The Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we went to our favorite Pumpkin Patch, Banducci's. The kids had a blast. Calvin really liked all the pumpkins. My favorite picture is Calvin trying so hard to pick up this huge pumpkin.

Today Calvin signed "milk" and "cheese" for the first time, he also said, "eeeezzz", for "cheese" and he said, "ia", for Mia (at least that's what I'm guessing he said it for.) He's growing up so quick!

Happy 4th Birthday Mia!

Dearest SweetPea,

We can't believe it's been 4 years already! The day you were born is such a vivid memory, we will never forget the sweet sound of your voice when you first cried. And the moment we first saw you, such a treasured memory.

This has been quite an awesome year for you! You now weigh 28 pounds, which is 4 more pounds than last year...that is a huge feat for you! And you are now 27 1/2 inches, which is 2 1/2 inches taller than last year...you keep on growing!

You've also developed quite the personality this past year and you know what you want when you want it. Just today Brother had just gotten in the bath tub and you told Mama, "He is done, take him out, put me in." We love hearing your voice...last year our major prayer was that your speech would improve and God has clearly answered that. Your speech has grown by leaps and bounds, we are so grateful. There are a few sounds that you still struggle with, but we are convinced that God will give you those in time too.

This past year you started a new therapy program, called hippotherapy. You love it, each week we get to go ride Sally. She's a wonderful horse and she and you get along so well together. It's been helping to give you more strength and now you can climb stairs with help, that's another huge accomplishment, thank you Lord!

One of the sweetest things has been hearing you learn Bible verses this year at Cubbies (Awanas). It is another one of your favorite activities! We love watching you learn about God and what He has done for you.

Last year, our other big prayer was that you would learn to control your bowels and that hasn't happened yet. We still remain hopeful that God will allow you to do this, but in the meantime we are sorting out how to help you be able to potty train. That is our big prayer for this year, that you would learn to potty on the toilet and we still want to pray that God would help you to control your bowels.

We love you so much SweetPea! You are such a blessing to us, we thank God for you!!!

Love,
Always and Forever,
Mama, Daddy, Calvin and CindyCat

A Birthday Fit For A Fox

Mia's birthday is on the 12th, but we celebrated today. Since she's in love with Fox in Socks, we decided to have a Fox in Socks party...everyone participated and wore red and received socks upon entry. It was great. Here are some pics of the fun time.

Annual IEP

I had Mia's annual IEP review meeting today. It went great, she's doing fabulous. She's made so much progress, it's neat to be reminded of that. Her speech has improved by leaps and bounds. She now only struggles with the C, K, L, and R sounds...that is a miracle! Praise God! She still has hurdles to overcome in different areas, but her speech is going to be just fine. Her teacher wants the school OT to evaluate her and hopefully have her receive services at school, so that will happen in the next month or so and of course we set new goals for her...many of which are gross motor skills. Another area Mia struggles with is interaction with her peers, so they'll continue to encourage her to play with others...she tends to sit on the sideline and watch the others play rather than interacting with them herself.

I'm just so encouraged with how well she is doing! Thank you God!!!

Fall

We are loving this cooler weather. We've especially been enjoying taking the kids out for wagon rides in the evening...they love it. This weekend we took them to a park and they couldn't get enough of that either. We also went to a birthday party with a bounce house...they both thought that was great fun also. It's neat to do fun things as a family and for the kids to enjoy being and playing together. Yay for fall!