Just Some Pictures

A week of new things

When Michelle turned 3 she aged out of Early Infant and Toddler Services, and came into School Age Services for her speech therapy. The first day I told her we were going home to play with a new friend, she asked for Ashley. I told her it was a new friend, that Ashley would no longer come play. She was a little sad about that, but Joanne quickly won her over.

She does a wonderful job with Michelle. She has been to our house twice now, and both times she brings a huge bag of toys. They play all sorts of games and activities, and Michelle has so much fun she hardly realizes how hard Joanne is making her work to say things correctly. Her speech is coming along. She still has to work hard to make so many of the sounds (B,P, even W sometimes), but she is getting better each week. She gets the "placement" right for many words. By that, I mean she might substitute another letter - say "muppy" instead of "puppy", but that is progress. I am amazed at how many words she says now - of course, much of it only our family can understand, but she is getting there. I expect big changes in her as the year progresses. We are so happy to be working with Joanne.

Michelle also started school this week. These are pictures last week of her meeting her teachers. You can see she thinks this is pretty fun. Here she is with Mrs. C. (I didn't ask them if I can put them on the blog, so I'll just use initials.)

And here she is pictured with Mrs. Z. It's a wonderful preschool. Small classrooms and lots of individual attention. Michelle is in the class with the young 3's, and its' a perfect fit for her.

The first day of school they had balloons and stuffed animals lining the walk way and benches as we entered. Michelle fell in love with the giant Clifford dog, and she was so happy to see a smaller Clifford when she went into her classroom. Her teachers told me she held onto him most of the day.

She did great her first day of school. I told her Mommy would stay and play for about 5 minutes, and then she would have to stay by herself with her teachers and friends, but that I would come back later to pick her up. She looked a little sad as I left, but I watched her through the outside window and she did fine. No tears, and she quickly found lots of fun things to play with. I brought my camera for pick-up, and I would say by all the paint on her shirt (and in her hair) that she had a great first day of school!

Going to the Doctors is just not fun!

Sorry, no pictures for this entry. I am just not that hard core when it comes to blogging, that I would even remember to take my camera to the doctors office.

First, let me preface this by saying we have had way too many doctors appointments recently for Michelle. First we had a follow up for her cleft surgery at Walter Reed 2 weeks ago. That same day I took her over to our pediatrician for a shot, so she would be up to date when she had her physical. She needed a school physical for preschool and speech therapy through the county. (I'll blog more about that at a later date.) The next day I took her in for her school physical. Let's just say the doc we saw was not the smartest, nicest person on the planet. It was a bad experience for Michelle and myself. Then, 2 days later we returned for more shots, because we still hadn't filled the requirements. (Don't even get me started!)

Now for the fun part - yesterday we got to spend the afternoon in the ER! Michelle was playing by my bed. It's kind of low (used to be a waterbed) and made of hard wood. (old This End's Up furniture. Indestructible) She was jumping around like a frog, and I saw this coming, tried to stop it, but she jumped face first into the corner of my bed. It took about 10 seconds for her to look at me before the crying began. When she started gushing blood and her nose started swelling, I knew we had no choice but to go to the ER. I put in a quick call to my pediatricians office, just to see if they could see her, and they referred me on to the ER.

So, I'm trying to hold ice and a washcloth on her poor little face, praying she didn't do any major damage and especially that she didn't mess up anything associated with her lip or palate. I'm also, at the same time, trying to gather up enough "supplies" to last us through a while at the ER. (can you tell I've done this before?) And at the same time, making phone calls to rearrange a very busy afternoon. (Think 3 kids coming home and 8 piano students showing up at my door with no mom/teacher there to greet them)

Michelle sat in the backseat with an icepack on her nose, crying most of the way and saying over and over again, "No doctor, no doctor." The first thing she told the ER nurse as we walked in was "No doctor." (She also remembered as we left we had gotten smoothies at Starbucks. She started her campaign for "ice ceem". She's like a baby elephant - remembers everything.)

My sweet husband met me at the ER entrance, took the car to park and I took Michelle in to the ER. By this time the bleeding had stopped, and already the swelling was beginning to go down. After a while, Bill realized she was probably o.k. and he went back to work.

There were a lot of sick people there, so I knew we would probably not be a priority case. Four and a half hours later, when the doctor finally appeared to a sweet little 3 year old, covered in Elmo stickers, "sliding" up and down the patient exam table, he took one look at her and said,"Well, she appears to be fine now." Of course I didn't scream out loud, but silently inside.

He did check her out. She seems to be fine, but he suggested I follow up in a few days with her surgeons just in case they want to do further checks.

Life can be a little crazy sometimes! But I wouldn't change a thing.

Zoo

Sorry it took so long to get these up - it's been a busy week. We enjoyed a fun day at the zoo with Na-Na and Granddaddy Merritt on Monday. The weather was perfect! Unseasonably cool for late August, but the animals loved it. I decided, against my better judgement, to drive instead of metro in to the zoo - after getting lost about 4 times, we finally made it. I will NOT do that again! I don't know why I didn't take the gps system - oh well, we made it and a good time was had by all. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought, but here are a few good shots.

Michelle and Granddaddy had fun watching the elephants.

Lunch was "interesting". Again, I made a different decision than usual - we usually bring our lunch and picnic, but this time I decided to buy lunch there. It was ridiculous how much it cost, but at least we got the cute souveneir lunch bags! The bees were out of control, and since I left my epi-pen in the car (what was I thinking!?!) I had a hard time time enjoying myself. Michelle dropped her hot dog after one bite, and all I could think was, "That was $6 for the pigeons to enjoy!" As you can tell, lunch was not the highlight of the day!

We have been to the National Zoo many times, and I have never seen the Panda's inside, but for some reason on this beautiful day they were inside. Michelle thought they were wonderful. We tried for a good picture of her in front of their exhibits but the lighting was off and never got a good shot.

Later that day Na-Na took her to a souvenier shop and told her she could pick something for an early birthday surprise. Mommy saw some beautiful red silk purses with little stuffed panda's inside, but after a quick lookover, Michelle said, "No tank-u". Then she spied a panda bear, but when she saw the straps she did not like those either. I told her it was a backpack, and she said, "No backpack!" Then she saw the stuffed animals, and fell in love with the stuffed panda bear. I am amazed that she knows exactly what she wants and has no trouble finding ways to express that to us.

We love you Na-Na and Granddaddy. Thanks for a fun day!

It's fun being 3!

We started off this morning practicing how old we are - it's easier to show "3" than to say "3".

After naptime, Michelle was so excited to come down and see the house decorated for her party. She liked the pin-the-nose-on-Elmo game. (The panda bear was from the zoo trip yesterday. I'll put up those pic's tomorrow.)

Mommy & Daddy bought a Sesame Street ball pit. Michelle and her friends thought it was fun. It will be a great addition to our basement playroom.

Ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Yum!

I LOVE this smile. She broke out in this beautiful grin as we were singing to her and said her name. Happy Birthday Dear Michelle.

She thought the whole cake, singing thing was pretty cool. She wasn't sure what to do when it came time to blow out the candles. She tried to hold her nose and blow. (This is what we do in speech therapy when she blows bubbles.) After a while I realized it could be a pretty messy procedure, so Mommy eventually blew out the candles for her. Our older son Josh thought that was terrible, but Michelle didn't seem to mind.

Cake and balloons - what more could a 3 year old ask for?!

Na-Na and Granddaddy came up to celebrate her birthday. They gave her a kitchen so she can cook with Mommy. She got some fun toys! (but I still think she was more excited about the balloons than the toys. Isn't 3 wonderful!)

As I was typing away in the blog, our older daughter Elizabeth went in to check on Michelle. She is laying in her ball pit, dressed in a princess outfit, surrounded by her toys and holding about 15 helium balloons in her hand. Elizabeth stuck her hand in the ball pit and said,"How are you princess?" To which Michelle responded, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" Guess she is getting into the spirit of this birthday thing after all.

Happy Birthday Michelle

There will be more to come later - pictures of the big 3 year old! But for now, I just wanted everyone to know it's her birthday, and we plan to celebrate in style. I had wanted to keep things simple, but couldn't quite control myself at the party store when I saw all the cute Elmo things. And of course, we will have balloons. Michelle doesn't know exactly what this is all about, but she does know there will be balloons involved, so she's excited. She has been walking around the house for a few days saying,"My buh-day!" Today when I woke her I told her it was her "buh-day", and she got a huge grin and did a little happy dance. Priceless!

I have a personal tradition I do with each of my kids on their birthday. We sit and look through their baby pictures. I love going back and remembering the day they were born. I tell them the stories. It's more for me than for them.

I will have to start new traditions with Michelle. I wasn't there the day she was born. But I do know that even then, the red thread was beginning to wrap it's way around my heart and draw us together. Today I pray for the woman who gave birth to our daughter, that somehow she will know she is safe, healthy and happy. Mostly I will pray and thank God for the precious gift of Michelle!