Last Day Of School

It's so hard for me to believe that school is over already...this year truly went by very fast. Zach completed Kindergarten, which is also really hard to believe. He's SO excited to be a big first grader now, I of course, have mixed emotions! Zach started summer camp today and is really looking for to that new adventure. Alex I fear is going to get really depressed in about a week or two. There are few things she enjoys more than getting on that bus every morning. I wanted to do a comparision of the kids on their first day of school and then their last...

Alex on her first day...

And her last...

Zach's first...

And last...


My big first grader!

Here's to the start of a great summer!

Zach's First Swim Meet!

Zach had his first swim meet on Sunday afternoon. He swam the 25m Freestyle Event and we are SO proud of him!! It was really tough for him to swim the entire length of the pool without stopping but he pushed through it, didn't give up and made it across. Not too bad considering he only had four days of practice before the first meet. Here's a video from his meet. Way to go Zach!!!!!!!

Changing...and Swimming!

I can't believe how much Zach has changed since starting Kindergarten. He's reading, he's spellng, writing, adding, subtracting...very exciting stuff. A few days ago a little booklet came home that said:

"Do you remember me last Fall, so cute and so small?

Over the months I've grown up so, now its off for Summer I go.

Just look at my portraits and you will see, how much I've grown -

my pictures of me!"

Here's the picture he drew of himself when school started....

...and here's the picture that he drew of himself a few weeks ago...


(he's wearing a mask and snorkle in case you're wondering - he was supposed to draw how he was going to spend his summer...)

The change just absolutely blows my mind! :)


Zach absolutely LOVES swimming, I've joked recently that I wasn't quite sure when it was that I birthed a fish, but ALL he wants to do is swim - so on Monday I had him try out for the swim team...

and he made the team! He's so excited and we're very proud of him!! He knew all weekend that his try out was on Monday so we spent a lot of time at the pool practicing (he's always swam underwater, but he had to learn how to swim freestyle for the try out) because he had to be able to swim the entire length of the pool. On Monday I was walking him to school and this was our conversation:

Zach - "Mommy, I don't think I can try out this afternoon, I just don't think I can do it."

Me -"Zach, you're swimming awesome, I know you can do it!"

Zach - "I know Mommy, but I just don't think I can swim the entire length of the pool and not come up for any air, I tried, I can't hold my breath that long."

Me -"Zach!, you don't have to swim the entire length of the pool without coming up for air, of course you can come up for air, you just need to be able to swim the length of the pool without any assistance!"

Zach - "Gee Mommy, I really wish we had this conversation three days ago!"

He cracks me up.

Camping - YURT STYLE!

A little late, but I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!! Aaron and I took the kids to stay with my parents who were on vacation and staying in a yurt. While we weren't quite sure what to expect, it was actually very cool and we had a great time!

The outside...

The inside was really modern for a 'tent'!


Zach had so much fun horse back riding....

...and swimming in the pool - I swear that boy is part fish! :)

Sissy had her Papa and a pool, what more could a girl ask for?!?

While we only stayed there for one night, my parents were staying the whole week. I don't think anyone would have gotten any sleep if we had stayed any longer! Alex was up pretty much the WHOLE night - she finally settled down around 3:30AM and at 4:00AM, Zach (for the first time ever), fell out of bed and hit the hard wood floor...so after 25 minutes of screaming, ice and some aspirin, we all tried to get back to sleep (it is technically a tent after all so you can hear EVERYTHING!) but Alex decided we should all get up at 6:00AM anyway!

Mom was sad when we packed up the car (she is seriously a glutton for punishment!) - she literally waited on us hand and foot the entire time we were there...she always wants to make sure we are "relaxing" so she takes so much on herself. Zach wanted to go to the playground, no problem, MeMe will take him so Mommy can read...Zach wanted to go back to the pool, no problem, MeMe will take him so Mommy can rest...not to mention the food...shrimp cocktails, steaks, BB-Q chicken, Italian sausage and peppers, french toast, hash and eggs......I was sad to leave!

Thank you Mom and Dad for letting us 'invade' and for taking such good care of us! :)

Staying in Second Grade!

I'm excited to say that Alex is going to be repeating the second grade! (Ok, how many parents would actually say they are excited that their child is going to be held back in school?!? Just another perk to being a special needs parent!!)

I met with Alex's teacher and principal two weeks ago and we discussed what their concerns were for keeping her back a year - and then I had a chance to tell them why I thought it would be beneficial to keep her back. This has been a huge year for Alex cognitively. She is sitting for up to 20 minutes unassisted, she's taking steps in her walker, she's completely eating all of her meals by mouth, she's learning to drink from a straw, she's using an eye gaze communication system - that is A LOT of stuff for one little girl who has never made any progress in any of those areas to adapt to. I truly feel like she needs this extra year to hone in on those skills and to work on mastering them 100%. In the third grade Alex will subjected to VAPP testing which is the equivalent of SOL testing for special needs children. I want her to actually have a chance to get comfortable with all of her new skills before adding additional stresses. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I LOVE Alex's classroom and this just means that she will get to spend an additional year in her school. It dawned on me last week that by keeping her back, she and Zach will only be a year apart when it comes to Middle School. It's kind of comforting for me to know that they will be in the same school and that she'll have him there.

Alex was supposed to have her upper GI series done this past Friday. It turns out though that I have to eat my words from an earlier post about her g-tube site. I had said how I highly doubted anything would come back from the culture that they ran because her g-tube site always looks amazing. Welllllll - I got a call from the GI doctor and she said the culture did show some things growing, especially some yeast. She said our bodies grow organisms all the time, so she's not saying with 100% certainty that there is a problem with her site, but it was a possibility. That night Aaron and I changed out her g-tube and replaced it with a new one and, viola, no more stomach issues. I waited till the day before the test to cancel, just in case, and the GI nurse tried to talk me out of cancelling but I certainly did not want to put her through any extra radiation, or filling her up with barium (which causes a WHOLE NEW set of issues) if I didn't have to. So I'm happy to say, knock on wood, that our stomach issues seemed to be resolved - for now!!