Monday, January 24, 2011

Big Day for A Little Boy

Our son, Easton, has apraxia.
Basically, he struggles with speech. 
His mouth doesn't make the words his mind wants him to say. It's a developmental issue that can be overcame, it just takes a lot of work, therapy and parent involvement. 


Easton had been receiving speech therapy from the age of two until he turned three. One day a week therapy just wasn't helping much. He needed more intense therapy.


The state of Florida has a program to help toddlers with their speech. They really want students ready for kindergarten, so they will do whatever they can to help the process.


Long story short, we went through months of evaluations, tests, and appointments to accurately diagnose Easton. We wanted all other potential issues to be ruled out. Thankfully, it is just a speech issue. But at about age 2 1/2 the congnitive skills begin to slow down if the auditory (speech) skills are not normal. So, with knowing Eastons cognitive skills would soon be affected, if not already, we decided to take action.


Easton was offered speech assistance five days a week for the entire school day. We decided against every day, all day. He's still our baby ya know! But, as much as it breaks mommys heart, we have his best interest at heart and knew what had to be done.


So, here's our new part time preschooler!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Make Me Smile

I think I'm a pretty simple girl.
Not much fluff.
What you see is what you get.

So when people keep asking what I'd like for my birthday it's hard to think stuff up. So I've been making a list!

Here's how you can put a smile on my face ...

A stockpile supply of this stuff.
It's heavenly!



This one can come be in any form.
Gift card, lunch date, food to go.
You name it, I eat it.


I kinda freaked out and thought I wasn't allowed to wear jeans from this store since I turned 30 last year. I've changed my mind since then. They're my favorite jeans and I'm okay with adding more to my wardrobe! 


My mom has one of these and I realized I NEED one.
I do not enjoy cleaning out my microwave.
The only thing that would be better is if I'd been the one to invent a microwave food cover.
That would be pretty sweet!

Key Words here are: Cinnamon Dolce Latte

But if I wanted to be all fancy and make my own coffee,
I'd have to choose this little mini maker.
I've tasted some friends and it seems like it'd probably be worth the cost. I'm still up in the air about it!


So, there's some ideas.
Since my birthday is tomorrow, this list is probably too late for anyones liking ... but seriously, since when have I ever been on time!

Now, it's your turn. What would be on your
"Make Me Smile" List?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.
This will make me smile too ...

Friday, January 7, 2011

Perfect Weather

For Painting
For Sharing
More Sharing

















For Sun Bathing (in January)
For Bike Riding
And For Mean Muggin'

















How was your "Perfect Weather" day?


Monday, January 3, 2011

Our First Ever Christmas Alone

This Christmas was a bit different than any in the past.
There used to be hustle and bustle.
Running here, running there.
Packing the vehicle full of luggage and presents.

So a few years ago my husband and I decided we would
break all other tradition, and we would have Christmas
morning at our own home with our children.

Well, since all of our family are a couple hours away,
this was a tough decision.

But when we made that decision, my mom let me
know very quickly that her and my dad would love
to be at our house Christmas morning, if we were okay
with it, so they could see their grandkids open gifts.

It's always worked out beautifully.
UNTIL THIS YEAR.
My dad came down with the flu on
Christmas Eve. There was no way he was
making the trip to Panama City Christmas morning.
He couldn't.
And even if he could, I wasn't so
sure I wanted to take the risk
(we haven't decided on flu shots yet for this year.)

Once reality hit me that this would be the first year in 
30 years (yup, 30 years, folks) that I wouldn't see my 
parents on Christmas Day, I put my big girl panties 
on so that my kids (especially Autumn) would have a 
good day despite the fact that it was just gonna be our
little family of four.  

It turned out to be great.
We had (thankfully) got the kids a few board games
and a couple movies as their gifts.
So, we made breakfast for lunch
and spent the rest of the day just us ...
playing games, watching movies, talking ...
in our Christmas jammies!