Sophia's first day of Kindergarten

Today was Sophia's first day of school. She was so excited this morning and couldn't wait for it to be time to go. She woke up very early and inhaled her breakfast. She was ready and waiting about forty five minutes before it was time to go out to the bus stop. Daddy rode the bus to school with Sophia (and Samuel as well). It is cool that the kids ride the same bus this year. Next year it will be different. When they arrived at the school the kids were outside on the playground for a little while and then they got lined up in line with whoever they had for a teacher. Sophia's teacher is Mrs. Marcinkewicz! I am sure it will be a little bit of a challenge for her to learn that name. Sophia's class has 21 kids in it. One teacher and her assistant. There is also a Russian girl, two Spanish girls, and a Vietnamese girl in her class! These girls don't speak any English. It was funny listen to Sophia try to explain what their language sounds like :-) I am looking forward to this year for Sophia, as well as for Sam. My prayer is that they both thrive in their classrooms and that they learn all that God has planned for them.

Sammy's first day of 2nd Grade

Oh my goodness! I have a second grader!!! I can't believe it. The school bus was late this morning but thankfully it was nice weather and the other family at the stop was very nice. Sammy has Mrs. Butler, and he already knew one of the kids in his class, and made another friend too. He was excited about the specific reward system that his teacher has, and when I asked him about what his favorite and least favorite things about the day was this is what he said: "My favorite thing is the sticker chart system, you earn stickers for good work and behavior, and when you get a certain amount you get a reward. My least favorite thing was this very complicated thing we had to do with pennies and quarters." When I asked him if it was a math problem he said it wasn't, so I am not completely sure what this activity was.

Birth Weight

Woohoo! Miss Paisley is back to her birth weight! They like them to reach their birth weight by two weeks of age, and Miss Paisley is only ten days old! So happy she is gaining well. I met with the lactation consultant today and got some good tips because we are having a few issues, especially with her getting too tired to take in a whole feeding orally. Right now they are still giving her full feeds down her feeding tube, but hopefully within the next day or two she will start nursing well enough to start decreasing the tube feeds and taking more by mouth. I am dealing with a complete disaster at the school that Sam goes to! I am so frustrated. In the spring I filled out all the paperwork for Sam to have intra-district school choice. We had school choiced him to stay at the school last year due to a lack of school nurse at the other elementary school. I was told last spring that due to the fact that he had already school choiced to stay that this coming year would be automatic. But unfortunately they lost his paper work and therefore he isn't registered to go anywhere!!! So frustrating! I am still trying to get this situation resolved and it is so frustrating!!!

My Little Gymnast

Since the age of about two and a half, Sophia has had the diagnosis of joint hypermobility and they have done a fairly extensive workup to rule out some kind of skeletal deformity, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and several other problems. She started crying when going down the stairs a couple years ago, completely out of the blue, and no one could figure out why. We did several rounds of PT, and all kinds of strengthening/stretching exercises to help stabilize her joints and muscles. After her last spinal MRI we were told that we should get her into something that could strengthen her muscles. I was absolutely heartbroken last year when we were told that our Christian preschool was closing after 28 years. I so desperately wanted all three (at the time 3) of my children to go there. I started researching all the local schools and found one that included some gymnastics classes within the tuition. The school is fairly expensive, but Sophia has thrived there and done exceptionally well. We have heard from this preschool teacher as well how kind and compassionate she is and how she can organize the whole class and get everyone involved in an activity so that no one feels left out. It has been a good fit for her. That being said, physically she is THRIVING! At the beginning of the year she struggled so much with many aspects of her gymnastics classes, whether it was fear of getting hurt, fear of not doing it as well as her friends, or physical inability. The teacher voiced some concerns about her strength initially, but throughout the year she has pulled me aside multiple times to explain how much progress she has made. And now at the end of the year, she has gone above and beyond all of her classmates in her capabilities. The teachers believe that she has a serious talent, and whats more she is thrilled and loving it! I unfortunately am not there during her classes typically, but the most recent one I was able to watch. She is amazing!!! I am just so thankful that God opened this door for her to go to this school and that she is doing so well. She seems to be so much stronger and almost never complains about the discomfort in her joints anymore!!! Praise God! The pictures don't do her justice, but it is hard to get these action shots, and chase a toddler at the same time :-)

Sophia's Preschool Graduation

I still can't believe my little lady has graduated preschool! And what is crazier is that when Sam graduated preschool I was pregnant in the pics, and now that Sophia is graduating I am pregnant again. The graduation was so sweet! Sophia was so excited. She is such a little ham for pictures most of the time. Preston really wanted to graduate from preschool too. He kept running up to the kids and tried to climb on Sophia's lap. They sang lots of songs and did motions to many of the songs. It was so cute! She was thrilled to get on a frilly dress even though it was terribly rainy outside when we were getting ready to leave the house They started the graduation singing a song to the toon of "The ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah..." So the students walked in according to the number in the song. But it was to the tune of the students.... So cute AQDw/tudc89Efpns/s320/003.JPG" /> Once the kids came in they came and sat in their seats which were labeled with their names. There were 22 kids that graduated with Sophia. Throughout the entire ceremony the kids sung several songs. One of them had a part where they had to tickle each other, it was so cute to watch them. It was so cute when she got her cap put on and the tassel switched over and walked across to get her diploma After the kids had received their diplomas they started to get a little antsy, Preston included... We were so happy that Grandma, Meme' and Grandpa all got to come and enjoy the graduation with us. Sophia with her teachers.... Our family, unfortunately without Sam. The graduation was early in the day, and Sam misses so much school with sickness and doctors appointments that I just couldn't pull him out :-(...