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| Hank 1st day of Preschool |
The school year has officially begun and boy how life changes quickly! Hard to believe both kids are in school now and they are really enjoying it. Josie started August 12th and is pretty much in full swing now. She has 8 students in her class and there are two teachers plus two aides. They have divided the group this year into smaller groups of four and she seems to really be enjoying it. Her teachers have said she is signing so much more and it is good to hear that she has continued to make progress over the summer months. Chad is still able to take her to school each morning and she really enjoys having some time with him by herself. I know Chad definitely enjoys it too.
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| Josie and Hank on Josie's 1st Day of School |
Josie has begun the year going all day and is doing very well at school, but a little cranky in the evenings. They have rest time at school each day, but she isn't sleeping there so we are still on the fence on if she is going to handle going all day everyday of the week. The teachers are very good at working with us if needs to back off a couple of days a week, so we will see. Medically Josie has been doing okay. She had two bouts of strep throat, one before school and one after school started. This is the first time she has had strep and we are hoping we've got it beat. The fear is that with her already swollen and enflamed tonsils that we won't be able to get rid of it with antibiotics. I can definitely say she is one tough cookie. I got strep too and I don't think I've felt that bad since I had it way back in high school. It knocked me down much longer than her:) We met Josie's new pulmonologist and discussed the need for a sleep study. I was really impressed with her and she agreed with us that it's not worth putting Josie through the anxiety of a sleep study right now since she is actually sleeping on her own. We did a short three night study at home with an oxygen monitor and I haven't heard yet from the doctor how the results looked. Sweet Hank let us put the oxygen monitor on his toe to show Josie that it wouldn't hurt to sleep with it on. It didn't really calm her anxiety but was so sweet of him to try to help. She didn't set the monitor off at all so we were hopeful that she is getting good oxygen all night. It was his idea because he saw Josie getting upset as Chad and I were setting up the equipment. Our pediatrician is very worried about Josie doing well through a tonsil surgery so we are hoping that she kicks strep for good and that the oxygen study looks okay. We finally had a doctor's appointment that resulted in no followup! WooHoo! Josie has an eye we patched in the past that seemed to be moving out of alignment a little. Chad took her to the eye doctor this week and he thought it was nothing to worry about or followup on. We can officially check that off of our list.
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| Mom and Josie! |
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| The boys! |
Hank is doing very well at school! Yes, he is going by Hank at school:) He is going to our local school district's preschool that is four mornings a week. They have been doing some testing on his speech skills the last couple of weeks and he barely qualified to stay in the program. I think Josie's love of playing school has helped him gain some skills. He has eight in his class, as well, with one teacher and two aides. He is talking at home about talking more. I can tell that he is starting to wonder why we sign now that he is around kiddos that talk all morning. The other day Josie was signing to him asking him to play a game and he said "Josie talk to me". It hurts my heart to hear him say these things, but it is so typical for him to wonder why his sister doesn't talk. I wasn't quite prepared to have the conversation with him but did the best I could. He has told me several times since when I'm signing to talk. I'm sure it is going to take him some time to figure it all out. He does likes playing with his "buddies" at school as he likes to tell me and the teachers send notes home every day telling us who he played with. It helps to have a conversation with him about his morning. Everyday when I pick him up he tells me he misses mama, but he's a big boy and doesn't cry:( Sweet thing. It's hard to see him already growing up and realizing there are some things he is just going to have to do even if he doesn't really want to. Hank had to make an All About Me poster for the first week of school and here is what he made:) It is definitely all boy:)
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| Hank's All About Me Tent |
We are headed down south for Labor Day weekend and are going to have a couple of birthday parties for him at the grandparents houses. He is adamant about having a Spiderman cake and pizza. He is super excited for his birthday! We have a small children's farm near our house that has horses for kids to ride. He has wanted to ride them forever but he has to be three years old to ride them. Every time I ask him how old he is going to be he says "3! ride the horses!". He has definitely remembered that, we will see if he really is going to get on one the next time we go:)
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| Happy girl on her way home from school! |
I seem to have been busy every morning that Hank's been in school which is good. That two and half hours flies by. I'm still doing some work for Josie's school on their website. Also, I've been meeting regularly with our churches youth pastor to assist him more on Sunday mornings with children with special needs and he is really excited about starting a support group for families with special needs. We are still waiting on final confirmation to start, but it looks like we are going to get it off the ground for the winter. Chad and I are both super excited about it! Chad has been so supportive of the idea and it's nice to have a husband who doesn't mind me adding work to my plate that doesn't equate to getting paid:)
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| Spiderman! |
I hope everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day weekend! I know we are going to enjoy seeing family and celebrating Hank's birthday a little early!
