Happy 4 th birthday Noah!

Noah,
I am a month late in writing this letter, but what else is new?  Life moves so fast that there is little time to sit down and write.  This year has been a year of many new experiences and new challenges.  This year has been dominated with the realization that you have sensory processing disorder.  It has also been dominated by my determination to not let it stop you from achieving or doing anything you want. We had a very good experience with your wonderful OT and now we are on the other side of the diagnosis.  We have learned a lot and made tremendous progress.  You truly amaze me daily.  If you are not cracking us up with the things you say, you are showing me how smart you are.  You are a sweet, loving boy who has made our life a new, wonderful adventure everyday.  You have had some hard times this year with a visit to the hospital and having to stay a few days.  But even in that experience you showed me your strength.  You are an amazing kid and I know you are going to grow into an amazing man.  You have taught me how strong I am this year too.  I thought after we got through that first year, everything would be a piece of cake.  But this year has been very difficult at times.  It broke my heart to realize that you had something going on that was going to change your entire life.  But you showed me that it doesn't have to change your life in a negative way.  Through education and patience, we have all learned how to help you with your SPD.  And you showed me once again that I am stronger than I thought and can handle more than I thought possible.  You took everything in the stride.  SPD only meant that you made a new friend in Schel.  It didn't slow you down at all and you still enjoyed everyday and everything to the fullest.  You have the most wonderful laugh.  It is the type of laugh that could brighten the darkest day, and this year it has.  I feel blessed everyday that God gave me such a wonderful blessing.  You are my little ray of sunshine.  I cannot wait to see what this next year has in store for us.  But I do know that it will be exciting, as everyday with you is!  I love you my sweet guy!
Mommy

SPD

I have never blogged about this before, but now almost a year since we found out, I am finally starting to make sense of things.  We noticed some issues with Noah right before he turned three.  He was terrified of noises, blinking lights, movement, etc.  We had him evaluated by ECI and they diagnosed him with Sensory Processing Disorder.  This means that he does not process information the same way as other people.  He gets overstimulated with some things and under stimulated with others.  Once we learned more about SPD a lot of things that Noah did finally fell into place.  It all came together and made sense.  We were too close to his 3rd birthday to have ECI provide us services, so we started seeing an OT.  She is wonderful and he has made so much progress working with her.  In fact, yesterday, she told me that he is meeting all of his goals and we are going to phase out therapy.  I am excited that he is doing well, but I am sad to see therapy end.  It was so refreshing to have someone who understood what was going on.  I have met a lot of neat moms and kids at his appointments.  It is so great to see kids with many different issues making such amazing progress.  We feel very blessed that we found this place and our OT Schel.  It has been wonderful seeing Noah's progress.  He still has issues with some things, but nothing like before.  We have finally been able to potty train him, a major accomplishment since he does not have the same feelings in his body, and therefore does not know when he needs to go.  He is able to swing on swings now, something that we could not get him to do before.  He is able to write better, use his whole body more effectively, and is generally a happier child.  It is also made a difference in the way Toby and I deal with his behavior.  We have learned that some things that we were punishing him for were actually manifestations of his SPD.  We have read a lot of books and learned a lot about better ways to deal with him.  This has truly been an eye opening experience.   When you have a baby, you never imagine anything will be wrong.  We were not prepared for this journey, but we are better equipped now.  We are lucky to have a sensational kid!

2010

Here in the final hours of 2010, I am reminded of all the great things this year has brought.  My daughter (ok technically she was 2009, but it was for less than 2 weeks and she really didn't do much! :) ), my son has really blossomed and we have been blessed to find a wonderful occupational therapist that is working wonders for him, Toby's eyes have finally remained stable for a whole year, we have a great family, wonderful friends, nice house and cars, and we finally found a church that we love.  It has been a great year and I cannot wait to see what 2011 brings.

2010 overview

Jan. Maddie is a month old and starting to smile!

Feb We had a huge snowstorm in North Texas.  We got 14 inches of snow.

March We had a great spring break and lots of fun with Daddy.  We also had our landscaping redone.

April Maddie's first Easter, and our first trip to Main Street Arts Festival.

May Noah's 3rd birthday party at the zoo.  My mom graduated from TWU, and we had the kids dedicated at church.

June Our summer was off to a great start with lots of fun activities with Daddy home.

July  We started using cloth diapers and went on our first real vacation in a while to the beach.

August We end our vacation.  Toby started teaching a new subject. 

Sept.  Maddie is crawling all over the place now.  Noah starts seeing Schel our wonderful OT.

Oct. Maddie's first Halloween.

Nov.  Noah spent a couple of days in the hospital.  Maddie's first Thanksgiving was very eventful with her taking her first steps.

Dec.  Maddie's 1st birthday and a wonderful Christmas!  Maddie is walking everywhere now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

My awful picture experience

Here is a review I wrote of the Portrait innovations in Colleyville.


Let me start by saying that I have gone to the same portrait innovations for 3 years and we have never had a problem, but today was awful.  We went for my daughter's first birthday and Christmas pictures of my two kids.  The photographer was awful.  She was not good with the kids and we only got a couple were they were even smiling.  Then she kept rushing us.  At one point she said they were done with Christmas shots and I had to tell her to take some of the kids by themselves.  Then we took my daughter's pictures with a smash cake for her birthday.  After we were done, I went to clean her up and came back to find she was having trouble loading the pics on the comp.  She finally got them loaded only to find that she had lost over half of the pictures of my daughter with the cake.  I was upset and her response was excuse after excuse.  She decided to give me 15 free birthday cards.  I left and was not happy, as I can never get that back.  We waited 15 mins longer than they told us and then came back for our pictures and found out it was going to be another 15 mins, b/c the photographer had messed up the color splash.  When I told them I was unhappy with what had happened that day, I got more and more excuses.  I asked to speak to a manager, who very rudely told me that we only lost 10 pictures and made it sound like ti was not a big deal.  Almost all the pictures of her and the cake were gone and the ones we got were awful.  I told the manager that I did not think 15 free cards really made up for what had happened.  After more rudeness and more excuses, she finally agreed to refund half of the money.  Then when we got home we found that some of the pictures had a big white stripe down the side and the cd would only load some of the pictures that were supposed to be there.  I will never go back to the Colleyville, Tx location, as it was the worst experience I have ever had.

Happy birthday sweet girl

Dear Maddie,

I cannot believe that you are one today.  It seems like only yesterday we were welcoming you into the world and our family.  I cannot imagine life without you.  You have completed our family in such a wonderful way.  I was so excited when I found out you were a girl (now I have a match set!!!).  Having a daughter is a whole different world.  It meant frills and pink and hairbows.  I have loved every minute of it!  You have added such a joy to our lives.  You have the sweetest laugh, and nothing is better than hearing you laugh in the backseat with your brother.  It can make any bad day good.  I love the way that you love to shop.  It always makes me laugh when I see your little hands dart out of the cart or stroller to grab a new pair of clothes or shoes.  I love waking up every morning to your happy smiling face and then to your exuberant banging of the headboard!  Nothing is better than watching you dance up and down to the beats that you are making on the wall.  I cannot wait to see what type of girl you will grow into.  I look at you and wonder if you will be a tomboy or a princess or a little of both.  I am so blessed to be your mommy.  Happy birthday sweet girl.
Love,


Mommy

Weekend

We had a great weekend in regards to sports.  The Rangers are in the World Series for the first time ever.  Texas A&M won, texas lost, TCU won, and OU lost.  Whoop!!  But we really didn't get to enjoy it too much.  I spent most of Friday and Saturday in bed with what felt like the flu.  Today it was Toby's turn.  UGH!  I hope we all start feeling better soon.  Luckily the kids haven't caught it (fingers crossed that they won't), and they have had fun playing all weekend.  Here are some of our pictures from the past few months of them playing.

When you are not looking

When you are not looking your babies start growing up too fast.  One minute I had this tiny baby boy who was completely dependent upon me for everything.  Now I have this little man.  He calls me mom instead of mommy, wants to wear "big boy clothes" like daddy (mainly belts and hats- he thinks they are for big boys), he know how to spell and read several words, and he has best friends.  He is no longer my little baby.  And then my little baby girl is growing too fast too.  She used to need me for everything, but now she can get what she wants, and she is eating big people food.  She is standing up and cruising around.  In just a few short months she will be 1.  Where has the time gone?  I want to freeze time and let them be little forever.  I want to savor every moment with my two miracles.   But time marches on, and my babies become a little less baby everyday.  I really realized this today after the photo session.  I was looking at a picture of Noah and he looks like a big boy.  I just couldn't get over it.  Here are some pics from today.