1st day of Preschool Fall 2008

Tuesday the 26th marked the 1st day of a new adventure for Gabrielle. She entered the Britain Center preschool program as a peer model in Ms. Shanan Lee's class.


Ms. Shanan is pointing to picture cards that detail the days activities. As you can see from the above photo Gabrielle is intent on learning what her day holds ahead! Week ones lesson theme was apples and Gabi participated in OT on Tuesday and PT on Thursday.

Dawson received his physical therapy with Debbie on Tuesday morning as well. He has come great strides over the past month. We proceeded with Botox injections into the upper posterior shoulder/neck area, posterior low back & foot-ankle regions on Friday August 22nd. Some of you may ask why did he get botox or of what benefit will it be to him. In short botulism toxins block the neurotransmitter between the end of the nerve terminal and the muscle cells. The blocking of the nerve ending is permanent. By blocking the nerve ending, the muscle can relax. The body responds by growing a new nerve terminal. The only "side effect" thus far is that his once love for swinging has completely dissipated. I inquired with Debbie why this may be and she suggested that it is possible that he has temporarily lost control of his neck muscles and the swinging motion may make him feel unsettled or unstable.

Dawson will meet with Debbie for PT for the next six consecutive weeks to help stretch & challenge his muscle groups. I love this picture of Dawson with Ms. Debbie. I know I sound like a broken record but we have grown to love & admire Debbie dearly. We treasure that 30+ minutes we spend with her and know that she genuinely cares about our sweet little guy. She has gone way above and beyond to show us this.

Just for Fun

The latest in fashion accessories ... cheerio nipple rings
These pictures were not staged I promise

Cost of the "new look" priceless

The nice bruise on the forehead comes courtesy of being a boy :0)

Reward earned - Reward Received

She made it!!! Gabrielle that is. She napped 5 consecutive days and earned a trip to the mall. So

Friday night after supper my parents, the kids and I loaded up and headed to Oak Park. We entered in the Dillard's entrance which led to me parooshing (spelling?) the sales racks in need of a dress to wear to an upcoming wedding. I scored!!! I purchased three dresses, all of which I am happy with. Gabrielle was very patient (well for the most part) waiting for Mommy to finish trying on clothes.

After I paid for my purchases we headed to the carousel.

Gabrielle wanted her Papa to ride with her ...

then decided a 2nd ride was in order so Mema could enjoy a turn!! Mema {being the softy she is} treated her to a 2nd go around. As we were leaving the mall Gabrielle picked out a purple flower balloon that a young man was making to raise money for missions. We left the mall and stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream treat.

Lesson learned - with a little encouragement and a lot of praise I accomplished what I set out to achieve. Daily rest time for us all! Mommy included!

5 Days and Counting

OK peeps! What is up? Please leave a comment and let me know SOMEONE out there is checking in on my little fam'. So what has been going on since my last post? A little of this and a little of that. Monday we had Bree with us all day so we spent the morning outdoors playing with sidewalk chalk and having fun on the swingset. Tuesday we were invited over to a previous KCCC patients home. We were made to feel very welcome and comfortable. Martha has 3 kids ages 6 and under so the children played very well together. They enjoyed dressing up and playing in the beautiful "castle" (blanket fort). Our time there was so refreshing! Martha is a wonderful friend and inspiring young mother. Wednesday morning we had such a great time with Allyson and her adorable little ones. Chase and Gabrielle worked off a lot of energy together riding their bikes and playing outdoors. Today we met up with Rene, Tatum and Evan for lunch and then headed off to the church for the girls to ride bike. I am blessed to have friends who are giving of their time and whose children mesh so well with mine. It makes the time as a SAHM not so mundane. On to other news ... we are on day 4 of a 5 day reward system with Gabrielle returning to a scheduled nap time. Did you just read that??? She has napped for 4 straight days - whoohoo!! If she succeeds in napping tomorrow it is off to the mall to ride the new carousel. This is the reward of her choosing.


This is the look of two kiddos whose love tanks are full after a week of fun!!
Supper is in the oven smelling oh so delicious. Mmmmmm is it time to eat yet?
It is off to play monthly Bunco in the neighborhood for me tonight. Later!

The Count Down Begins

It was late Sunday afternoon and out of nowhere Gabrielle made a bold statement that her preschool started in ten days. Our neighbor Michelle was over visiting with her two kids and I just looked at her and began counting on my fingers. Low and behold (totally coincidental) she was right on the money. Gabrielle was asked to participate as a peer model at the Britain Infant Development Center beginning next week. She will attend the morning session two days a week. She is beside herself with excitement. She loves both the social and academic aspect of attending "school". She misses her daily circle, center, craft, etc time at Ms. Kim's, but not nearly as much as she misses her friends so this will be a great opportunity for her to expand her social circle. I am excited about the therapy services offered as part of the program. The Britain Center incorporates occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy & music therapy into their preschool program. I have been reintroducing sign language to Gabrielle for several reasons: Dawson is at the appropriate age to learn signing and Gabi will see a lot of signing at school. It is amazing how giving basic "commands" such as wait, sit, stop, more please, sorry, etc. by sign is more effective than the voice command itself.
We have been filling our free time doing a LOT of this ...




We came upon a great deal on a preowned playset and thanks to an awesome Daddy and the help of some very gracious hands from the church we were able to put the playset into use in a short period of time several weeks ago. Travis rebuild the glider and rehung it this evening. We didn't think we would get Gabrielle to come in this evening. She was enamored by it! It was so sweet to watch the sheer joy in her eyes.
I was just told by that same awesome Daddy that noone is going to take the time to read "this crap" so I will take that as a hint and sign off for now. Ta ta!

Cards

I have sat down twice recently to make cards -

once as a request from my mom and most recently just because.

I was pleased with how this batch turned out.
Thanks to Emily for her previous Terrific Tuesday mailings for the inspo!

Chicken Enchiladas

My Mom purchased a Recipes for Life cookbook for me for Christmas (offered by the Kansas City Cancer Center as a fund raiser). I have enjoyed the ease of the recipes and all have turned out to our liking.

Ingredients:
flour tortillas (any size)
1 pkg taco seasoning
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans diced Ro-Tel
16 oz sour cream
4-6 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

In large saucepan combine: 1 can soup, 1 can Ro-Tel, 1/2 sour cream, 3/4 pkg taco seasoning, 1/2 cheese and all chicken. Mix well and spoon onto flour tortillas and roll. Place in baking dish. Continue filling until out.
Then in same saucepan combine: 1 can soup, 1 can Ro-Tel, 1/4 pkg taco seasoning, 1/4 cheese and 1/2 sour cream. Mix well. Pour over enchilladas to cover. Top with remaining cheese. Bake 2-25 minutes at 325 degrees.

Hope it makes you smile

As I mentioned in my vacation part 1 post both my nieces had their IPods with them in Branson so I asked to listen to some of their playlists and can I say this has got to be one of the funniest songs I have heard in quite some time?
Scroll down on my playlist and listen to Sadie Hawkins Dance by Relient K.
If you don't smile or laugh something is wrong with you!!!

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Vacation Part 2

This is a brief detail of what our vacation entailed
Thursday - arrival in Branson
Friday - lots of visiting and relaxation along with swimming at the beach in the late afternoon
Saturday - we spent the day on the lake on a pontoon enjoying the sun, the water & the breeze off the boat
Sunday - we attended the Bart Rockett show (musician, ventriloquist, magician & illusionist), followed by dinner at Cracker Barrel then fun at The Track. This was Gabrielle's 1st time on a go cart. She rode as a sidekick with her Daddy and loved it.
Monday - Celebration City!! We learned that Gabrielle is a fearless creature. She rode rides that even her Momma won't get on. We stayed from open to close. The evening ended with a patriotic light & fireworks show. It was a great ending to a perfect day of fun!
Tuesday - the girls headed to the outlet malls to do what women do best ... shop while Travis went golfing and the remainder of the clan along with Gabrielle toured the fish hatchery. We attended the Chase Curtis show (magician & entertainer) that evening. Once again Gabrielle surprised us with her bravery. Chase asked for a volunteer to help him with a magic trick. I pointed to Gabrielle (as did every other parent with a young child in the audience) and he asked her up on stage. She pranced up there and promptly pulled out the shy card. She answered his questions - What is your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Do you like bunnies? If you had a bunny, what would you name it? Anyhow, together they turned a soft fluffy little bunny into a small chocolate bunny and then back into a live fluffy bunny once again. Gabi's only disappointment is we didn't allow her to keep the real bunny after the show was over. I explained that they are pooping machines and she didn't want to have to clean up after them. That seemed to suffice her for the time being. The other disappointment was she wasn't allowed to eat the chocolate bunny due to her peanut allergy. It is sitting pretty in our refrigerator where she can look at it. Wouldn't you know none of us had our cameras along with us to take pictures!!! Lesson learned - don't go anywhere without your camera!
Wednesday - departure & arrival home
Here are just a few more pictures I took:

Ms. Magoo {Paige} and Ms. Thang {Gabs}

Gabrielle and Logan

Dr. Derek A. DuBay and little Connor

Dawson loved this texturized ball of the boys!
OK, I won't bore you anymore with details of our vacation. I wanted to document for our keeping before I forget myself.