Griffin is 1 Year Old

Happy Birthday my Chubba-Wubba! I love you bunches and bunches!

Speech and Feeding Therapy, Here We Come...Again

Griffin had a speech and feeding evaluation yesterday morning. He was so sweet and he interacted with the therapist, students (college students doing clinicals), and even the ladies at the front desk. He has no lack of expression, except for the fact that his expressive language skills are at the level of a 6-month-old. But I'm certain it's because he can be so expressive with his eyes and smile that he has no need for language! Unfortunately that type of expressiveness won't help us avoid speech therapy. The therapist is recommending weekly speech therapy and feeding therapy. His feeding skills were even worse than his speech skills. I sort of knew that but sometimes you just need a professional to tell you what you already knew to be true in your heart. The therapist who evaluated Griffin will be trying to find a therapist who does home visits since that's ideal for working with infants. Honestly, that'll be the best for all of us otherwise I'll have to find a babysitter for the other two every week. Meantime I have some activities to do at home to help Griffin work through some of his feeding issues. His biggest feeding issue is gagging/vomitting while eating. And since he was not interested in eating yesterday at the appointment, the therapist could not watch the mechanics of how his mouth and swallowing worked. But we may also be referred for a swallowing test once he is consistently eating and swallowing something.

Almost School Time!

It's so hard to believe that I'm already planning for Lily's school this coming fall. First of all, I can hardly believe she is school-aged. Secondly, it seems a tad early to be thinking about schoolbooks, uniforms, curriculum, and scheduling all before the school year has even ended for the summer. But, alas! Here I am thinking through all the details of Lily's kindergarten year which starts in about 3 months. I've had numerous steps to accomplish before making a decision about Lily's education. I've completed a few of the preliminary items but I still lack a few more steps before we are all set.

The steps include...

1. Prayer and researching all the options (public, private, or homeschool)

2. Praying through and writing down our family's educational goals, which revealed to BJ and me that homeschooling was the right path for us.

3. Praying through the different homeschool options, which include independent homeschooler, homeschooler registered with a church-related school, homeschooler where your home is considered a satellite location of a church-related school (thru the Jeter Memorandum), or private schooling through distance learning with a Category III school.

4. After choosing our homeschool option, which is the "satellite location" option with River's Edge Christian Academy, we needed to complete the application and submit it to them.

5. Next we'll have a family interview with River's Edge on May 6 and then await the approval process.

6. If approved, we'll purchase our curriculum and begin learning our co-teaching roles with River's Edge.

As a huge praise, the Lord did an awesome thing to help our decision. He clearly revealed to us that River's Edge is the right place for Lily and our family. First, the principal of the school is a close friend to my mom and dad. He is a great man who loves Jesus, loves to serve families in the community, and has a high regard for academic excellence from a Biblical worldview. And secondly, they are starting a new campus - just this year! - at a Baptist church that is literally 3 miles from our house. The Lord could not have made the decision any more easy for us. Praise you, Jesus!

We are so excited to begin this new adventure and to watch Lily learn and grow and blossom into the young woman God has created her to be.

I'm tired

It's been a year since I've slept an entire 8 hours. I average 3-5 hours at a time. I'm still up a lot through the night with G-man. He has been a miserable sleeper since he was around 6 mos. I can't figure out if it's his teething, eczema, temperament, or a combo of all. I'm getting tired and unmotivated. I don't like myself much when I'm unmotivated. I know I'll catch my second wind soon, but for now I'm tired.

April Photos

My Mom (aka Grandmama) is a great photographer. She has her camera on hand and ready at a moment's notice. Sometimes she pops out of nowhere with a camera and starts snapping away...sort of like the paparazzi. Here are some of my faves she took a couple of weeks ago in her backyard (I actually snapped the next to the last one when she was holding Griffin in her lap and getting such cute laughs from him).

Builder Man

Schaeffer just keeps cracking me up these days with the things he says. For the past week our neighbors have had contractors working in their backyard adding a covered porch to their home. Today while we were all playing in our backyard, Schaeffer said, "I wanna be a builder man when I get big." I said, "Do you want to be a builder man so you can build houses for people?" He replied, "Yes, I wanna build houses...and Batman toys."

I Be Daddy

Yesterday Schaeffer was enjoying driving his John Deere gator around the backyard. He would come into the kitchen where I was working and act like he was going bye-bye with keys in hand. As he headed out the door he would say, "I'll be back later. Love you!" And out the door he would head to take the gator for a few laps. Then he came in and said, "Kiss me. I be Daddy." Talking about melting my heart!