Soaking up the Sun

The weather is finally starting to turn around although it seems reluctant. We've had some nice, sunny and warm days around here and the kids have definitely been taking advantage. Top of the list for family time is the sand and water table with the park being a close second but each child has their own unique idea of fun. Gracie is enjoying getting dirty, and muddy, James is loving inventing things in the garage and bringing treasures up to his club house and Annie is so content sitting in the sun or riding her bike!

Last week James had his end of the year picnic with his school friends. We are going to be so sad to see school end this year. James has made some amazing friends and we have loved the school, his teacher and all of the families that we have gotten to know this past year. Next year is kindergarten and I think that's all I'm going to say about that because my eyes are already starting to tear up! James also had his coin drive at his school this past week - he made over $400 for Rett Research!! He was very proud of himself and of course mom and dad were too!

We had another augmentative communication evaluation last week with Annie. Unfortunately Annie was on a sleep strike last week so I was very reluctant about how the eval would go. But of course my little champion proved me wrong as she proceeded to whip through the computer games as if we had the device at home and she had been practicing for weeks! I couldn't believe it! As soon as we walked through the door Annie started giggling, she was just so excited to get on the computer. The sales rep. showed us the computer and started out slow with pictures of animals, when Annie looked at them they would make a sound. She mastered this and then went on to games with 2 selections - mastered it, 4 selections - mastered it, 6 selections.... She did so well that the rep took video of Annie using the device and they have asked us if they can write up a success story about her. Scott and I are just so thrilled! At this point we would love to buy the computer and get her started but we are going to wait until next year when they are planning on coming out with a device that is smaller and more portable. Until then we will continue to work on communication and will be anxiously awaiting the day when our Annie will be able to talk to us!

The strollathon is tomorrow, we are all looking forward to that! We will update the site with tons of pictures!