Happy New Year!

The kids are back at school today so I finally have a chance to update the blog. We've had a wonderful couple of weeks. We all had a great Christmas. We went to Grandma J and Grandpa R's house for Christmas Eve where we enjoyed spending time together and the boys were given their traditional gift of pajamas. It was so special to me to see the grandparents continuing traditions with my kids that were so fun when I was little.

Christmas morning we went back over to spend the day and open presents. I am so thankful for everything people did for us this Christmas. It was going to be a really scarce day around here, with me putting everything into my education and our future, but we were so blessed by people who were so kind and generous. It turned out to be a wonderful day. We ended Christmas night with a roaring game of Monopoly. Grandpa, Grandma, Little Man, Beans and I had a great time making side deals...or trying to convince each other to take our side deals...Little Man ended up stomping on everyone. What a great time!

New Year's Eve we went back over to celebrate. Another great time was to be had. We rang in the new year a few hours early with another exciting board game. This time is was Clue. Let's just say Little Man should stick with Monopoly. :P And Beans too for that matter. Little Man couldn't help but blurt out "I have that one!" when someone would make a guess, even if it wasn't his turn. Beans on the other hand giggled endlessly when someone proposed something he had.
One thing became quite obvious in our board game playing. Little Man needs a course in counting squares lol. Every time he'd roll the dice and start to move he'd skip numbers, hop his pawn in random spots in a line around the board, and pretty much ignore the lines between spaces. Who knew you needed a course in square counting? His creative counting did not, however, contribute to his grand Monopoly stomping of the rest of us. We just counted his moves out with him. :)

On Saturday, January 2nd, we had our first playdate of the new year. Again I'm not sure whether the kids had more fun or if I did. We've gotten to be good friends with the M family. Little Man and their daughter, T, have gotten to be friends - real friends. Little Man has been good at playing with kids on the playground for a while now, but I think T is his first friend his really developed a relationship with. They play, they tattle on each other, they kinda of fight then they play, tattle, play, tattle and they're learning how to work things out together. I <3 seeing them together. Each time they meet they run to each other and hug. The excitement of getting together hasn't grown old yet.

The afternoon was spent jumping on the tramp...

tackles and hugs on the tramp...
and super exciting go cart rides. Little Man wanted to drive but given that he still will ride his bike directly into a tree I didn't feel it was a good idea to put him behind the wheel of something with an engine. Here he is with Mr. M. Mr. M was such a good sport and actually let Little Man drive while T and Beans were on the cart and Mr. M was pushing the cart around himself - no engine. What a dad!
Beans looks a little apprehensive here, but believe me, he wasn't in the least. No more fear in this little boy. A, T's little brother, is in the middle here. He turned 4 on the day of our visit.
Late in our visit Little Man was having a rough time with me denying him the privilege of driving the go-cart. A little after that he started crying for his cousin J who he hasn't seen in a year. Little Man has always adored J. T's brother A looks much like J and I guess that was a bit too much for Little Man. He started crying because he missed him. What a sweetheart. He did pull it together in time to have one last ride in the go-cart before we left though. :)

On the medical front, things are picking up again. Just before Christmas, Beans' ENT called with his sleep study results. He's struggling with obstructive sleep apnea. The typical treatment is removing tonsils and adenoids. His were removed when he was 2. We go in for a follow up on Monday to discuss where we go from here and also to follow up on Little Man's abnormal sleep study. Once again the boys have something with similar presentations yet very different causes. I think they just like to keep me on my toes. I also need to get Little Man back into his therapies. That alone is a full time job. He's supposed to be getting OT, PT, ST and behavioral therapy each week but there just aren't enough hours in the day so we have to pick and choose. I also need to get him in for new orthotics as his left ankle is collapsing in more and more. Oh yeah, and I need to get Beans in for an appointment with his GI in Orlando. Little Man has a psychiatry appointment a week from Friday as well. Just a little busy around here. ;)

My new semester starts tomorrow and I'm very excited. It will be a busy one with a 14 hour course load including anatomy and physiology which will be the big one. I'm taking all but A&P and A&P Lab online in hopes of making enough time to fit in all the doctor appointments and therapies for the boys. If anyone's seen a few extra hours in the day though, I'd be happy to share them with you. :D