Bee: Carrier of Wisdom, delicate physique

 Evey loved having Joshua home this afternoon! I did too! When he came in the door,  she was so happy to see him and she wanted him and only him to hold her. She cried until he was able to hold her and when he tried to put her down to go do something else, she got mad and he had to turn around to pick her back up.  Evey had a good day and she has been working on pushing more with her hands while in the crawling position. She makes the slightest inchworm move to get to things she wants. I am hopeful that by Valentine's Day she will be taking larger inchworm crawls to get where she wants to go! She has really gotten into pretend play with the kids and we are all loving it! Since Joshua was home, I was able to take a break from cleaning up the kitchen after supper and getting the kids ready for bed. Just having a small break like that helps me recharge. I don't know how single working moms do it every day- they are super strong to go day in and day out without breaking apart...

  Evey has found her voice! From the time Joshua took her to school to going to bed Evey talked and talked. She would repeat what Joshua would say and then babble and sing while playing with her siblings.  It was another long day with Joshua staying to work the basketball games. I cooked pork chops this morning before I left for school and we ate those and some roasted veggies. Evey has this thing where she will throw the first piece of food on the floor and then she will begin eating. I am not sure why she does this but it is EVERY SINGLE time we eat. She might just be trying to figure out which piece is the best piece to eat first. Who knows?  We know to expect it now, so it doesn't bother us. She understands a lot of directives so I am going to work on her keeping the food on her mat or direct her to put it in her mouth.  We had another fun night of playing and singing. Evey got super cuddly tonight and wanted to sing and be entertained.  It can be a little l...

 Evey likes to sing! I had all 4 kids tonight while Joshua worked the basketball game. I wanted to keep it chill so Laney helped me make tater tots and we had hot dogs and tots for dinner. Many times after dinner I keep Evey in her chair so that she doesn't spit up. While she is in her chair we entertain her with songs. Apparently she has picked up Head, Shoulders, Knees and toes because she started singing it with us.  Dancing has always been a favorite in our house and Evey loves it too! It was a great way to shake our sillies out before bed and reframe our minds so that we could go to sleep happy and not worried. Ty has been worried a lot about school. He has had rough days and I think he just needed mommy time tonight. There were lots of laughs and lots of movements to get his mind reset. Hopefully he will have a better day tomorrow.  We have all of Evey's therapies set except OT- They are both in home, but we are waiting to see if her casemanger's favorite one is ava...

  Wooo! What a day! Between it being a Monday and  trying to get the kids back in the swing of a full week has been exhausting. I think the only person who had a relaxing day was Evey. She played and did some PT and OT exercises with the nurse and then took a 3 hour long nap. She was in a really good mood when I got home and I was super happy. She smiled and smiled and ate so good at supper. I gave her a bath and she loved every bit of it including getting her hair blow dried. She is growing up too fast!  While she was busy relaxing, I was busy getting all the information on the new therapies and the CAP-C appeals process. It sounds super intimidating, but all it is, is a mediation. I've been in one mediation before so I know what to expect, but this will be different. It's me talking instead of listening. I am going to pray that I say the right words and that they hear me. This is a service that will help Evey now and in the future. It will allow us to have respite so th...

 When I was in college, my sorority would meet every Sunday and we would have a moment at the end of our meeting where we shared our violets( good things) and our weeds(things where we needed sisterly support). It brought us together as a group of ladies and it helped us celebrate each other and support each other in times of need. I would love to share our violets and weeds we had over the weekend. Violets: 1. Evey got to hang out with Laney's friends at The English Rose Bakeshop and enjoy the children's area. Lots of people commented how content she was sitting and playing.  2. Evey held her water cup and brought it to her mouth and drank out of it. When I saw it I let out a WHOO HOO and it startled her and she dropped the cup. I couldn't get a quick enough picture of her holding it.  She has this game where she likes to push toys or items under the couch and I saw her trying to push her water cup under the couch so I said, "Evey, no putting water cup under couch....

 Today is Laney's 12th birthday! That means Joshua and I are getting old! We had fun from sunrise to sunset. Laney wanted to get her lunch group treats so Joshua took her to Dunkin to get donuts. Evey slept in and woke up super talkative and happy! Ty kept saying, "It's your REAL birthday!"  Ty had an hour delay sot he got to help me drop Evey off at school. Evey did not have a good day at school and cried most of the time. There were two new teachers in there and she didn't bond with them like she does with her regular assistant teacher.  I was supposed to talk with the therapists after I picked her up, but after I did some research I learned about a loophole in her IFSP.  Usually when you have an IFSP the therapist is listed and the time and frequency of the service is listed. However, when a child goes to the school where Evey goes, the services are put under other services. When this happens, the time and frequency are thrown out the window, meaning that they ...

 We had fun today! School was closed because of the dusting of snow that made the roads hazardous to drive on. All 4 kids were at home. IT was like a random Saturday in the middle of the week! The kids built a fort and all four of them played it in for a long time. While they were playing, I called Social Services again and after waiting 45 minutes I got through. They let me know they are going to start her recertification process in March so hopefully we will know if she got recertified by April! Evey has communicating so well lately. When she starts to whine, we simply ask her by signing "eat" and she will sign it back if she is hungry and wants to eat. We are working on the sign for water. She puts her flat hand to her mouth so we use that for now as her communicating she wants water. She ate really well today.  Joshua ended up going to get us free dinner at the church down the street and it was amazing! They made grilled chicken and had green beans and sweet potatoes. Eve...

 Getting what Evey needs should be easy. Why is it hard then? Why do I have to call Social Services each year to say, "Yes, she still has tri21" so that she can get medicaid? But when I call, I'm on hold for 30 minutes at a time. I called two separate times today and was on hold for 30 minutes. The first time, I called on one of my planning breaks and had to end the call because I had to get my kinders to teach them. The other time I called, I was on hold for 30 minutes but had to end the call because Ty needed something. Maybe I will have better luck tomorrow.  Evey was also denied CAP-C so now I have to go through the appeal process. Why would they appeal a child with tri21 with a gtube? All the paperwork is there! It's not like one day she won't have tri21!  It's so frustrating! I am in the process of trying to get her school to increase her Occupational therapy time so that she can progress with her fine motor skills. While crawling will help A LOT of thos...

  Evey slept until 6:30am!  She was tired from all the traveling. It was cute how she woke up. She sat up her in crib and just played with the bee stuffies she has in there. She waited patiently until she heard her brothers wake up. Once she heard them she started babbling louder.  We had a pretty chill day today. We did our weekend laundry and prepped for the week. Laney continued getting her room ready and since Evey was over her cold, I cleaned up her room and changed her sheets. The boys straightened up the playroom and played for a while.  Since I was in the cleaning mood, I cleaned Evey's highchair and switched it for a booster. We are trying it this week to see how she does sitting in it at the table. I think sitting at the table will get her ready to start using utensils and grabbing her cup more. She did grab her cup today and tried to bring it to her mouth but her hand strength is just not there yet.  She and Ty took a bath together tonight and Evey ha...

 We packed in a lot of excitement in two days. On Saturday we headed out early to get to Denver, NC where my parents live. We met up with my sister and her family and my brother and his family along with my parents to eat lunch for Laney's birthday (1/23). Evey did great riding in the car. She took a little cat nap so that she could keep up with all the festivities. She was super hungry when we got to the restaurant and so I gave her a nutrigrain bar while the rest of us ate chips and salsa. She ate it up in a heartbeat. Once our food came out I gave her some chicken and zucchini and rice. She LOVED it. Thankfully we have been to restaurants with her before so the noisy atmosphere doesn't bother her as much anymore. She does act like a typical toddler when it comes to not wanting to stay in the high chair for a long period of time. I ended up getting her out to be held by her PatPat. Laney didn't want to be sung to but it was too late to tell them and they brought out the s...