Halloween Is Finally Here

September 27, 2008



And my kids are so excited. We started our weekend off by decorating the house with Halloween Decorations. Both Forrest and Eliza have lights up in their room and we have pumpkins and other decorations up all over the house.



To continue our weekend of fun we headed down to Lehi. Our first stop was Cabela's. Forrest and Eliza loved the big fish tanks, but Forrest thought it was so sad that they killed all these animals just to stuff them and put them on display. After having him almost in tears several times we concentrated on just feeding the fish.

After about an hour we headed out for lunch and then headed over to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point. This weekend in conjunction with KBULL they were offering admission for a $1 a person. In our opinion it was totally worth the drive.



We started out on the pedal go carts. These were Forrest favorite. He came back to this several times. Eliza even got in on the action.



Isn't my husband so sweet to push her around. That would totally break my back and I am a foot shorter then he is. Of course I had to lug around the bag with all the water bottles, camera and what not so I think it was a fair trade.



After the go-carts we headed over to the Jumping Pillows. I thought the kids would get a kick out of this, but I guess it was too much like our tramp at home. We only stayed here for a couple of minutes before we moved on.

Our next stop was the Haunted Creature. This was really cool. The Creature was an inflatable. You started out by walking in the mouth and ended up walking out at the tail, but along the way you passed his heart, stomach and other bodily organs. The whole time it was very dark and had creepy music playing. The kids didn't really care for this, but I thought it was pretty ingenues.



Once we left there we headed over for our hayrides. It was pretty deserted so we had almost the whole thing to ourselves. On our travels we were able to see some horse which threw Eliza into a tizzy. She of course wanted to ride them, but they weren't really riding horses.



Next to the hayride was the Cornbelly mountain. It wasn't really a mountain just a bunch of Hay bales stacked together with different slides coming off. The cool thing about it was the way you climbed up. They had different cargo nets that the kids could climb up to reach the top. Once you were at the top there were several different slides that they could take down to the bottom and start the fun all over again.



Since we were at a corn maze we figured we better go through one. We didn't go through the big one because, well because it was too big. The kiddy one was just right for us. It took us about 10 minutes to navigate, but by the end Eliza was demanding Greg carry her and Forrest was hot and thirsty. It was a good thing we didn't attempt the big one.



For the little kids they also had Hay bale mazes and a tunnel made out of hay bales. These were both a big hit.

By this time we are all getting pretty hot so we took a break under a nice shade tree and regrouped. There was a princess area that Eliza really wanted to go to so we decided to split up. Forrest didn't want to be caught anywhere near the princesses.



The Pumpkin Princes Playland was just precious. They had princess costumes for the little girls to dress up in.



Eliza tried on eight different dresses. Four with me and then another four with Greg.



Once they were all dressed up in their dresses they could sit in a carriage that looked like it came from a fairy tale. At one point I looked over and Greg and Eliza were sitting up on top together. She looked so cute and had such a big smile on her face. It just warmed my heart. That was one happy little girl.

Some of the other fun things that kids like to do was:



Playing in the corn. Forrest now wants a bed of corn. Of course when they came out they were covered in corn dust and were white from head to foot.



Both kids loved being buried in the corn of course we have found a lot of corn in really weird places.



The Cow train ride was another big hit, but I think it was a little too bumpy to ride more than once.

We also played in the kiddie corral. It included a play store, wooden trains, trucks and tractors, slides and horse swings that the kids could play on.



And of course one of their favorites, the Ducky races. I don't know who came up with this, but my kids sure do love it. They will spend hours playing with these ducks.



At one point I thought Eliza was going to come to blows with the little girl standing next to her. She kept taking Eliza's ducks. Lucky for all of us she left before Eliza could do any real damage to her.

After spending 4 and half hours there we finally had to drag the kids out kicking and screaming. Forrest wants us to move closer so that we can go back more often. On the whole it was a great day. There was something for everyone to do and we had fun doing it. And the best part was the cost who wouldn't love doing all these fun things for only $4. This is definite must for next year.

Where Has September Gone?

September 23, 2008

I can’t believe it is almost the end of September. I feel like this whole month has been dedicated to getting kids settled into school. We finally seem to have a good routine going. Eliza is in bed by 7:30 and Forrest goes to bed by 8:00. Although we still have to wake both kids up they don’t seem too tired and when we do let them sleep in they only sleep in until about 7:30.

Eliza is loving preschool. She has really taken to riding the bus everyday. The only problem is that she doesn’t go to school on Wednesday. She really seems to miss preschool. On Wednesday morning she gets up and dressed. She then goes and gets her backpack and waits at the window for the bus. Unfortunately it never comes.

Forrest on the other hand doesn’t think it is fair that Eliza doesn’t have to go to school on Wednesday. If she stays home he wants to stay home. Forrest seems to be adjusting to 1st grade. He never had a hard transitioning to staying all day and loves to eat school lunch. Forrest seems to be having some problems paying attention, but we hope that we can get that all resolved soon. Other than that he is loving 1st grade and we love his teacher Mrs. Burch.

Hopefully next month we can do something other else that is not school related. I feel like school is on my brain 24/7. I guess such is life when your kids are in school.

Hope At Last

September 19, 2008

Can I just say I love my pediatrician. Since we have accepted that Eliza may have apraxia I have been doing more research to see what we can do to help. This past weekend I ran across some information that Fish oil combined with Vitamin E works miracles with kids with Apraxia. They are doing studies that show kids with apraxia have difficulty absorbing these nutrients. Both of them are vital to brain development. Many people who have put their kids on these supplements see results within 3 weeks. And the one study I found showed 96% of kids on these supplements showed great improvement with their motor planning abilities.

Greg and I have been very anxious to try this, but we wanted to run it by our pediatrician first. I was very nervous. I didn't know what she would say and my worst fears would be she didn't want us to try at all. On Monday I had an appointment with her and laid out all the facts. She was very agreeable with us trying Eliza on these supplements and even offered to research the supplements more, consult with a neurologist to find out what exactly we should be doing and how should we proceed and double check with a pharmacist to find out what a good dosage would be. All in all she has been very supportive. It makes everything so much easier when you have people in your corner fighting with you and not against you. We have ordered up the Fish oil and should start Eliza on it within the week. Hopefully this is the breakthrough we have been waiting for.

Once Again It Is Soccer Season

September 14, 2008

Once again it is soccer season. Yesterday we played our second game of the season and let me tell you by the end we were all about ready to quit. Our game was to start at 10:00. We all arrived at the field at 10:00 and set up our chairs under a nice tree knowing that we would have to move them when the game started. Once it looked like the game was going to start we moved our chairs closer to the field. After sitting around for a little while the coach came up and told us that our game had been rescheduled for 11:00 and that we would be playing on a completely different field. We decided to pack up the chairs and head to Greg's parents house so Greg could get some things done. Once again at 11:00 we headed back over to the soccer field. We set up our chairs and sent the kids out to practice. After awhile we noticed that there were three teams trying to warm up on the field. After much discussion it turned out that our team was in the wrong place. So once again we packed up our chairs and moved over to the second field. The kids headed out onto the field and started to warm up, but once again there was three teams warming up. Our couch finally got the game scheduler on the phone and asked her what was going on. She apologized that she didn't call us, but our game had been moved to 12:00. As you can imagine some parents didn't not react well to this. When I told Greg we had to move the chairs again he refused to move. I finally grabbed a couple of chairs and the kids and headed over to the new field. Greg finally came over after stewing for a couple of minutes. By now the kids were getting hungry so Greg went to get Forrest something to eat and drop Eliza off at his parents. At 12:00 we moved over to our field and it was finally time to play our game. Of course by now all the kids were tired from running around for the past two hours. There was a lot of tears and when will this game be over. The worst part is we lost two of our players because of other conflicts so only one kid could sit out at a time. Forrest was horrible. It is hard to see your kid acting so bad when you know they can act better than that. I think everyone was just grateful when it was all over. Of course when the game was over and all the kids got their treats they all went running off the field. So much for being tired.

Memories

September 11, 2008

This morning started out just like any other morning. I was up by 6:00 and had the kids out the door by 8:00. I did not even realize it was September 11th until I turned on the computer. Such is the life of a stay at home mom. Every year when September 11th roles around I remember the day very clearly.

I had just found out I was pregnant with Forrest and I was having horrible morning sickness. I had worked it out with the principal to come in a little late everyday so I could be sick at home and not at school. As I was pulling into the parking lot the news was just coming on about what had happened. I sat my car stunned that something like this could happen. I immediately went into my classroom and turned on the news. All day long I let the kids watch the news while they did their work. Many students had questions that I did not have answers to. It was a very trying and difficult day.

Having just found out I was pregnant it really made me worry about what kind of world we would be bring our child into. A lot of things have changed since that day some for the better and some not. The world is still a scary place and I don't think it is going to get better anytime soon. I am just glad I have my family and friends who are always there to love and support us. Together we can get through anything that gets thrown at us.

Getting My Head Screwed On Straight

September 7, 2008

Thank you for all your kind words in regards to Eliza. I gave myself a day to feel sorry for myself and then got busy. I have been calling around and getting information. My doctor feels that waiting until January is a good idea. She would like to give everything a chance to work before we start a bunch of testing. We will start off with the MRI and then get her worked up at the UofU. I also have a call into Karen's little sister Cheryl. It seems that her daughter, who is 2 months younger than Eliza, was just diagnosised with Apraxia. Also at our next speech appointment I plan on getting the number for the local Apraxia support group. When Eliza's speech therapist first suggested that she had this problem she also told me about a group that gets together to try and help each other out. Hopefully things will start working out. If not everyone will just have to start learning sign language.

A Very Long Day

September 3, 2008

Today has been a little bit of a rough day. Everything started out normal. Forrest was off to the school bus by 8:00 and Eliza was up at 8:30 even though we had put her to bed by 7:30 the night before. This early morning preschool is really wearing on us. For most of the morning Eliza and I ran errands. After lunch Forrest came home and we rushed off to our round of appointments we had for this afternoon. Our first appointment was Eliza's 3-year well child. Everything is fine with her, but her doctor is very concerned about Eliza not talking. She would like to do an MRI to rule out any type of abnormalities and if in six-months if she is still not progressing she wants to send her down to the UofU for a full battery of testing to make sure there is nothing else that could be causing this.

Our next appointment was with Eliza's new speech therapist. I causally mentioned what my doctor had said assuming that she would say that all that testing wasn't necessary, and that she was coming along and it was only a matter of time before she was talking. But she didn't say that. She agreed whole heartedly with my doctor and even suggested that if in a year she hasn't improved that she will need to start using a computer to communicate. The speech therapist explained that Eliza was severely delayed and if things didn't start changing soon Eliza's future my be in jeopardy. It just broke my heart. I had pinned my hopes on her going to preschool and everything miraculously getting better, but now it seems that this might not be the case. We could very well be struggling with the ramifications of her delayed speech for the rest of our lives.

To continue the frustration Eliza will not cooperate with the speech therapist at all. She won't say sounds and words that we know she can say let alone try saying anything new. She seems to really like her new speech therapist, but she doesn't want to work with her at all. I don't know if this is because we are pushing her too hard or if this is something more we need to worry about.

For right now we are going to do everything we can to help Eliza and in six months we will re-evaluate to determine if we need to get further help or not. If you could keep her in your prayers I would really appreciate it.