Haircuts and More!

Yesterday Calvin got his first haircut! Mia got a haircut too! I've been wanting to cut her hair for awhile now and so we had Brad's hairdresser come over to the house and cut both of the kids hair. Neither of them really liked it. But they look even cuter now!











Today we went to LA for our 4th opinion on Mia's eyes. This doctor came recommended by a friend and also by our optometrist. He told us he is very conservative when it comes to surgery and in cases like Mia, he prefers to wait until after they are 5 to do anything, if at all. So, in the meantime, he suggested a stronger pair of glasses to help bring the eyes together and also to try some more patching. Hopefully between all of this and the vision therapy we are going to start, maybe we won't need to do surgery for awhile or even at all. We have one more opinion to see, but it's looking more and more like we will be holding off and not rushing into surgery. Praise God for wisdom!

MARE Finale

Yesterday Mia had her end of the year recital at MARE. This is the last time she'll be riding until September. They take a break in the summer because it's so hot. The theme of the recital was "The Circus" and so it was really neat to see the horse painted in fun, different ways. Our favorite was Charlie Tuck, painted like a giraffe!

This is a rider from the advanced vaulting class, pretty neat stuff!

Mia and Daddy, waiting to ride.

Balloons!

What a cute giraffe!

Mia and Sally! One of the MARE staffers who doesn't normally see Mia ride commented how nice Sally is with Mia, apparently Sally can be a bit difficult at times, but Sally and Mia get along great. They must have a special bond.

Happy 10 Months Calvin!

This month included many new firsts for Calvin. The major milestone is that he can now pull to stand. He also learned how to put his pacifier back in his mouth, which can sometimes be very helpful when I hear him stirring to wake up and then sucking on his pacifier and going back to sleep. Of course, when the pacifier falls out of the crib, we are not so lucky then. Calvin also got several new teeth this month. He now has four top and four bottom teeth and I'm thinking he's working on a molar in the back as of right now.

Calvin weighed in at 19 1/2 pounds this month, he's also 29 1/2 inches. We're so pleased with how well he is growing. He loves to eat and still enjoys a midnight feeding, I know he can definitely go the entire night without feeding, but he's my baby and it only takes about 15 minutes from start to finish, so I haven't cut him off yet. I'm usually still half asleep by the time I am back in bed.

The other major milestone for Calvin is that he is now down to just two naps and that has been awesome. It's so nice to finally have him on a schedule.

Happy Father's Day!

We love our Daddy, he's the best! The last two nights he's taken us to the new spray park, really close to our house. It's been fun. Thank you for being the bestest Daddy ever and getting all wet so we can have fun!

We love you Daddy!
Mia and Calvin

Vision Therapy

So, we met with our local optometrist yesterday and she gave us quite a bit of insight on what to ask potential surgeons for Mia. She feels like we don't need to rush this and so while we are sorting out answers, we are going to start some vision therapy for Mia. We'll begin when school ends for the summer and do a couple of intense weeks of therapy that we can hopefully transition to less and do more of it from home. We also have another recommendation from her of who to see, so we are going to try to schedule an appointment with this doctor also. I'm feeling better about not rushing into this and waiting for the best timing for Mia.

Calvin has started to stand, he loves to pull himself up on the little musical table that we have. He'll be walking before we know it.

LA

Today we were to LA for an appointment with Mia's GI surgeon. He's happy with how her bottom is looking and we will continue stretching for another couple months with the next two larger sizes. So far she's been tolerating that so well and we are very thankful for that. It was a quick visit and then we were back in the car home. Some day our trips to LA will be for fun. I thought we were done for awhile, but I schedule another appointment with a different opthalmologist at UCLA and that will be at the end of the month. We are just trying to gather as much information as we can to make the best possible decision about her eyes.

Friends

Today we had a special visit from friends from Chicago. Crystal, Gwendolyn, and Elliot came over to play with us for awhile. It took Mia a little bit to warm up to Gwendolyn, who is also 3, but then they were two peas in a pod, having so much fun together. In fact, she cried after they left because her friend was gone. It's neat to see her enjoy playing with other kids her age. Elliot is one month behind Calvin, so that was a lot of fun for them too. It's interesting how God connects our lives to others, I'm not sure I would have developed the friendship I have with Crystal if Mia hadn't gone through all she has. Crystal and her family have been huge prayer warriors for Mia and we are so grateful. I love how the family of believers works that way...I don't think I will ever stop being in awe of that. The other neat thing is that Crystal is an optometrist and I was able to sit down and chat with her quite a bit about Mia's potential eye surgery and she gave me quite a bit of food for thought. I don't feel such a pressure that this has to be taken care of immediately. Earlier this week I talked with another mom who's son has eye issues also and she referred me to a different doctor at UCLA, so we are going to try to get an appointment with him for another opinion. Please continue to pray for wisdom and discernment for us on what is best for Mia.

Thank you Crystal, Gwendolyn, and Elliot for a fun afternoon!!!

Dr Seuss

Mia can't get enough of Dr Seuss. She loves all of his books and lately has been interested in words that rhyme. She thinks that's neat. One of her favorite Dr Seuss books is Fox in Socks. It starts off "This book is dangerous, go slowly." And that is true! It's a tongue twister. But she loves it. I love hearing her try to read the book. Daddy got it on video this morning, so we'll have to get it on the blog for you to see. Mia's speech therapist is so impressed with how well she is doing. She's come a long way since last fall. We know it is because of God and want to give Him all the praise and glory.

Mia's been holding her weight at 26 pounds, which is really good for her. We keep drinking the pediasure and that does seem to be helping.

Calvin has started to get up on his knees, he can even crawl up stairs (we don't have stairs, but he did this at Mia's physical therapy today). And the cutest thing he does is a very nice downward dog (Rachel S, you would be so impressed!). If only I had the camera ready at the exact time to get a picture of it. I will try.

Accidents Happen...

So, Friday turned into a bit of an eventful day for us. Thankfully everyone is fine. I was trying some different seating out for lunch time and put Mia in Calvin's booster chair on a different chair. She ended up falling face forward while still strapped into the chair and hit her chin/mouth fairly hard on the floor. She was bleeding pretty bad, but after I checked her out and got the bleeding under control, she looked ok. She had bit through her lip fairly deep and so I took her in to our pediatrician, just to be safe and get her checked out. Thank goodness she didn't lose any teeth or...the options are endless for what worse could have happened. I'm just so grateful it turned out as well as it did. So, I wasn't going to write about this, but I feel like it is important to share so you can check your own seats at home, what happens when your child is leaning all the way forward, is it top heavy and does it fall forward? I wouldn't want anyone else to have this happen to them.

Change

Wednesday I had a meeting at Mia's school to talk about her placement for next year. I was expecting to hear that she'd be in their 4 year old program at the same school next year. They told me that they'd like to switch schools for her because she is doing so well academically and they want to focus on her speech. So, they would like to put her in an intensive speech program at a different school. It will still be a class that focus on mild to moderate delays also, but they work on speech more intensely at the same time. I don't know why change is so hard, I'm sure it will be great, I just wasn't expecting this, it took be my surprise. It will be hard enough that the four year old program runs from 11:30 - 3:00, which is right during nap time, but I'm sure we'll adjust.

Here's a picture of the munchkins, representing Roma...they are wearing the Italian shirts.

June!

Wow, it's June! This is Mia's last week of regular school and then next week she starts summer school. It's a four week program and then she'll have six weeks off until next year. We've been so pleased with her speech progress lately, it's awesome. She still struggles with some major sounds, but we see progress little by little and we are grateful! Praise God for that! One example is that she now can say the w sound, which she could do before, it's neat to hear her say "whale" and she says it so nicely.

We've been doing the miralax for a few weeks now and I'm noticing a tiny improvement. I'm not sure that I still have it at the correct dosage for her, but we can tweak it here or there. She's holding her weight at 26 pounds and we are encouraging her to eat as much as we think she can, but recognizing that her tummy might really be full and she might not be hungry. It's a fine balance to figure out. We also continue to stretch her and I must say it is easier with her older because we can talk about what I'm going to do and it hasn't been traumatic at all, so thank you for praying for that too!

We still are hoping to talk to some other people who have had eye surgery because of a lazy eye. So, if you know anyone who's done that, we'd love to be put into contact with them. I'm just so confused with everything I read online about it because there are so many differing views.

Calvin just got a couple more teeth on the bottom and he's been quite the mama's boy. We are working on transitioning him to more soft table foods, but he doesn't like to touch certain textures, so it's making it a bit difficult. I love seeing him take interest in different toys than Mia, he's definitely a boy...he loves to spin wheels around on cars and toys and he loves rolling balls and chasing them.