Usually we can go about 3 1/2 hours at night, sometimes 4...last night I got 5 1/2 hours of sleep, I woke up concerned that he was still sleeping! I had to make sure he was breathing. Life is almost normal with 5 1/2 hours of sleep...I'd like 12 myself, but if he keeps sleeping well, that would be awesome. :)

One Month Today!

It's hard to believe that it has been 1 month already! We are sort of settling into the reality of having a little baby again. Calvin is doing great. He weighed in at 9 pounds 1 ounce today, which puts him at gaining about 7 ounces a week. I'm so relieved to have a child that gains weight, it's a refreshing change. We took a few pictures of the little man and then big sister wanted her picture taken. The blocks say One because he is 1 month, Mia's block is the number 2 because she's 2. :)

Picking a Name

When I was pregnant with Mia, we decided early on that if she were a girl she would be named Mia. We struggled the rest of the pregnancy with coming up with a boy's name. I don't know why picking a boy's name is so hard, but for us it is. If she had been a boy, she would have been named Jeremiah. We think she's definitely a Mia. So, when we found out that I was pregnant with Calvin again we struggled with boy names. We had a whole slew of girl names picked out and if Calvin had been a girl, he was going to be named Savannah. Since we decided to find out this time if we were having a boy or a girl, I thought that would help us pick a name easier...not so much, especially since he was a boy. We scoured baby name books endlessly. For awhile, Maximus was Brad's pick and I really liked Max, but I did not want my child named Maximus. And I know quite a few people were thinking Max would be great with Mia and I think we were leaning towards that up until the last week or so of the pregnancy. I remember having a conversation with Brad, a few weeks before, and I said, I need a name, I can't wait until he's born...what do you think of Max, can we just go with that? And he was slightly noncommittal...so, then I decided that Mia should pick, we'd narrow the list down to 3 names and she could pick...so the list got narrowed down to Max, Jeremiah (yes, it resurfaced), and Jet. She picked Jet. In my heart I wasn't ready for a Jet, so I had her pick again, this time Max. I thought we should settle on Max. Mia even picked it on her 2nd try...

Brad's parents went to their family reunion the early part of August and we couldn't come because it was in Florida and I was too far along in the pregnancy. Well, Nana thought it would be fun for everyone to come up with their picks for a baby name. And I must say, there was quite a list! I was impressed that everyone participated so well! Well, Nana compiled the list and sent it to us and we got a chance to ponder some "other" names. I for sure thought that none of them would make it to our list, but one of them did...Calvin. Brad said, I really like the name Calvin, and I thought, hmm...that's a nice name. Ok, we can add it to the list. So at that point we agreed to wait until he arrived to decide...and we didn't discuss, we both had time to think and we looked at each other and said, what do you think? And I said, I think he looks like a Calvin...of which, Brad totally thought the same. And there it was...a name.

Calvin David...Calvin because that's what he looks like and David after his Grampapa. So, thanks cousin Bob for the suggestion! He's definitely a Calvin.

I can't believe Calvin has been here for almost 3 1/2 weeks! We'll weigh him on Saturday because he'll be 1 month then and see how big he's gotten. Mia got weighed today and she is now 23 1/2 pounds. Her tummy is noticeably bigger and even at therapy they've commented that she looks like she's putting on weight. She's doing great with her braces and I've noticed a difference in how she walks when they are on, so I think they will be very good for her. I tried to get Mia to hold Calvin for a picture the other day, but after 1 second, she was done...she decided he needed some ABC's instead. :) Calvin got his first bath in the baby tub today, his belly button is officially healed! Thank you God! Now, if he'd just start sleeping through the night...it only took Mia 15 months, I'm hoping he gets there quite a bit sooner.