Park and Halloween Party

October 21-27, 2013
Almost all of the text is from a letter to Lizzi:

We've had nice weather so the kids and I have been going outside every day, at least once.

Leila is still having lots of specialist doctors' visits but most of them are coming up with great results, meaning, we won't have to go back for a while/ever for some of them! She really is about as blessed as you can get for having this disorder... she doesn't have any of the major health issues and so far, is not too far behind developmentally either. I think that has a lot to do with prayers being answered.

The state's Early Childhood Intervention came to assess her and based on their evaluation, the only thing she's significantly behind in is communication. She's not making the goo-goo-gaga noises or imitating things we do or reaching her arms up to be picked up. Cognitive, motor skills and nutrition she was pretty much right on track. She was ahead in social/emotional interactions though, laughing and stuff. That's probably because she and Caleb play so much! She is a very happy baby!

Allen has his big exam next Tuesday and hasn't had much time to study since he has been spending a lot of time helping me so I don't feel so overwhelmed with life. He says, "Tell her I say hiii."

Look who can sit up all by herself now!

This was taken at Leila's GI doctor's office. I told him about Leila's disorder, showed him the growth charts, and told him that she had had a frenulotomy and therapy and she had been off of the NG tube for almost a month and that I was no longer even considering letting him put a gastric tube in. This was our last visit. We're switching to the Dr. Ng at Texas Children's. 

Caleb is 2 now and very good at it. :) (Tell your companion it's a smiley face with no nose) He was being very tantrum-y but I think it was mostly due to tiredness. I've now adjusted his nap and sleep schedule and things are much better! He loves trains and can name all of the Thomas the Tank trains by name, there are close to 30 of them. He is speaking better and better too. He's a cutie and a handful.

Caleb was shocked and surprised to find train tracks under his bed! (it's the bunk bed ladder)

We had our church Halloween party on Friday night. A chili cook off and costume parade for the kids.

Caleb: Batman, Allen: Robin, Me: Catwoman, Leila: my cat

They rarely stay still so it's hard to get a good picture, but Caleb was Batman and his best bud Luke was Bane. 

Such a loving brother!

Our neighborhood had a Fall Festival party with food, a bounce house, trick-or-treat trail and costume contest. We didn't know about it, we had just gone to play at the park so Caleb didn't have a costume on. 

This is how he folds his arms for prayers.

They really love each other!

Wearing her Halloween costume tights to church just because they're so cute, even if they don't match her dress!

We just had Stake Conference and Allen stayed home with the kids so I could go to the adult session on Saturday night. It was focused on "Hastening the Work of Salvation" and the mission president and his wife gave talks that really inspired me. Sunday night we had one of our neighbors over, Chuck. We've had him over before. We fed him chuck roast :) and I talked a little bit about my mission. He's known lots of Mormons but isn't really interested in religion. I invited him to our ward Halloween party too but he declined, not surprising.

I try to bring the church up in casual conversation with a lot of people to allow them the opportunity to ask more questions without me being too in their face and to make it easier to invite people to FHE with us or to church and activities. I was slacking off on that but now am determined to do better.

Today I invited our neighbor Tracie to come to the Primary Program in a couple of weeks. She said she'll come and asked if I know any single men... she's divorced and on the prowl. :) I want to try to invite more people to the program because it's an easy thing to invite them to, especially since I'm the one who wrote it and I know it will be a great experience for anyone who attends. Perfect for investigators! I told the missionaries that too, and we're going to make some fliers for it for the Primary kids/families in the ward and the missionaries to pass out.

Temple Trip

Oct 14-20, 2013

She's getting better at supporting herself sitting up. At OT, we spend the first half hour practicing sitting and other gross motor skills and then the last half hour working on feeding.

She is starting to really like chewing on spoons and doesn't mind trying to eat food.

She always wants to chew on our clickers. 

Waiting at the opthalmologist's office

My aunt Jill sent us a package this week that had a few things for the kids (including some kids' song CDs that Caleb loves!), a book on CD for me, a book and a thoughtful note to let me know that she was thinking of us and praying for us, which was what I appreciated the most.

Also, around this time, my friends also left me a nice package with some favorite candy, some dairy-free/soy-free recipes and a list of times they were available to watch my kids. I was also visited by someone who lives in the area, whose mom is friends with my mom. She brought by some rolls and gave me a hug and said, "I'm here just to let you know how much you are loved." She stayed and chatted for a little while and then went back to her day.

All of these thoughtful gestures meant more to me than the people involved will know and through their actions, they let me know that my Heavenly Father loves me and is aware of me and my family.

My Aunt Jill sent us the cutest bows! I managed to clip one for a minute or two to what little hair Leila does have. They'll still be cute once she finally gets hair too!

Hiding under the train table.

We had a Primary temple trip this week so our whole family went and ran into a friend from my freshman year at BYU, who lives in College Station. It was fun to see her family and she took some pictures for us!

Touching the temple

It looks like Caleb is praying by the fountain of the temple; in reality, he's just doing his excited hands watching the fountain. 

This was another present from the package from Aunt Jill.

Practicing with a sippy cup. She mostly just gets herself wet.

Leila also had her ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) evaluation this week. Based on her diagnosis of 22q, she automatically qualifies for help but it was good to see where she was at with her skills. At 7 months old, she tested at 7 months in Cognition, 5 months Communication, 8 months Social Emotional (thanks to being close to Caleb in age!), 6 months Self-Help/Adaptive, 7 months Gross Motor, 6 months Fine Motor.

Leila really isn't far behind in any area and with continued OT/PT, she'll continue to catch up. We also started having a developmental specialist come once a month to help with communication. I think the biggest help for her is that she and Caleb are so close in age. I never thought I would want kids 17 months apart, but I was surprised how quickly I was ready to start trying for baby number two and then even more surprised at how quickly I got pregnant! God knows best and Leila is giving her best chance at success by having a brother to follow after and play with.