No one under TWO in this house anymore!

Our precious little Nathan turned two on Friday! We had a pretty low key celebration for him, he got his present in the morning even though we hadn't even wrapped it yet (Lynsey had told him he was getting a present and so he comes into our room asking for it! What could we do!). Lynsey had actually bought him a Pluto stuffy at the Disney Store with her allowance the day before as well, which I thought was pretty great of her! She did end up regretting that when we were in the Aquarium gift shop on Saturday, when she realized she had spent all her allowance and really wanted to buy something! I think (hope more like!) that it taught her a little bit about saving, and that it didn't teach her NOT to be generous. Anyway, back to Nathan! We had his cake on Saturday evening with Katie and Stella who were down for a visit (we also went to the Aquarium with them in the morning, as alluded to previously). Did he realize that it was his birthday? Probably not, but it was fun anyway. We now have a two year old!

On Sunday, we went over to Katie and Stella's hotel and went swimming - Nathan is apparently fearless! He kept trying to jump past our arms into the water! We were pretty sorry we forgot his life jacket, the little monkey. It was nice to see him have fun and I am definitely going to get him enrolled in swimming lessons this Spring. Adam got his legs a bit wet, so that's good. I wish we could get him into swimming lessons, too, but I just can't see it working right now (I'm thinking they might require him to actually go in the water to have a lesson!). Lynsey was swimming away with her arm floats, having lots of fun!

Adam is moving to 4 afternoons a week instead of 3, starting next week. I didn't want him in full time afternoons just yet and thought it would be better to ease him into it by going with 4. He will likely (we haven't confirmed but are leaning towards it) be attending RSA's summer program, which runs 9-3:30 5 days a week for 6 weeks in the summer (July 7 - August 15th). We really didn't want to have no therapy for him in the summer, so while this is a big commitment, we think it will be best for him to keep progressing. Some days it seems like he looks at me a lot more and for longer times, other times we don't know if there is much improvement at all. It's hard when you don't see big results immediately, but we keep getting reports that he is participating in school and meeting his goals, so I have to believe that it's helping him! A lot of his improvements are more subtle, but they are doing good work with him over there so we will keep going with it!

We are still struggling sometimes with Lynsey's emotions. This morning, she didn't get to hug Brian before he left for work (she was distracted with something else) and right after he left, she realized it and wanted to hug him. Our morning, which was going so smoothly up until that point, took a nose dive. She just couldn't recover! And then Adam started having issues because he wanted to go the grocery store and he cried the whole way to dropping Lynsey off at school! My only saving grace was that Nathan was super compliant this morning and didn't even ask to walk like he usually does (thank goodness!). It's a good thing drop offs are such a short part of my day because they are NOT my favorite! Thankfully Adam was fine by the time he got to preschool, and then Nathan and I went shopping in the rain:). Tomorrow has to be better, right??

A trip home

I had good intentions of doing a blog post before our trip home so the next blog post could be JUST about our trip, but it didn't happen. So a brief blurb about the week before our trip! We had some snow on the Sunday before, which turned out to be a real nuisance. Luckily it was gone before Monday came around so school wasn't affected, but we actually couldn't get the van out of the driveway Sunday morning, it was too slippery. What a pain! Lynsey was happy to have some snow to play in, so I guess I was happy for her:).

Preparing for our trip was a bit hectic, but we were ready to go Wednesday night! The flight was relatively uneventful actually. Nathan was a bit wired and the only one who slept at all on the plane was Adam, and that was only for about the last 15 minutes (and we got there around 11:30 MST, which was really 10:30 for us). It took some time to get our bags and the rental car etc, so we weren't at the hotel until about 12:30 MST - wayyyy past everyone's bedtime! It took a while for the boys to settle - Nathan just thought that he didn't need to go to sleep at all that night, I think! It was not the greatest night - maybe 6.5 - 7 hours of sleep for the kids. I met some of my mom's group friends at a big play place in the morning, and the lack of sleep did not bode well for this trip to a huge, stimulating, chaotic play place. Nathan was a disaster for the first hour and a half. He was not doing well, and then he actually saw another kid with the same blanky as him (!) - not being able to have that blanky sent him over the edge for 45 solid minutes. Let's not forget that Adam was also not having a ton of fun at this time, and by that I mean he was walking around crying for a lot of the time. Luckily he was not screaming and freaking out, too, that would actually have been unmanageable and I would have had to call Brian to come and get us right then and there. Everything did calm down for the last hour or so that we were there, so I was able to visit a little bit which was nice! I would not do the really late flight combo-ed with an early morning plan again - lesson learned! We hung out in Calgary the rest of the day and took off for Three Hills on Friday, where we hung out until just after dinner. Friday night we were off to Edmonton! Things slowed down once we got to Edmonton and we were able to relax a bit more with a little less hectic of a schedule. We managed to see a ton of people in the 5 days that we were up there including both sets of parents and a lot of other family and friends, so all the craziness was worth it! Our kids traveled pretty well all things considered and there were no major hiccups anywhere, so I am just feeling very thankful for that!

Now that we are home, I am just trying to catch my breath and get back to routine! All of our kids need to catch up on some sleep (which Nathan did this afternoon with a 3.5 hour nap!). Adam has had a rough few days, and I think he just needs a solid week of good sleep so he can get back to some sort of equilibrium. He handled all the transitions and different people and places of the trip well, but I think we are just seeing some residual effects of lack of sleep and over-stimulation. The TV has been on a lot because of the Olympics and he is starting to ask for it to be turned off, which we haven't seen before. Too much for our poor boy! Hopefully he can sort himself out soon, because he is very difficult to deal with when he is unregulated like this!

A bit of a funny thing happened today that I wanted to record:). I had given both Adam and Nathan some pretzels for a snack, Adam's at the big table and Nathan's at the kid table. Adam came over to the kid table and tried to take ownership of Nathan's pretzels, to which Nathan obviously objected, at which time Adam pushed Nathan to the ground. I stepped in and sternly told Adam that it was not okay to push Nathan and directed him back to his own pretzels. Shortly after I hear Nathan directing a little lecture at Adam: "No push Nay-Nay. No Ab-um." He said this a few times, even walking closer to him to make sure Adam was hearing him! It's just so interesting to hear Nathan becoming so aware of what's going on and being able to verbalize so much, he's just his own little person! My feelings are mixed as he passes Adam in some areas of communication, but obviously we are really happy that he is just plodding along and expanding his communication continually. Such a cute little boy!

So I didn't take a ton of pictures when we were up north, but Lynsey did grab the camera and several of the pictures you see here are ones that she took! It was actually really funny, she had taken one megablock and took pictures of it in several different places in the basement - quite artistic and so funny to see! I didn't include all those pictures, though:).

Superbowl Sunday Fun!

We had a great Superbowl weekend! We invited over one of Brian's co-workers and his family (they have a 9 year old girl, a 7 year old boy and a 4 year old boy) and we had a great time getting to know each other:). The fact that the Seahawks destroyed the Broncos in a dominating performance was icing on the cake! What a year to move to Seattle, first Superbowl win ever! It's pretty exciting for the city, and I'm definitely getting into the spirit of it as well. Not too sure if I will be venturing downtown on Wednesday for the parade, that might be a bit too much for me to handle, but it would be fun!

We had Lynsey's parent/teacher conference on Friday! It went really well! Her teacher and her reading group teacher had very positive reports for us on her progress in all areas which was great for us to hear. She is almost caught up to her classmates in reading, and her teacher says she feels like a light bulb has come on with math as well (I knew it would eventually, glad it happened sooner rather than later:)). All in all we are very happy with how she is doing in school! She starts with her after school drama class tomorrow, so we'll see how she likes that. She is excited about it and it SEEMS like something she would like, but you never know until you actually try it. Fingers crossed it goes well!

Our trip to Calgary is coming up fast, only a week and a half away! I am excited for the trip but a bit anxious about the travel part. I am just hoping and praying that it all goes smoothly, since Brian and I will be outnumbered by kids (yikes!). We are also hoping for good weather, which is always a bit of a toss up this time of year! It looks like it's going to be pretty cold there this week and warming up a bit next week, but I see on the 14 day trend that they might see some freezing rain while we're there - not cool! We need to drive to Three Hills and then to Edmonton, so the precipitation has got to go!

Hmm I can't think of much else that has happened over the last few weeks, we're just plugging along as usual. Adam hasn't really made many changes recently, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we are always hoping for big breakthroughs! Maybe this week:). Nathan is chattering away all the time, and has started wanting to walk all the time instead of ride in the stroller. This doesn't work when you have not left enough time for it (which is every single morning walking Lynsey to school) so it can be a bit of a struggle. What I love about this stage is that he's learning to understand and even complies sometimes! This morning he wanted to walk and he was starting to cry about it, and I told him that he could not walk on the way there, but when we dropped Lynsey off, I would let him walk on the way back home. After I explained that, he let me put him in the stroller. Now obviously this kind of explanation doesn't work every time, but the fact that it even works SOMETIMES is awesome! Such a fun little guy:).

Imaginations running wild!

So we seem to have lost Nathan and gained "Captain Huggyface" the last few days. Lynsey has been pretending to be WordGirl, her favorite superhero, and Nathan has been appointed as her sidekick, Captain Huggyface. He loves to follow around with her and play along, and just the other day at dinner, he pointed at Lynsey and says, "WordGirl". This of course made us laugh, but then he also points to himself and says, "Huggyface". Today, when I called him Nathan, he often corrected me to "Huggyface"! So funny! I guess Lynsey will have to curb the pretend play around him before he has an identity crisis:).

Nathan is starting to tell us "uckies" when he pees (at least, I'm fairly sure that is what's happening, he stops and grabs his diaper and says it). I have decided that when we get back from our Alberta trip in February I'm going to do a trial weekend in underwear and see what happens. He keeps saying "no potty" every time I suggest sitting on the potty, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope that he is actually ready, but it is worth a try! His communication has really been coming along quickly! He says so many words now and it's becoming easier to understand him, too.

Lynsey and I went to her school's library night the other night, and her reading group teacher told me that Lynsey's reading has come leaps and bounds in the last little while! We thought she had been improving, but it was so nice to hear a teacher come up to me and tell me without me asking about it that she's been doing really well:). I have also noticed that she is having less trouble with her math homework, and her online marks seem to be reflecting that she is getting better grades on her tests as well. I'm not that worried about her marks exactly, but it is important to me that she understands what is going on and is learning to focus and pay attention in class. We have another parent/teacher conference at the end of the month so I guess we will see what her teacher says then!

I feel like Adam has become a bit more aggressive with Lynsey and Nathan lately when he wants something they have or they don't do what he wants. He was hitting Lynsey and pulling her hair today. I'm going to ask his preschool teachers if he's doing this with his peers as well, I really want to make sure we address it right away. He's still not that aggressive, but he never even used to hit at all so I am a bit concerned about a new pattern starting. He DID go get his hair cut on Saturday and he just waltzed in there like he owned the place! He's been there once before, and last time he was upset at the beginning but calmed down when she started cutting. This time, he wasn't upset at all. He just let her cut and barely flinched, even when she was trimming around his ears. It was so wonderful! I now don't have to dread getting his hair cut anymore, yay! I am going to take him to the doctor for the first time in a long time on Thursday, so that could be interesting. He needs to get some immunizations to catch up to the American schedule, so I am hoping he will at the very least be okay until they poke him (and then hopefully they will be quick and we can get out of there!). If the doctor goes well, I plan to brave the dentist! The pediatric dentist that saw Lynsey was so incredibly good with her, and he seems to have a system for dealing with kids with Autism, so we'll give it a go sometime soon:). I just pray for the day when all these routing appointments will be no big deal!

Brian and I went to Amazon's post holiday company party on Saturday and it was fun! We hung out with some of his co workers for a while which was fun, and just walked around and took in the entertainment. When a company the size of Amazon puts on a party, it's a big deal! There were acrobats hanging from the ceiling, people walking around on stilts, a games room, big igloos set up with couches, a live band that played songs you may even have heard on the radio, the list goes on! It was fun, I'm glad we went:). I also went to a baby shower on Sunday where I had to wear a dress and heels, hence the picture of me in 4 inch heels. I did not fall over once and wore them for almost 3 hours! It was a fun baby shower:).

A new year with a 4 year old boy! And a girl that lost a tooth!

Happy New Year to you all! We had a great New Year's Eve celebrating our little Adam, who, as per usual, was pretty oblivious to the celebrations:). Lynsey made him the sweetest gift - a stick with a necklace on the end of it that he could shake. She has such a big heart! He actually seemed interested when we were singing to him and was smiling the whole time, which was nice to see. He really does look like a 4 year old now. He's grown a few inches in the past few months and just looks like a school kid when he's got his backpack on. Chokes me up a bit! I just want to keep him close to me and protect him forever, but apparently he is going to grow up anyway!

On New Year's Day we went to the Aquarium with a few friends. It was a nice time, although I have decided the Aquarium is a bit of a hectic outing to be done sparingly. It's just too hard to keep track of the kids. Adam wandered away from us right at the end of the trip and we couldn't find him for probably 5 minutes. Terrifying! On some level I knew he was probably sitting somewhere waiting for us, but you just never know. He was in fact sitting on a bench, no stress on his face. He looked like he was waiting for the bus, business as usual. Yikes! Even after that incident, I decided to take the kids to the zoo on Friday all by myself, and it went so well! It is way easier to keep track of everyone at the zoo! The kids had lots of fun, jumping in the puddles was a highlight for Lynsey and Nathan (Adam was happy to watch them jump in, didn't actually go in himself). The weather was beautiful, I was really glad I attempted it:).

It has been nice to get back to routine this week. Adam had a little bit of trouble getting in the van the first few days back to school, but once he was at the school, it was automatic and he did fine. The music teacher was telling me today that he's been singing along in music class, which is so cute! My musical little boy:). Lynsey claimed to not want to go back to school, but I think she's enjoyed being back with all her friends. Nathan is a bit lonely, but he actually played by himself for like an hour this morning in the basement which was such a relief for me! He would love it if all I did all day was sit there and read him books and play trains and cars, so little breaks are very nice. I do love how much fun he is right now:). High maintenance, but fun!

Lynsey lost her first tooth on Monday night! We were getting ready for bed, and her tooth had been pretty loose all day. She was biting on some toy and all of a sudden there were very excited exclamations of "My tooth came out!" to be heard! It was fun to see her be so excited, and we played along with the tooth fairy thing, even writing back when she wrote a note to her:).

Oh and I just want to mention that I can't remember the last time Adam had a #2 accident! We are officially declaring him 100% potty trained as of his 4th birthday:). Considering what we thought our potty training journey might be, that doesn't sound so bad at all! Now we just have to decide if we want to give Nathan a try . . . while Brian's parents were here, and sat down on the potty and immediately peed, giving me all kinds of hope! He hasn't repeated this, and when we ask him if he wants to go potty, he always says, "No potty" so I'm not too sure this was a sign at all. I am toying with the idea of one or two days in underwear just to see what happens! I am trying to have the same mindset I had with Adam, low expectations so as to reduce frustration, I will not have a repeat of the Lynsey potty training saga!