School!

All three of my babies are now in school, at least part of the day! It is incredible to me, I am not sure where the time went. But, when I look in the mirror my wrinkles also show proof that time, indeed has passed! :) Andrew started 2nd grade and Jacob started Kindergarten. They are both in a Spanish Immersion class half of the day. It seems to be going well. I don't know how much spanish they are picking up, but neither one of them are extremely frustrated. They warned us that that might happen. Andrew is not crazy about the increase in homework, but loves that they get two recesses. Jacob really likes school, but is way ahead of many of them. So we are on our second big 1st grade reading book at home. We read stories while the other kids are doing letter flash cards at home. I am thankful for the spanish, because that is something that is completely new to him.

Michael also started preschool! My baby! I think it is a really great thing for him, but hard for me to let him go. He is getting speech, OT and PT services there. He is in a small class, which is wonderful. I am happy with the teacher. She seems to work well with him. The bus (!) picks him up at 11:35 and then I pick him up at 2:45. The first two days of school I took him and he cried when I left. But, the bus has cured the separation fears. He is a bit intimidated, but loves the bus. He takes his teddy bear and hugs him for dear life and enjoys the short ride to school. Mr Dale picks him up and buckles him in and he is set to go.

I am sad that my boys are in school. But glad they are gaining knowledge and working hard.

I am volunteering in Andrew's and Jacob's classrooms at least once a week. We decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to go into Michael's. I am glad that I can be there and am so happy that they get excited when I come and they still want to be seen with me in public. :) I am so grateful that I am their Mama.

Michael's birthday

Our baby turned three years old on July 3rd. I can not believe he is three, but it feels like he has been part of our family for even longer. His birthday had a bit more meaning this year, because I had been so scared he might not make it when we were in the hospital. We love him so much and are so grateful to have him in our family.

I made him an elephant cake and we opened presents. I think he loved them. Then we went and spent the day with Emily at her place and ate delicious food, played on the slip n slide and enjoyed each other's company. Thanks Emily!

It has been so hot here that everything wants to have a drink all the time. If given the choice - which he normally is not :) - Michael will always choose Dr. Pepper. A little of his Daddy in him.

June

Jacob wearing his Daddy's pajamas

Helping pack up our van for a trip to the storage unit, before haircuts :)

We spent the beginning of June packing up most of our house. We got a storage unit and packed quite a bit of our things before we left for our big trip. My sweet, big sister Kathie got married and we made the trek to Texas for the big event. We decided to put Michael into a big boy carseat and were relieved to see he could sleep in it. Unfounately, not for as long as we would have liked. And, it was obviously not our first trip driving from Arizona to Texas, our van passed the 100,000 mile mark. I had to take a picture. :) We stayed in hotels and went swimming and finally made it to Houston. We had a fun time with a girls night out, a cousins party and the blessing for the newest Ricks baby.

Saturday, Kathie and Rob were married in the Houston, Texas temple. It was wonderful. The pictures after were not as wonderful, it was crazy hot. I hope they turn out, she was a beautiful bride. We went and had a delicious luncheon after. We didn't get very many pictures, just a few at the luncheon. Everyone had their cameras and the professional photographer, so we will have to borrow some of those.

We had such a fun time playing at Grandma and Grandpa Ball's house. The boys loved playing with Nathan and Mandy. We went to Galveston for a day and had a great time in the sand and water, despite Andrew finding the lone jelly fish washed up on the beach and getting stung. We went and had a fun lunch with Alexa and her family. We wrapped up our trip by heading up to San Antonio with Shelly, Jason and all of their girls, even Bella and went to a special park that celebrates people with special needs. We really had a wonderful time there. Thank you Turpins for sharing that with us. We stayed at the same hotel and even had birthday cake for our three recent birthdays: Joy, Jeremy and Michael. The next day was Jeremy's 34th birthday, too bad we were stuck driving, but Happy Birthday!

We finally got back to Tucson and tried to finish up our packing. We got everything ready for one last day of packing up and went out to dinner and rented a movie for our last night in Tucson. Unfournately, it ended up we spent an additional night in Tucson, in Tucson Medical Center. I woke up to find Michael having a seizure, we didn't know that was what was happening, and ended up in the hospital. He didn't come out of it until they gave him medicine in the ER. They did several tests and didn't find anything. So, after discussion, they gave us an emergency medicine for if he has another seizure. Lynne and Emily came down and saved us. We couldn't have handled it all without them. We also had to get everything out of our house while this was all happening. It all worked out though. Jeremy and Emily packed all our big things up in a u-haul and put it in the storage unit and we all managed to finish the cleaning after they released Michael on Wednesday. We turned in our keys at 4:48 on the 30th and headed up to Phoenix. Thanks Lynne for letting us come. What a crazy way to end the month.

May

On May 1st, we headed up to Mt Lemmon hoping for a nice escape. It ended up being much colder than we anticipated. Andrew even found snow, he was so excited. It was amazing that in May in Arizona we were wearing mittens, mittens we had only worn in Flagstaff the year or so before! We had a picnic and played, but the cold got to us. We have become used to the heat! So we stopped and got fudge from the general store and headed back home.

Two weeks later we were able to drive over to Thatcher, Az and tour The Gila Valley Temple during the open house. It was wonderful to be inside with our whole family and show the boys the beauty inside the temple. I loved it. The boys loved the cookies after. :)

We went and visited Andrew's school where he showed us the tile he made. He is a bit unconventional :).

We also visited the Children's Museum again. The kids loved the vet center this time. The boys were pretending they were animals in the cages. They had some new exhibits, which I thought were great Occupational Therapy.

We also caught a stomach bug, which started with Michael and then every day thereafter it claimed another member of our family. Andrew seemed to have escaped it, until he and Jeremy were at the grocery store. It turned out to be the worst spot to throw up. Poor Andrew and poor Jeremy who was the recipient of the vomit all over him.

Also, at the end of the month, the University of Arizona finally produced next year's contract for Jeremy. It turned out some funding had been cut and others fallen through, so what Jeremy had previously discussed with the dean didn't pan out. His salary had been cut quite a bit and they were asking him to do more work. So after much thought and prayer, we decided to turn it down. It is not a good time to look for an academic job in the fine arts, but we are hopeful that something will happen for us. We know that God has a plan for us and feel He is aware of our family. So, our plans for next year will not be in Tucson!

April

The boys and I visited the Tucson Children's Museum, which became an oft repeated request. They really enjoyed exploring and playing. We have been back several times.

We also visited the library and Read to a Dog. I was hoping this would encourage Andrew to read. He loves animals. He really enjoyed reading to him and then getting to give him a treat and they all brushed him.

The week after Jacob's birthday, I was so excited to go visit my friend Michelle and meet her baby Emma. We had such a fun trip. We met up with an old friend and her husband back from our BYU days for dinner on friday night. We went to the temple in the morning, the LA temple is huge! And then we went and had the Madhatter's tea at one of Gordon Ramsey's restuarants in downtown LA. We had hot chocolate and really amazing treats. I wish we could make it an annual tradition. :) Emma is so adorable and I loved seeing Rob and Michelle as doting parents.

Jacob's birthday

County Fair

On the school bus

the big bike - he is anxious to take off the training wheels

Kathie - this is triceratops monster truck he wanted :)

He picked out this all orange get-up and Night Fury shoes

The Night Fury cake

My big helper

My middle son turned five in April. I am a bit late in posting. Five is such a big number, but he has seemed do grown up for a while. He has become such a great reader. He can read practically everything and has the ability to just figure out what the big words are. I am so proud of him. Not because he is a great reader, but because he is a great boy. I love him so. He is a wonderful big brother and a big helper for me. I will miss him when he is in Kindergarten.

We made mini cupcakes for Jacob's preschool and he helped pass them out. He wanted to go to McDonalds for dinner, they had dragon toys in the happy meal. Then we came home and opened presents. Lynne came in that night and celebrated with us and we sang and had Night Fury birthday cake. (Night Fury is one of the dragon's from the movie How to Train Your Dragon)

The next day we went bowling so Jacob could try to get a 'real strike'. He had been practicing bowling on the wii. :) We all managed to get a strike-thank you bumpers, but Jacob's prep work paid off and he beat us all. We all had fun. Thank you all for his presents and remembering our Jacob on his birthday.

Two days after his birthday, we went on a field trip to the county fair. I left Michael with a friend, so we had time just the two of us (and the rest of his class). We rode together on the school bus and he rode rides, went to the petting zoo and got a couple of treats. I was so happy to be there with him.

Acceptance

Today was Michael's fourth meeting for the transition from Early Intervention to the local school district. The last meeting went very well, everyone was very nice and most important Michael actually interacted with them and played with them. Enough that they were able to ascertain where to put him. I was afraid he would scream the whole time.
This meeting was supposed to be at 10:30 today, but they called and told me late yesterday that they had been wrong and that it was scheduled for 2:30. Which was fine, except that meant I had to bring all three of my boys. Incidently, today was pajama day at Andrew's school and I forgot to bring him a change of clothes. Thankfully, he got over his intial embarrassment. :)
They did really well, the Child Find Team just let play with toys and for the most part were very well behaved. They even cleaned up when asked- a little reward was offered, of course.
Everything went as I expected. They qualified Michael to receive services in three areas. Communication, Cognitive and Motor. Then they gave Michael a label and I had sign that I accepted this label. They put him in the Preschool severe delay category. Mostly because he has severe communication delay.
Then they told me, they didn't think he should be in the program I thought he would be in. That he should be in a smaller program, that is shorter. That it would be a better transition for him into preschool. That it would more centered on him. It wasn't what I was prepared for and I think I started to feel vulnerable and not in control. I started really thinking about what they were saying to me. They were probably right, Michael wasn't ready for that program. And I want him to be.
So much of this process is paperwork and they talk about due process, etc because an IEP because a binding legal document. So, everything is worded formally and it becomes difficult to feel that way about your beautiful little boy sitting in front of you.
So, I just signed my child into the Special Education program because he has severe delay. And it makes me sad. Sad to think of him that way. Most days I just see Michael, not a little boy who is way behind his peers. Just a fun little boy. In fact the other day at dinner, Jeremy was trying to encourage Michael to eat his chicken. He put a bite on Micheal's fork. Then Jeremy cut a big piece of chicken(off of his own plate) and starting slowly with fun noises bringing it close to his own mouth and out of nowhere Michael grabbed it and stuffed it into his own mouth. It was so funny. We laughed and laughed. I didn't think once that he was behind or in need of special ed.
I know that Michael is delayed, but I don't want him to have to be in the special ed program. I don't want him to be behind everyone. I want him to talk to me. I want to understnad what is going on in his wonderful mind. I don't want that path for him.
I guess, I just didn't think it would be hard. I have already faced these feelings. When do they go away?
I know that Michael was created this way, with a special plan just for him. I know that he has a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of him(and me). But, sometimes, my heart just aches and I want to cry. And sometimes I do.