Hi there...

Yes, it's an actual new post! My computer has been down several times recently...the last time I had just had it back for a few days and Jacob got mad while watching a video on it and thumped his hand down....damaging the hard drive. So back to Best Buy it went for another 3 weeks of servicing. And I finally got it back this past weekend - woohoo! But in the meantime I couldn't put up any new blog posts.

A lot has been going on here, as usual. A little update on all of us:

Sydney: Still flying through the cognitive/academic portions of therapy. She loves to try to read words on buildings and labels and books, and I caught her correctly answering questions about fractions on the iTouch the other night. Smart little girl, she is! She continues to close the gap with her speech delay and she still amazes us daily with the new things she says. This past week she has been obsessed with reading Green Eggs and Ham (I'll have to post a video, it is so cute!). Now when she doesn't want to eat something, she'll wave her finger and say, "I do not LIKE (fill in with whatever she is being offered)" Cracks me up everytime. She has been very...challenging (ahem)...when it comes to being out in public. She thinks it's pretty funny to run away from us, to yell rhyming words loudly in the library, etc. This is a girl who loves, loves, loves to test and push buttons. All while being super cute. We had a bad cold hit the kids right after school started at the beginning of August (crazy, I know). Sydney really got it bad and was out from school for two weeks. Today was her first day back. The good thing is that she finally learned to blow her nose ("Make an elephant sound!" works for her!)...woohoo! She has gone through a growth spurt and although she's still on the small side, she's no longer the tiny little one she once was.

Natalie: still raising her two ducks. Speeders is now pretty much full grown, but he still has his "baby" feather colors. I think he should change colors in October. She has a great connection with him...he will let her snuggle with him while he runs away from everyone else. She is definitely mama in his eyes! The little one is about 4 weeks old now and is a goofball of a duck. Natalie is enjoying the two of them starting to be buddies...it is fun to watch them wander around the backyard together with the little one trailing behind Speeders and quacking nonstop. She started 1st grade on Aug 3 and has had some difficulty with the transition. There are 32 kids in her class and one teacher, plus she is transitioning from a half day to a full one. I think she is feeling lost in the crowd and it's just not a good match for her personality. We're working on this one.

Jacob: really struggled at the end of summer, due to the reduction in his therapy hours over the break from school. He was having trouble sleeping, waking almost every day around 3:00 in the morning (he was up for the day...), having more aggression, and apparently because he was unsure what to do with himself he became obsessive about going potty. This in turn led to him having bladder issues and we are still working on rectifying those...it's getting better but it's been a big disruption at school and home. He was also out of school for a week with that darn cold but he has been back for a couple days and we are looking forward to a regular schedule again. He got a new Mario Kart comforter for his bed a couple of days ago and he is so smitten with it, he's been wrapping it around his body and walking through the whole house with it. Lately he's taken to riding his "silver scooter" through the house, up and down the hallway. Not my favorite thing but it helps with his need to move and keeps him busy. Tonight Chris and I caught him reading Green Eggs and Ham while snuggled up in our bed (Sydney had left it there, ha!), so we sat down to listen and he read the whole thing in his sweet little voice. He giggled when he got to the part where he is just about to try the green eggs and ham. It was so cute. I don't think I've ever heard him say/read that much at one time in my life before.

Chris: Has started a new position at the same company, which is great news. This should really broaden his horizons and I am hoping will give him more regular working hours. He is just a few months away from finishing his Master's degree with a concentration in Accounting. It's been a lot of work for him and for me but we are hoping it will be worth it in the long run. He's also started running a few days a week on his lunch break...this is great because he normally didn't get to see the sun most weekdays! So, he has been really, really busy. Almost there, though.

Me: Looking forward to the days when all three kids make it to school and nobody is home sick. I'm actually going to get a few things done!!! Or so I hope. I hate to count my chickens before they are hatched and sometimes it seems like just when I get a leg up in one area, everything crashes down in another. I am cautiously optimistic. And I have a SERIOUS backlog of things that need to get done.

So that's it! I'll be trying to get some pictures posted soon...still don't have any of them loaded back on my computer yet...