It’s been a while since I have updated what is happening with SJ and A LOT is happening, so I will do my best to get everyone caught up.

First off we are moving. In October we toured a deaf school in Ohio and felt like it was a great place for SJ to learn and develop with her new cochlear implant. I know I have mentioned it before, but getting the device is only half the battle. It takes years of therapy and training to make the whole operation worth while and give a child the opportunity to hear and speak. This facility seems like a wonderful resource for her, but it is an hour and a half away so we are going to move in with my brother and his wife. We will still be about 40 minutes from the school, but this will get us one step closer so that SJ can begin classes and J can find a job in the area. We are nervous, but excited about this next endeavor.

SJ starts at her new school in a couple weeks. It really is a dream school. She will have students just like her to learn beside. She will get private time with a speech therapist. There are two activity centers. One mimics a house where everything is toddler sized. This is a way for SJ to learn about all of her environment like dishes, dress up, laundry, bedtime. They even hang photos up of the student’s families. The other activity center focuses on a different theme each month.  When we were there it was farm. They had a little barn and  real hay bails. The children play games learning about animals and farm related vocabulary. Last month the theme was restaurant where they learned about food and mealtime.

I was hesitant about putting SJ in preschool, because I really cherish the toddler age as a time that I have to teach my kids and have them at home with me, but she has special needs and needs special support. I was really pleased with the environment at the school. I don’t have to worry about her childhood being consumed with therapy because they have an extremely fun, loving, playful approach to it. They keep the parents involved on so many levels and I like that too. I know she’s going to love it. I’ve compared it to going to Sesame street!

The other BIG BIG news is that a month from now SJ will have bilateral hearing. This means that she is having her second cochlear implant (the left side) put in on February 14th. We wanted this from the beginning. In fact we wanted her to have a simultaneous bilateral implantation, which surgeons are doing more and more of these days, but our ENT does not. While I do not look forward to having to go through the surgery itself, I feel extremely blessed that SJ will be able to have “two ears”.

It’s all good news and yet a slightly terrifying. I feel like I am preparing my self for the trenches and asking God for a lot of endurance. The quote that comes to mind is “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”. It’s a weird saying.

I don’t want to eat an elephant, but the point is we are going to tackle these transitions as they come, one step and one day at a time.

Do you have a favorite verse that encourages you in stressful times? I would love for you to share it. 

What I have found about the third child is that while I still work really hard at keeping things even when it comes documenting memories, it’s definitely a challenge. I have managed to do newborn portraits, video collages, baby book entries, and birth announcements for all of them, but E’s tends to get done a little later and perhaps less detailed.

E is now 3 months 3 1/2 months old. He had his first Christmas.

He is obviously really excited about it.

 We didn’t do any pictures with Santa this year, but I was able to get some of the kids all dressed up in their Christmas clothes.

E played the role of baby Jesus a total of 4 times this year, including once at the mall for a flash mob. 
People that we didn’t even know where stopping us to take pictures and tell us how much they enjoyed the surprise program. If babies could get academy awards I think E would be some serious competition for best performance as a tranquil newborn. Even when laid in a manager under a spotlight he was always so serene. I knew he would do well considering he isn’t typically a fussy baby, I was more concerned about him being gassy. Thankfully there was no flatulation going on during the angelic nativity scene.

As far as the rest of the month goes, he started cooing which is the most precious thing in the world.
He had his first plane ride.  He was on a plane for the first time.
He got sick for the first time, but I took him to the Doctor and it turns out he just has a cold and I am glad about that.

That’s about it for the 3 month milestones. He mostly just lays around 24/7 melting our hearts with his snuggly, adorable, squishiness. It’s a tough job, but somebodies gotta do it.

You can imagine with my passionate stance on life that I was a little excited to see this cover story 

1. The smaller number of doctors willing to perform abortions.
2. Widespread access to birth control.
3.  Changing attitudes about family. For example being pregnant out of wedlock isn’t as taboo as it used to be.
4. State Regulations becoming more restrictive. There were 92 restricting provisions passed in 2011.
5. New discoveries about fetuses. Scientific progress has played a major roll in the shifting of public opinion. A mother can now see and hear a heartbeat before she were to have an abortion. Mothers can see the tiny human on ultrasound. Some babies born prematurely can live as young as 24 weeks! None of this information or opportunities were available 40 years ago when abortion was legalized.

I don’t know how many years I have intended to sell things on ebay. In fact I have this list on my Cozi called “left overs”. I am on a tangent here, but bear with me. I make a to do list everyday of 10 things I want to accomplish that day. I don’t do it on weekends, but almost every day I make a list because I am a list addict. When something is left on the list it goes to another list called “left overs”.

Most of the time it either gets done or becomes obsolete, but as you can see I have this dang “Take pics for ebay” and it just sits there taunting me! It’s probably never going to happen. Still, I love my lists and goals. I have even had some of them become permanent life habits like when I quit drinking soda back in 2000 or when I decided to start using reusable shopping bags in 2009. All that to say I do in fact have a list  of new years goals and since it’s 2013 you can bet I have 13 of them.

1. Get the kids on a schedule Z and SJ will be in school full time this year so that means early to bed early to rise. For our group of night owls  I think we’d be better off trying to memorize the Bible, but here goes nothing.

2. Learn more signs Now that SJ has a Cochlear Implant she is learning to talk orally, but I still want us to continue to expand our ASL vocabulary.

3. Be active with the kids Some of our favorite family activities are riding bikes, flying kites, and catching fire flies at night. Excuse the rhyme, I can’t help myself.

4. Vitamins and veggies everyday for me and the fam I’ll confess it just doesn’t happen consistently, but it needs to.

5. Donate my hair I have had long hair most of my life. I love my long hair, but I have had it short some too.

 

 I also loose A TON of hair after pregnancy and it drives me crazy. I swore I would chop it off and give it to locks of love after I had a baby so it is happening. I just have to make the appointment.

6. Move to Ohio More details on this later.

7.  Be alone once a month Not as easy as it sounds.

8. Visit Texas and Michigan We weren’t able to travel back home for the holidays this year and many of J’s family have yet to meet E.


9. Make a movie Not like a major motion picture, but I have a little project in mind that my brother and I are hopefully going to work on.


10. Learn more about the world and teach my kids I am bad at Geography and I want to change that.


11. 12 date nights Once again, not nearly as easy as it sounds. Believe me, this isn’t the first time I have had this as a resolution.


12. Update our family portrait This is the most current one we have.

13. 4 big birthday celebrations. Z (Super hero party), SJ (small, but special), E (first birthday, I don’t have a theme yet) and SJ’s hearing (video montage of her journey).

I shot up out of my seat before take off and ran to the closest flight attendant. In a panic I asked

  “Is it too late to get off the plane? I can’t go. I need to get off the plane!”

Let’s hold it right there and back up two days before. It was December 28th I was working on a puzzle and I get this text from my best friend.

It did sounds a little crazy after all to travel from Kentucky to Michigan at the last minute like this, but with my mom working for the airlines the standby flight was only $50, E could ride along for free. We decided to go for it. I could leave on Sunday and come back New Years day. As I waited at the Cincinnati airport I knew our schedule didn’t have too much wiggle room, so when the flight was delayed I started to get a little nervous. The problem was I could make it to Detroit, but I would probably miss my connecting flight to my final destinations. This would also mean missing the party. Long story short we decided that someone would drive three hours to Detroit to pick me up and with that plan in mind I boarded the plane.

 It was really crowded and I was holding a baby so the people around me finally offered to help me out and I shoved my boarding pass in the seat pocket, they put the diaper bag on the floor, and my laptop in the overhead compartment. Then I plopped my exhausted self down while the announcements started up over the intercom. My mom called before they made us turn off our cell phones and when I told her the latest itinerary she reminded me that the car seat and my suitcase were headed to my final destination NOT Detroit. This meant I would arrive and have no carseat, clothing, or toiletries. That’s when I pleaded to be let off the plane. They brought me my bag and I headed back up the jet bridge feeling like a total psychopath for the way things just went down.

Back at the gate I began to regroup and make a few phone calls. People that were picking me up in Michigan needed to know not to, and someone needed to come and pick us up from Cincinnati. Finally, everything was settled and I was just about to let out my breath and head to baggage service where they said that my stuff would be. Just before that happened I remembered one last thing. With what little bit of strength I had left I headed over to the gate agent and said “this just isn’t my day…”. It turns out I had left my laptop in the overhead bin on a plane that was now on it’s way to Detroit.

I won’t make you suffer through a story that would include every detail about how many people I talked to online, on the phone, and in person over the next two days. Instead let me just skip to the end which is that my laptop was eventually located at the Detroit airport and my mom flew to Detroit yesterday (she flies for free) and brought it back to me so that I could  type all of this drama out for you. The ironic thing about it is my macbook came back the same time I should have. I left my computer on the plane, but since it made it to Michigan on Sunday and came back New Year’s day I am  beginning to feel like it left me!

As far as Michigan is concerned it was quite a debacle. I am determined to make up for it one of these days, but next time I’m leaving the laptop at home!

Despite J and I not buying Christmas presents for our kids or each other we all still manage to be spoiled silly every year.

Some of my favorite gifts this year included a new Sonicare toothbrush, a beautiful vase with the ASL alphabet on it, and a denim shirt.

SJ got a snowsuit just in time because it snowed Christmas night and there is several more inches falling tonight.

Z got an explorer kit and naturally the kids made a spaceship out of a cardboard box. They drew all over it with crayon including some detailed drawings of the control board. It’s already been busted and taped back together once. You have no idea how much enjoyment I get from watching them play with a box!

 and my sister in laws reaction to this wooden box that J made for her was priceless.

It’s all been so much fun, but my favorite gift exchange for the year was from Z to SJ. He saw a commercial for the Dora Pony Land Adventure a long time ago and he always thought SJ would love it, so he saved up all of his chore money to get it for her for Christmas. We had a picture of the toy hanging on the fridge and he’s been working toward purchasing it since October!

We were only able to send out a handful of cards this year and we kept it REALLY simple by using the photo booth on my mac for our picture, but we had fun and we wanted this year’s card to be especially light hearted. So here it is…