Christmas 2011

What a blessed day we had!  Things ran a little differently this year than in years past as far as our Christmas celebration goes- and it all went very smoothly.  Before I start into Christmas Day, I want to share pics from our church's Live Nativity the week before in which Kaylin participated as a shepherd. :)

 Shepherds keeping warm around the campfire, waiting for their entrance.  Kaylin is 5th from the left.

It was a frigid day, so she was bundled in her winter coat and gloves under her costume- making her look a little extra fluffy. ;)

Kaylin is to the far left in the pic above

And the supporting actors:

 donkey

 2 day old calf- so tiny and precious!

 sheep

...and goats

And on to Christmas Eve and Day....  My parents came up Christmas Eve as usual- they spend the night so they can be here bright and early to watch the kids open their presents from Santa.  In the past we have always attended church on Christmas Eve, but the men were having issues with the conflicting Ravens game that afternoon- the game started at 1:00 and church was at 3:30- the only other service Christmas Eve is at 10:00 pm which is way too late for the little ones.  So, for the sake of my own sanity, we went to church Christmas Day instead.  Mom, Kaylin, and I baked some cookies while the guys watched the game Christmas Eve, and then kids were up at their usual 6:30 AM Christmas Day.

Evan did a little better opening his presents- he had absolutely no interest on his birthday a couple months ago, and he had a little interest on Christmas.  We could bribe him with toys that made noise or played music- those were the ones he was interested in seeing what was inside. :)

Evan's favorite present- his Learning Vacuum!  Ok ok, there is some background info required here. ;)

Evan has an obsession with the vacuum.  Sure, many small children are frightened by the loud noise, but when Evan hears a vacuum he comes RACING over to see the action.  When the vacuum shuts off, he bursts into tears and cries hysterically.  Seriously.  So imagine my... err... Santa's surprise when he came across a Learning Vacuum!!  Who knew there would be such a toy??  Definitely perfect for Evan.  He also scored a little hand held children's Dirt Devil vacuum which really picks up stuff off the floor- I was using it to clean up some of the pine needles from the tree. ;)

The top item on Justin's wish list this year: a robot.  No specifics, just a robot.  He seemed content with what Santa provided even though at the last minute he added that he wanted a robot with a remote control.  This robot doesn't have a remote control.  He didn't seem too bothered by that. :)

 

The kids were pretty easy to shop for this year- nothing big and outrageous on their wish lists as opposed to last Christmas.  Kaylin only requested one Wii game, but did score with a surprise karaoke machine which was a big hit. :) Of course I didn't get any pics of it yet... Oops.  I'm sure I have it on video somewhere...

MomMom made each of the kids a snuggly blanket accompanied by a matching pillow pet- huge hit with the kids!  Evan was snuggling with me just this morning with his new blankey. :)  You can see part of Evan's monkey blankey at the top of the photo.

And our lovely photo shoot after church while everyone was fancied up ;)

The photo with MomMom and PopPop was a little later in the day- note Evan's bare feet, and neither of the two boys cared to cooperate for the photo.  Justin was getting ready to cry from being scolded for not listening, but Daddy coaxed some giggles at the last minute. ;) WHEW!! 

Merry Christmas, everyone!!  We wish you all the best in the New Year!! <3

Heart full of gratitude

Just yesterday I made another plea to my Facebook friends to donate to sweet Jessa's Angel Tree fund- I've been trying not to pester too much, especially since I have already been posting about our latest adoption fundraiser, but I've also had much guilt about not working hard enough to get Jessa to her Angel Tree goal of $1,000.  I've seen a couple good friends of mine bust their butts and achieved that goal for their cherubs, yet poor Jessa was hanging out at the halfway mark.

So I did the math- Jessa was at $535, and needed 93 people to donate $5 to get her to her goal.  I have 293 Facebook friends so figured this could be doable!

Seriously, this sweet little face?? $5 is easy peasy! ;)  First two friends who donated- gave $10 instead of just $5. :)  I checked her page this morning- she was up to $585.  Up $50 from the day before. :) Not too bad!

So my annoying pestering self made another post on Facebook thanking my sweet friends who donated, and commented that the sooner we reach Jessa's goal, the sooner I would stop bugging people about it. ;) Well let me tell you- I certainly didn't think that would happen TODAY!!

I go back to Jessa's page this evening- her Angel Tree fund is at $1,030!! I did a double take.  I did a triple take.  I did a quadruple take.  I refreshed the page a couple times to be sure it wasn't a mistake.  I checked back again a few hours later- it is still the same.  It must be real!!  I have no idea who donated to Jessa's fund- I do not have access to her account whatsoever.  I wish I did- I would so love to thank the generous soul who gave so much- I'm assuming it was one large donation to put her over the top.  I just can't get over it!  I feel like I'm on cloud nine- SO thankful we got Jessa to her goal amount.  So glad I wasn't a failure as her Christmas Warrior and didn't let her down.  I honestly wasn't sure if I would be able to get her to her goal amount and was hesitant to sign up to be a Christmas Warrior.  Knowing we are raising money for our own adoption, I felt that there were probably other people out there who could do a better job raising money for her.  She deserved better.  But we got her there.  YOU got her there.  I pray Jessa will find her way under someone's Christmas tree next year.  She looks absolutely adorable on my tree, but she deserves to be under a tree, opening gifts of her own, surrounded by a loving family.

Merry Christmas, sweet Jessa... I pray your family finds you VERY soon!!

Progress

Lots of progress being made around here!  I had two meetings today- the first with all of Evan's therapists for his annual review to see where he is with meeting his goals.  The second was at school for Justin since he is graduating from receiving speech services. Yay! :)

Evan's therapists have been happy with his progress, too!  Even though he is charting at around a 16 month level in most areas, he has definitely made good strides in the right direction in each of his areas of development. Go, Evan!  It is around now at two years old that we really see a difference in the pace of development as far as comparing a "typical" child to a child sporting designer genes.  And Evan would have scored higher in different areas had he been able to achieve a specific task here or there such as walking or stacking 1" cubes (which he did quickly after the therapist was finished working with him and we were discussing adoption stuff! Little stinker).

For the past several months, he had been receiving physical therapy twice a month, his occupational therapist and speech therapist were coming together three times a month- once being specifically for feeding, and his general educator was coming once a month.  Upon their recommendation, we are bumping back to just once a month for everyone.  I have to say I'm a little nervous about backing down, but I trust their judgement and understand their opinion.  At this point in Evan's development, he has learned a lot of skills and is learning mostly from imitation.  He is going to learn that from us (me mostly since I'm home with him all day) and from participating in activities out and about, such as going to playgroup which we've been doing once a week, and going to the library etc.  His speech therapist even recommended we meet at the library or McDonald's for therapy sessions now and then to increase his socialization opportunities with other kids.  This should be fun! :)

Evan's main goals:

Physical therapy- walking.  Plain and simple!  He is getting closer and closer- he is able to stand up by himself in the middle of the room and take a few steps- maybe 4 or 5 at a time, and then he goes down.

Occupational therapy/feeding- self-feeding with a spoon, controlled bite (being able to take a bite off something instead of everything being cut into small pieces), drinking from an open cup.

Speech therapy- working on getting Evan to TALK- so far he has over 50 signs that he knows but he really doesn't say any words.  He also doesn't use many signs spontaneously for conversation/requesting- he will give a sign if you ask him a word and that's the majority of his signing.  He will sign "baby" to request his Baby Signing Time/Signing Time videos, he will sign "eat" occasionally if he's hungry, and he will sign "all done" if he's finished.  The rest is simply producing a sign when given a word.

Cognitive development- imitating play like pretending to feed a doll/animal, imitating cars driving on a road, imitating cleaning etc.; pointing to pictures (touch the horse, etc), matching shapes.

Overall, Evan's goal is to increase his independence to prepare him for preschool.  My plan is for him to begin in August, and my intention is for him to attend a "regular" preschool twice a week and a special ed preschool a couple days a week.  Fingers crossed that my plan will be achievable and all will go smoothly!