School Days

Alyssa started school yesterday and absolutely loved it. She was so ready. I know that one year ago she would not have been ready, but yesterday she was. God is so good. Here are a few pictures of her first day at school and her Clifford the Big Red Dog hat today.

Kailyn went to the ear doctor to have her ears cleaned and they decided to sedate her to have it done. We will go in on the 18th for her sedation and then if needed they will add tubes to her ears. They aren't sure if they are need tubes until after they get all the wax out. We will see. That's about all the updates for now.

Enjoy the pictures of Alyssa.

Tammy

Here are my two bathing beauties. They both have their new shades on. Alyssa's are silver shells. I walked outside to find these two in this position. Kailyn's glasses are multi-colored shimmers. If you click on the picture you can see them a little larger.

Wow two posts in one day.

One more week of summer

Almost 10 months home. Seems like a lifetime. I was watching another blog that the family is in Ukraine adopting a DS little boy now. I recognized the internat and it brought tears to my eyes to think that one year ago our little ones were walking that same pathway every day. Thanks God for bringing them home from that place.


Alyssa officially starts school one week from Monday. Can't believe that the summer is coming to a close and we are beginning another school year. Alyssa starts on the 27th of July, Jaryd starts on the 3rd of August, and Jacob and Kailyn start on the 10th of August. So off we go.

We have been doing some doctor visits over the Summer. Jacob is now wearing glasses and will have surgery on the 26th of August to correct his crossed-eyes. Both eyes will have to be done. He has also been to the Neurologist where we have gotten a diagnosis of possible mild Asperger's disease. We had already had thoughts that he had this problem. But, the doctor is doing some more testing. This week we had an EEG. We will get some blood work done on Monday and then back to the doctor for the results.


We also visited the doctor with Kailyn this week. We are starting some more testing to see why she has still not gained any weight. They are doing a test on Monday with some barium to watch her swallowing. She doesn't seem to be absorbing the nutrients from her food. We have done the calorie studies and she is getting enough calories. She eats plenty of food. We had an appliance put in her mouth this summer that is supposed to help with tongue thrusting. They are going to start on a more rigorous routine with the speech therapist. She is still using her tongue to eat not her teeth. She also finally has an appointment with the Endocrinologist. She has grown 3 inches, but not one pound different. I was reading someone else's blog about having a hard time finding clothes to fit, she is wearing size 6-12 month shorts and I still have to take darts. Will her butt ever get large enough to hold up her pants. The doctor decided to put Kailyn on a short acting medicine in the evening. Once her medicine has worn off she gets almost uncontrollable in the evening. We gave her the first dose yesterday and it made a huge difference. She is so tortured by the ADHD.


Jaryd is having some issues with control when the medicine is worn off. We are working to get him to learn control instead of more medication. He seems to respond when we talk to him about his behavior. This is a plus. I think it is time to increase his dosage, but I would like to wait until school starts.

Alyssa is still sailing along. She is ready for school. She learned a lot at VBS and continues to amaze us with her unselfishness.


We also went to see Dora the Explorer Live this week. The kids were pleasantly surprised. I didn't tell them until we were there at the theater. The sun was in Alyssa's eyes so the picture isn't the best. It was bright after coming out of the dark theater.

I am trying to download this video again. Can't seem to get it right. The new camera Kevin bought me for Mother's Day is so hard to change the video over. Tammy

This is true Americana on the Fourth.

I know, I know

Shadow Boxes on Mema's new porch

Cooling our feet in the World War II Memorial

Pilots anyone

Maybe the girls too

on the Metro after the first day in DC

USS Wisconsin

Start of trek through the Mall in Washington, DC

Ripley's Believe it or Not

Sesame Street Land

Just love this picture

Sand monsters

Lunch time
Jamestown Settlement

I know that it has been a long time since I blogged. We have been super busy. We are now home for the rest of the summer. I think. Maybe not. Jaryd would like to go fishing so that may be a day or two trip. My dad has to make another trip to the doctor late July so I will have to go with him there. So maybe a couple more small trips.

The trip to the beach and Washington, DC was awesome. Not sure that we will do two consequtive weeks again, but oh well we survived. The kids didn't get the real meaning of a lot of the historical stuff, but I am hoping that when they are a little older and start learning American History they will be able to say "Hey, I saw that." We did Washington, DC in a whirlwind tour. We would take the Metro in every day and then start on seeing as much of the Mall as we could see. The first day we were in the Natural History Museum all day. The second day we went to the Capital, Air and Space Museum and walked by all the other memorials. The kid were super tired. So were mom and dad.

We had some interesting hotel episodes in DC. Too many to talk about. But, in the end it was all good. The hotel had problems not the kids.

We enjoyed Williamsburg so much that we bought some more time share there. Breanne was with us for those first five days and she helped mom a lot. We did Busch Gardens and Water Country while she was there and that helped with the kids. Kevin was able to sit with the girls and keep them occupied while we rode some bigger rides. Jaryd was a real dare devil he kept up with big sister on every ride she went on that he was tall enough to ride. Jacob would have liked to but would chicken out in the end. I am glad because mom is kind of a chicken too. The girls rode all the rides that were for their age. Kailyn wanted to ride one in Sesame street land that was a little bit large for her, but she rode anyway. She loved it. I was a little afraid myself.

I think the boys enjoyed Water Country the best. The girls did too. Kevin sat in all the baby pools and watched the girls play. Mom and Breanne took the boys on all the rides. Nothing stopped Jacob here.

We enjoyed our days at the beach. Kevin and the kids spent the days building sand castles. Jaryd loved the water. Jacob not so much. Alyssa did not want to go in without someone holding her hand, and Kailyn would not get out of the sand. NO water for her. But, they had a blast playing in the sand and collecting shells.

We went to my dad's for Father's day and spent the night. It was a great visit. We hadn't seen him in a while. All the kids joined us for lunch and that was a great treat for him.

This last week we went to Kevin's dad's and then on to his mom's. We had wonderful visits with all of them. We got to see Aunt Brenda, Uncle Brad, Lauren, Jason, and Cousin David for a short time too. Guess we have seen almost everyone since school was out. Kevin's sister Tammy and her family came over the end of May and we got to visit with them then. While at Mema's we did a shadow box for each of the kids with shells and pictures from the beach. They were so proud of them when they finished.

We are going to enjoy a quiet fourth here at home with some hot dogs and hamburgers and some watermelon. I think I will make ice cream too. Here are some pictures you can catch up on.

Talk to you soon.

Tammy