Let it snow!

We're enjoying a snowy day! I think this is our biggest snow of the season. There's 4-5 inches on the ground now and it's expected to continue this afternoon and overnight.

Nick found this hilarious website called www.yearbookyourself.com in which you scan a photo of yourself in and see what you'd look like anywhere between 1950 - 2000. Here's a little slideshow to laugh at:

Evals are OVER!

Andrew had his last eval on Thursday at the UMDNJ Hospital in Newark. After the developmental pediatrician observed him for an hour he said that Andrew is nowhere even close to being on the autism spectrum and believes his behaviors that we were calling "red flags" are well within normal little boy behavior. He did however diagnose him with "developmental language delay" and "developmental apraxia" both of which I'm relatively unfamiliar with but it sounds like he is expected to overcome these with continued speech therapy. I am so glad this whole process is over! The doctor requested that Andrew has a formal hearing exam due to his history of ear infections/eardrum rupture as this may be the cause of the speech and articulation problems. We will be doing that on October 14th.

In other news, we bought a new car a couple weeks ago. It's a 2007 Toyota Camry which will replace the 1989 Honda Accord. The Accord will be missed as it was the first car that I bought entirely on my own but considering it has 112,000 miles on it and the AC no longer works it will be nice for Nick to finally have something comfortable and reliable to drive around in.

My mom, Lauren, and I accompanied Andrew and his preschool class on an apple picking field trip. The kids all had a great time and we got lots of pictures. Now....what to do with 10 pounds of apples......

Preschool Time!

The last 4 weeks have been filled with different evaluations for Andrew. We have done several evals for the school district with hopes that he may qualify for the language-based preschool run by the school district. This preschool is a great program that continues to work with the children with their speech, articulation, etc. We won't find out whether he is in for a few more weeks. In the meantime, Andrew started at a regular, mainstream preschool last week. He LOVES it so far! It's 2 mornings a week, Monday & Wednesday. This will be great for him since he loves to be social with other kids his age. I dropped him off for his first day on Wednesday and he barely looked back to say goodbye. Also, more great news - Andrew is POTTY TRAINED! Woo hoo! Last Saturday we just decided to go for it and put him in big boy underwear and he is a natural. He just hops right on the potty and goes as if he's always known what to do. We're so proud of him.

Lauren is sprouting right up and she adores her brother. She has to do everything that he does and she also likes to torment him by taking his toys away from him. I'm able to have a little one on one time with her when Andrew is at preschool so we'll be able to go to the park and do other fun activities while big brother is having fun at school.

We had a nice visit with my Dad a few weeks ago. He flew out for 3 days and A & L got to visit with "Grappa". Just yesterday we drove by the hotel that my dad stayed in and Andrew said "Look Mom! Grappa's house!". I got a good laugh at that.


Arriving at his first day of preschool!


Playing in his classroom



Snack time at school


Lauren having a snack at home

And this pics is one of my favorites....They climbed into the coat closet and trashed it. When I got to them they were pretending to be asleep, even making pretend snoring sounds!

Evaluations

I think I have mentioned before that Andrew has been in the "Early Intervention" program. It is a program for toddlers under 3 years old that have a developmental delay. In Andrew's case, we were referred by his pediatrician at his 2-year checkup because he wasn't saying 10 words clearly and consistently. He had a speech & development evaluation in February and it was recommended that he see a speech therapist and a developmental therapist one hour per week (each). He has been doing great and has made vast improvements in overall vocabulary and is now speaking in 4-5 word sentences. His speech has become less and less of a primary concern although both of his therapists have noticed a few 'red flags' and recommended that we see either a neurodevelopmental pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist for a few more evaluations. Some of the concerns are that he has very fleeting and inconsistent eye contact unless it's on his terms, he is obsessive about trains, tracks, tunnels, & bridges and manages to find everyday objects and points out how they resemble train tracks, tunnels, etc. He prefers to play alone when in a group setting (library storytime, Gymboree, etc). Any of these behaviors could very well be personality traits and nothing more than that. So to make a long story short (too late?), we will be doing a few evaluations over the next 2 months. They are primarily done through play and observation and from there we can determine if there is anything to be concerned about. My feelings are that it would be better to have this done and find out there's nothing to worry about rather than delay it and find out later down the road that we should have intervened earlier. If the evaluations conclude that he is over 33% delayed in any one area or over 25% delayed in any two areas then he will qualify for a state-funded language & development based preschool very close to our house. They maintain a very small teacher to student ratio and focus on each individual child's needs. The goal in this program is to have them caught up with their peers before they go to kindergarten. What we DO know is that Andrew is very smart & perceptive. He knows and recognizes all of the alphabet letters, colors, shapes, and counts up to 12. His favorite number is 16, even though he can't count that far. If he sees a lot of something, marbles in a jar for instance, he'll say there are 16 of them (probably because it's the biggest number he knows). He's a very happy, energetic, eager and affectionate little boy. Did I mention he's the cutest, too? So, our first evaluation will be on Tuesday of next week. I will be sure to let you all know how it goes! Here's some pictures and a video of our latest art project. I put down some heavy duty paper and gave them paint and brushes and they went to town! Note- the video starts off sideways, after 3-4 seconds it changes though!

Now THIS is how to BBQ

Last Saturday, Nick's boss invited all the employee's and their families to his house for a BBQ. This wasn't any old backyard BBQ. They had valet parking, it was completely catered along with an attended bar and they also hired a band. There were plenty of activites to choose from - swimming, volleyball, boat rides on his boss' private boat, or mingle with co-workers under the huge shade tent. Their house is right along the banks of the Navesink River and the view was amazing. They put together goodie bags for each of the kids their with a beach ball, bubbles, tattoos, etc. We had a great time! Here are some pictures....somehow I managed to be gone every time a photo was taken.

weddings, surgeries, and other musings

I now have an 18-month-old and a 2 1/2-year old! Some days I'm lucky to have gotten anything done, not to mention take a shower! Bear with me with the lapses in blog entries. Maybe some day I'll have time to bore you with daily blogs about what I did each day. So let's see....here's what has been going on the last few weeks.

Last Saturday, Nick and I headed up to Tarrytown NY for my friend Meredith's wedding. It was an 'adults only' event so Andrew & Lauren stayed behind with grandma and we enjoyed a 24 hour vacation. The wedding was in the evening at "Blue Hill at Stone Barns". It is a restaurant and organic agricultural center set in a beautiful, woodsy & rural area of Westchester County, just 20 minutes north of the city. An outdoor cocktail reception followed the ceremony and it was magical watching all the fireflies twinkle across the courtyard and over the nearby vineyards.

On Tuesday, Nick had an elective surgery on his right shoulder. He injured his shoulder 5 years ago and has had discomfort and reduced range of motion in it ever since. His arm is now in an immobilizer for the next 4 weeks. He has 5 incisions over his right shoulder and he's still in moderate pain. It's amazing all the simple things we take for granted having two arms and two hands. Right now he can't drive, tie his shoes, cut his food, etc. He'll be doing some physical therapy over the next few months and his doctor mentioned that it will likely be 4 months before he is fully recovered. We're both hoping for a quick(er)recovery!

Andrew & Lauren are just as busy as ever. Sometimes I wonder why I bother cleaning the house, they seem to follow me and undo whatever I've just done. The other day I came into the living room and found Andrew was "helping" by spraying the couch with window cleaner. I had mixed up 1 part vinegar to 1 part water and put it in an old windex bottle so the room smelled like pickles for the next few hours.

Andrew has turned mealtime into creative imagination time. Last night he wanted to eat a tunnel with his trees and snakes. A tunnel is a rolled up piece of ham, a tree is broccoli, and snakes are spaghetti. Never a boring moment 'round here!

Playing with trains is tiring!