Therapy Update

Therapy has been going so fabulous, I thought I would share some of our exciting achievements:

• I mentioned that I was thinking of sending Justin into the therapy room without me. I was planning to start with PT, since Justin has known Miss Penny for the longest. But my timetable was changed when I couldn't leave Travis with my friend for Speech last Monday. I decided to try and see how long he would last, and then if Justin needed us, Travis and I would go in with him. Well, Justin did GREAT! He lasted the whole time and we didn't hear any cries from him. Travis and I were armed with a stack of books, and Travis did great too. He likes playing with all of the toys that are used for therapy and I wasn't sure I could convince him to read instead of play. Wednesday and OT went great and I started reading a longer book so I wouldn't have to carry a huge book bag in addition to my purse and a diaper bag. (Travis always picks thick, hardcover books to take with him, do yours do the same??) And Thursday and PT- another winner! A full week with no problems. I guess Justin feel at home at therapy, just like Travis and I do.
• Travis loves therapy too. When he has news to share, or a new song, or a drawing, he wants to share it with Justin's therapists and Miss Melissa too. He just goes back into the offices like he belongs there. They don't mind!
• Justin is doing great with finger isolation. He can "honk" our noses (although not his own?) and his fingers are curling back to help use the pointer like they should. He has pushed some buttons on a firetruck at therapy without any help.
• Justin is also working at putting some chunky beads on a wooden dowel rod (maybe about a quarter inch diameter). The beads are about as big as the circle made with a thumb and index finger. Miss Caroline holds his upper arm (between his shoulder and elbow) to give him support, and then he can get it on himself! Just holding his arm gives him the extra "input" he needs to complete the task. So we are working on shoulder strength. Crawling is helping that tremendously.
• And today at therapy Justin stood next to a trunk holding on with just one hand! He has been getting better by the bathtub, either on the inside or out. Sometimes we will just go in there to play because he likes throwing things "in" whatever we can find. And then he likes to see where they go, which causes him to try to pull himself up. It works so well!
• His crawling is getting so good. We have had a few of those, "Where is Justin?" moments, which are actually exciting! He crawls through a tunnel for therapy, and at first I was at one side and Miss Penny at the other, and we had to coax him through. Now he did it three times all by himself today!

Travis Update

I realized that I haven't shared tidbits about what Travis is doing these days so here it is:

1. We are ALL about firefighting, firemen, fires, emergencies, and the like. Travis is always pretending that we are firemen going on an emergency whenever we leave the house. We must back our car into the garage like firemen to prepare for an emergency. I am getting much better at this. I think it would be easier if we had a drive-through garage like many fire stations. ;)
2. Travis asks to feed Justin every once and a while. I got some cute pictures. Justin doesn't seem to mind, as long as the food keeps coming!







3. Travis is getting better at swimming. He can swim just fine, it's the breathing that is his problem. This week we had a make-up lesson from Thanksgiving, and somehow having 2 lessons in a row helped him do much better the second lesson. He breathed a few times and only drank a little bit. He can do a great starfish, but he doesn't float very well- he wiggles too much!






4. Travis has advanced to "spitting" toothpaste. Very exciting, I know! It was really just because I ran out of the "swallow" kind and I had a part of a tube of "Cars" toothpaste Travis had wanted earlier and then didn't like. He still doesn't, but he wanted spitting toothpaste, so we went to the store and picked out some watermelon-flavored toothpaste. That is going better, but he likes spitting more than brushing. And I have been cleaning the mirror a bit more often. Go figure.
5. We made a chain to count down to Christmas. The last chain is red, and the one before that is green. So Travis decided that the green chain will be Christmas, and red one (the last one) will be his birthday. I am not sure what to tell him when he realizes that there are about 35 days between Christmas and his birthday.
6. He is for sure ready for his birthday though! Maybe more than Christmas. He has been inviting everyone to his "big, big BIG firetruck birthday party!" Even my work friend who we ran into at the dentist. I hope he doesn't notice when she is not there...

Fall

I know it seems odd to have a post entitled "Fall" after pictures with Santa, trimming the tree, and snow, but I wanted some pictures and I didn't have my camera with me until I took it for snow pictures and then I got some pictures.

I am from Wisconsin, and I think just about everyone loves fall for the amazing colors it brings out. There is just something about fall that I have always missed since I moved away from the Midwest. This year Travis has anticipated the fall and the leaves changing colors and so I have been on the lookout for colorful leaves all season. I don't know if I have just missed it all the years I have lived here or if this year is just that much more vibrant, but this year has had the best colors! I think I have appreciated it more because it requires effort to find the color. It isn't widespread in most places, but the splashes of color that I've seen are brilliant! I think they might even be deeper and truer than I have seen in a long time. (And we went leaf-peeping in Maine when I was pregnant with Justin!) It's not the whole tree, but just portions. Just a branch or maybe just the ends of the limbs. I just cannot help but smile when I see something like this:




I know I am not a photographer, but you can see that the tips of the trees are painted with the brightest color red. It's like God is using the tree as a paintbrush and he dipped it in crimson. The inside is green, but the tips are flaming red!

Or what about this:



This is one of my favorite summer plants, a crepe myrtle. And I hope you can see at the base of each branch is golden yellow and as you move out the color morphs into burnt orange (sorry, Randy) and then it transforms into a scarlet color before you reach the tips, that are green! I have been watching and admiring this gorgeous tree for the past month and now with the freeze all the leaves have fallen off. So I am so glad I was able to capture a glimpse of its splendor.

I spend a lot of time driving around, and it has been fun searching for these bits of color. It's been a reason to slow down and enjoy the scenery. The familiar routes are a treat now as I watch to see how the colors have been creeping and shifting. The leaves are definitely falling now, and we are into our version of "winter". But I won't forget this fall.

Global Warming, Schlobal Warming

It snowed in Houston today. For the second year in a row. And from what I understand, this is the earliest it has snowed in Houston. Ever. We haven't had any accumulation at our house, but we have heard, and seen pictures, of places further south than us that have a beautiful wet blanket of snow in their yard. Since there will be no sledding, no snow angels, and no snowball fights, we are left with catching snowflakes on our tongues and taking pictures, so that we did:

And then for some reason, Travis had to check and see if it was snowing in his flower bed (where he digs and plays). Surprisingly enough, it was! So he had to play for a little bit and dig his hole a bit bigger. Too fun!

Catching Up - The Wedding

I know it took me forever to get these, but I can explain: The photographer was a friend of Jerry's who they flew down from Seattle. So he just gave them a disk with all the pictures on it, which was then passed on to me. All 673 pictures! Not even kidding! How can I pick just a few?! This is obviously just a sample. If there is something else anyone wants to see, I can see what I can find. It just may take a while...

This was the rehearsal dinner and I just LOVE this picture because it makes Travis' eyes look so very blue. Can you believe he was eating cake??? I know, shock!

Justin all dressed up for the wedding. He looked so handsome and grown up! And yet, still my baby.

This is Jerry with his brother, Jeff, on the left, and my brother, Jon, on the right. You should see some of the others....

Like this one! That would be Jerry checking his "hair" with Jon as his reflection. I can't help but laugh!

My pretty sister at the church. She looked so lovely!

Jerry with the boys. This was the best one. At least I don't feel so bad in my attempts at pictures when a pro couldn't do much better. Jerry looks great though!

Our whole family: my mom, brother, the newlyweds, and us!

The wedding was very small, so this was everyone who was there. The woman in the dark dress with the white shirt over it to the left of Mireille and Jerry is their friend who introduced them. I am so glad she came!

Another corny one!

And then on to the reception. This is Justin and the cake!


Here is where Travis first started to "fly" with Jerry. Before he started "flying with style". You can see how high he gets!

And one of the sweet couple in front of the Water Wall here in Houston.

Trimming the Tree

We put up our Christmas tree this past weekend. Travis was so excited to help! I told him that we wanted to keep the fragile ornaments (he called them jewelry!) up from the bottom so Justin couldn't reach them. He took it to heart and stood on the hearth and put all the ornaments he hung in the same 1 foot by 2 foot section! It was so funny! I told him we needed to spread them out and he said, "But then Justin will get them!" So we jut let him go and we adjusted things a bit later.

Justin liked the jingle bell snowman, and when Travis decided it was time to hang it up Justin reached for it and grabbed it back!

These are all our family ornaments. Randy and I have had the snowmen for awhile, and my Dad got the boys angels last year. The teddy bear cross stitch I made the first Christmas Randy and I were dating (1996) and it says our names and the year. The font on the year is a little different and my roommate at the time thought it looked like it said "Iggy" and the first time she saw it she said," Who is Iggy?" So now we call it our "Iggy ornament"!

This is Travis' masterpiece: The small area that he deemed safe for all the fragile ornaments.

And I did not get a picture of the finished work! (The one we took turned out blurry.) I just have one little complaint: I got 4 mosquito bites when I was putting up the outside lights. It was the end of November for goodness sake!

Picture with Santa

Today was the day for our visit with Santa. I wanted to go to the mall before it got too crazy, and it worked! We got right in and Travis told Santa that he wanted trucks and helicopters for Christmas. He was a bit disappointed when Santa didn't bring it right out for him. Justin wasn't even too bothered being passed off to a stranger. It must be the suit.