Christine, Mom & Dad's Visit

Boy did we get lucky, Christine and the boys got to come for a WHOLE WEEK!!! Mom and Dad also joined us for two days after some Kinetico meetings in Seattle. We had so much fun, here are the adventures we had.

Chinese Lantern Festival

We hit up a few farms/orchards in Green Bluff. We stopped for lunch and ice cream at the Harvest House and then went to Walter's. Cora experienced her first ice cream cone - yum! (Technically it was sherbet).

  We went to the Mobius Children's Museum for lots of exploratory fun.

Spent the day in Coeur d'Alene browsing shops, having lunch, got some fantastic candy at Shenanigans, and stopped by the lake for some sand and water fun.

 Ice cream at the park!

 Had a great evening at the fair!

 

 

Cora's Update

Cora has finally decided to talk!!!!!!! I cannot put enough exclamation points behind that statement, our lack of communication is VERY frustrating! Her and I only know a handful of signs and when signing isn't adequate and the "show me" isn't working, she gets frustrated and whines or drops to the floor and throws a major fit. I'm sure in her eyes that I do the same, haha.

The words she does say she uses them consistently and in the correct context every time. She also will say them on command. It's SO lovely!!! We still use sign language and I make her attempt to speak words that she doesn't know but she's picking up two or three new words every day. Right now she's up to about 20 words!!! My favorite is the way she says Daddy, it's so dainty and cute and melts my heart every time.

Just one more thing that she's defying the odds on and proving that miracles happen. She's a living testament everyday and I'm so grateful that she's mine.

Cora saw the allergist who was thrilled to hear of a successful reintroduction of wheat into her diet. I especially am grateful for that! Although eggs cooked by themselves like scrambled or fried she's still intolerant to, I can bake with eggs and milk. I still can't cook with sour cream or cheese or milk but I can bake with it. The difference is that baking changes the protein differently than cooking, it also has to do with temperature. But, I am so thrilled that she can eat wheat and I can bake usual stuff. No change in the beef so we still avoid that. And she's still drinking the Elecare formula ("medical food" as it's called on the label) and thickened liquids due to aspirating.

Dress Up

See why I'm doing dress up stuff for Christmas? They love getting into our clothes!

More Projects

These are a few more projects I've been working on for the kids' dress up stuff for Christmas and for Cora's birthday. These aprons aren't very girly or manly but it's the best that the dollar store had and they'll work out perfectly.

I made these two skirts with scrap material, the house/tree one is from my dining room chairs, and the pink silk is left from the capes. The pink one has a sparkly tulle overlay and both of those fabrics were hard to sew together, I'm never doing that again. But it's nice to make something with supplies already on hand. I really liked the tutorial I used, it's super easy and takes about 15 minutes.

I also bought some blush and eye shadow at the dollar store, emptied out the powdered colors, and poured fingernail polish into the compacts for play make up. And then of course I had to make her a few dress up bracelets.

Cora's Summer Break

The last two weeks Cora's had therapy off for summer break since the school is open year round. I decided to plan one thing every day that we don't normally do to make it a fun, extraordinary break. We went on a hike, went swimming as a family, went to a minor league baseball game, took family pictures, and had a few doctor appointments thrown into the mix as well.

I had planned to go to Mobius, Riverfront Park, Green Bluff, the Jumping House, etc. but next week Christine is coming to visit and I wanted to save some adventures for when she's here too.

We had such a great time and I loved doing things that weren't normal for us, something other than a park or picnic. 90% of the touristy things there are to do here in Spokane are all outdoor: hiking, snowboarding, skiing, camping, mountain biking, fishing, boating, etc. and I haven't done much of that at all. I hope next year to go on more hikes with the kids, I really enjoyed doing it. At this particular one we saw snakes, rabbits, turtles, ducks, and waterfalls.

 

Christmas Projects

I just finished one of the kids' Christmas projects, I made them their own superhero capes and masks! The shield and letters I just printed from a clip art and there was a free pattern for the cape and mask. I was going to do a draw-string type of closure on the cape but then I realized I'd be tying capes all day long and I wanted the kids to be able to do it themselves. So I cut it to go around the neck instead and sewed velcro on. It was super easy, surprisingly. For Cora's birthday I'm going to make some tutus for dress up clothes so I need to start that project next.

Celebratory Ice Cream

Meet Shelby. Shelby is Kimball's speech therapist and after a year of speech he's all done! No more stuttering and no more speech therapy for him.  Yay!

Cleaning and Donuts

Our ward has a serious commitment issue (very few people accept or fulfill their callings) so when it was our turn to clean the church I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids and put them to work. I'm really appreciative of the opportunity to teach them and to help out. After the cleaning was done we thought a donut on a Saturday morning sounded pretty good. All three of us chose chocolate with sprinkles.

New Bunk Beds!

I finally bit the bullet and put Cora in a regular bed. Good bye to the crib and good bye to my sanity! The only way to fit more furniture in their room was to get a bunk bed which the kids LOVE. Cora's sleep patterns are different than Kimball's (she needs less sleep) so it's been a little tricky getting her to stay in bed. I've tried skipping her naps altogether but she ends up falling asleep anyway around 4-5:00 and that's too late in the day. 

So at bed time Kimball falls asleep within 5 minutes and Cora plays and plays for at least two hours before she falls asleep.

Hydrotherapy

Both of the kids have made HUGE strides in their bravery and technique with swimming, all thanks to Cora's hydrotherapy. 

The first week Cora wouldn't even take her shoes off to get in the water. Now she'll put both ears in, her mouth, lay all the way on her back to get her hair wet, and go on her tummy. She'll let Alicia take her into the deep end and she's even learned the blow bubbles through her nose and pinch her nose to keep water out.

Because I'm cheap and won't pay the $8 for myself to swim for 30 minutes, Kimball has to be in the pool on his own. He's also learned to pinch his nose to keep water out, will jump in, put his head under water and float on his tummy, and loves his goggles. It's all self taught but I'm impressed at his progress as well, given that he's had to teach himself.

Bowling For FHE

The Grogan's invited us to go bowling with them for FHE one night. Lance and I haven't gone in a really long time and have never taken the kids. Kimball especially loved it! They both wore the smallest size bowling shoe, size 8, and they're just the cutest little shoes!

Summer Time Swimming

We've had a lot of fun this summer having all kinds of friends over to swim, both in the baby pool and the big pool. Cora's made progress with tolerating the water so even she has fun now.

Squeezing the air out of the beach ball.

Then one day I had the genius idea to put a tarp down and spray the kids with shaving cream. It was a hit! Cora didn't appreciate it at all but we invited friends over to join in the shaving cream fun, well worth the $3.

Lately

Wow, a lot happening the last little while and yet nothing out of the ordinary. Relief society retreat, new bunk beds, swimming, bowling, donuts, shaving cream mess, christmas gift projects, etc. One day I'll journal it all....

Hope in a Poem

"There are stars you haven't seen and loves you haven't loved. There's light you haven't felt and sunrises yet to dawn. There are dreams you haven't dreamt, and days you haven't lived, and nights you won't forget, and flowers yet to grow. And there is more to you that you have yet to know."
- Gaby Compres