It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I am so excited for Christmas this year. Kristen finally understands the whole meaning of Christmas. She can tell you who everyone is in the nativity scene. She knows Jesus was born on Christmas. She actually helped decorate the Christmas tree this year and really enjoyed it. She is excited about Santa coming and we are counting down the days until Christmas is finally here! The other wonderful part is that Lauren gets to participate in all events this year. We are not quarantined. Here are some pictures of the girls as we decorated for Christmas. Lauren helped a little, but didn't want to put down her pretzels long enough to really hang any ornaments.

Place Mats

Kristen made place mats for us to eat on tonight at dinner. She so enjoys drawing and coloring and just being creative! I like to hear her tell what her pictures are because she has such an imagination.




Here is the place mat she did for her. It started out being Paul's, but then she liked her picture so much she decided to keep it as her own. This is a picture of Santa's sleigh.











This is the one she did for Paul. It is a picture of Max from the show Max and Ruby. She drew him with crazy hair.














This is the one she did for Lauren. She wrote Lauren's name on the left side then she drew a picture of Sissy's owl. Meme gave them an owl filled with candy for Halloween and Lauren has loved that little owl. She likes to put things in and dump them out then repeat the whole process over many more times. It keeps her busy.












Finally, this is my picture. She drew our dog Degas and did a pretty good job for a 3 year old. Then she happily announced that she drew me with two heads. I asked her why I had two heads and she looked at me and said so that you can clean up the big toys.

Early Intervention

Last week our service coordinator with early intervention came out with Lauren's OT. We were going to re-evaluate services because of Lauren's progress. We had met back in August for Lauren's 6 month evaluation and set goals for her then. Even though it had only been a couple months, they wanted to go over those goals to see how much progress Lauren has made. Well, she met ALL of her goals in just two months! I was so very proud of her and all of her progress and so thankful to God for the many miracles he has worked in my little girls life. We decided to set more goals and to switch services up. Lauren's OT has came out since Lauren was released from the hospital. In fact, she has become a part of our family and I look forward to her coming out. She is such a sweet person. I was very sad that her services have been cut back from every other week to once a month. I even teared up a little bit when they told me that. We were just running out of things for Lauren to work on that was OT related and every goal we had set she pretty much did within a couple of weeks. Lauren's educational therapist had been coming out once a week. We really like her too. Well, her services have been cut back to every other week and will be eventually dissolved when a speech therapist is available to work with Lauren. We all came to the conclusion that Lauren will better benefit from speech therapy. However, there aren't any therapists with an open slot for Lauren at this time. Once a therapist is available, Lauren will get ST every week and I have a feeling at that time her OT will have to move on too. The people with early intervention have been great! Lauren has greatly benefited from their services. On November 18th I meet with Chesterfield County Public School to go over with them Lauren's health background history and current delays in order to get her enrolled in a special school program at the age of 3. She will have to qualify for services and right now we are a little bit concerned that she may not. She is developmentally on a 23 month level and she is 26 months old. Her speech is not what it should be, however, she is definately progressing. That may be the only qualifying factor in getting her into the program and even then she may not be full time. While I was a little upset to hear this because I want Lauren to not be held back by anything and I want her to not struggle in Kindergarten, I know that I am extremely blessed. I am just afraid that Lauren will be excelling in some areas, but others she may not do so good in and in the long run it will cause her more difficultly. I guess as a mother you never stop worrying even when things are going so good. It must be in our nature!

Happy Halloween

Our day was very busy and I am glad to finally get some down time. We started off with church this morning then we went to a local high school and watched a play - Alice in Wonderland. Ever since I asked Kristen what she wanted to be for halloween back in August, she said Alice in Wonderland. At the time that was her favorite movie. Then I got a brillant idea. Lauren could go as the white rabbit. We bought Kristen's costume and my mom had a white bunny costume she had bought for Kristen when she was little. It was a little small for Lauren length wise, so my cousin Paula sewed in an extra little flap and it was perfect. She also made a red jacket for her too. They both looked so cute. We went trick or treating in my parents neighborhood and Kristen really enjoyed it. In fact, I think she would still be trick or treating if it was up to her. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

Here are Kristen and Lauren in their halloween outfits




Kristen waiting for Alice in Wonderland to start



Getting ready to go trick or treating

Pumpkin Palooza

Last night at Awana's was pumpkin palooza! Kristen was excited to decorate her pumpkin. She wanted to draw on it with markers, but we found out at my sister's birthday party that markers and pumpkins do not really mix. In fact, I don't even know if the pumpkin has yet to dry. She was equally excited about using paint. The first pumpkin we decorated together. Then I had to decorate a pumpkin, so she decided to decorate one all by herself. That is the one she wanted to take to Awana. Kristen is in the Cubbies class and she looks so cute in her little vest. She loves the Cubbies class!





They did get Halloween bags from Nanny and Grandaddy and both of the girls really enjoyed opening them. The didn't expect it. Kristen said "That was so nice."





I didn't get pictures of them in their Halloween outfits, but they are wearing them again tomorrow so I will be sure and snap some pictures of them. Kristen is looking forward to Halloween. She has even made up her own song! It goes trick or treat and then something about a cup of tea. I am going to try to get a video of it.

Random Pictures and Videos

Bee Video

Kristen was stung by a wasp yesterday evening. She was outside with Paul and I heard screaming and crying inside the house. Apparently she hit the swing with her plastic bat and there was a wasp nest on the swing. It stung her right beside her eye. After medicine and watching Peter Pan, she felt much better. I felt so sorry for her. We kept asking her what happened and she kept saying "I don't know." Which she truly didn't. Life for a 3 year old can be tough and confusing. She kept saying while crying, "That's not very nice, they have to be nice to me."