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. :)