Easter Eggs

The other night we dyed Easter eggs and the kids had a blast.  We even wrote out names on some of the eggs!

 

Josie got put to work last night helping daddy hang some blinds.  Daddy made her carry all the tools.

Makeup!!

What little girl doesn't love makeup?  Well, I can tell you that it isn't just Josie that likes to do makeup.  Today, Cooper delved full force into the makeup and had a blast making himself look handsome.  Josie insisted on doing mommy's makeup as well as her own, although she wouldn't let me take a picture of her.

Cooper also got a new to him Carhardt jacket from our neighbor Jackson.  Although the jacket is too big for him, he insists on wearing it whenever we go outside. 

 

Also, just some recent pics.

School Registration

Last week, Cooper and I took Josie to Prairie View(Josie's Elementary school), for her school registration.  Josie was super excited in the car on the way to school.  She was trying to bounce in her car seat and was smiling from ear to ear.  She was especially excited to be taking Cooper with her and showing him her school.  Once we got into the school, Josie became really shy.  They wanted to take a picture of her, for their files, and she wouldn't stand by herself, so Cooper had to stand with her. 

Then, we got to go into the preschool room and play.  Unfortuanately, some of the toys were put away that Josie normally plays with.  They did have the sensory table filled with beans, so her and Cooper played and played in the table.  The teacher's aid followed Josie around for a few minutes and asked Josie lots of questions. 

We did have to talk to the teacher about going to Prairie View rather than Stoddard.  Luckily the teacher, Ms. Fox, was able to get back to me the next day and confirmed that Josie would be able to still take the bus and go to Prairie View.  Josie, will be picked up on a transition bus at around 6:40am and ride until she gets to the Middle School/High School at about 7:40am and then transfer onto a shuttle bus and go up to Prairie View.  Then the reverse on the way home!  I have a feeling she will be falling asleep on the bus ride home.

Snow fun!!

We had lots of snow this weekend to play in, so the kids spent a lot of time outside Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  When Luke plowed the driveway Josie wanted a big pile to climb so that's what he did. 

 

 

Cooper got his first skidsteer ride and he seemed to enjoy himself.  He actually fell asleep after helping Luke plow snow for a while. 

 

The kids and I built a our first snowman this morning and they thought it was pretty neat.  We told Josie that the snowman will probably tip over or melt so every so often she keeps checking out the window to make sure it's still there.

The kids were having fun climbing up the mountain of snow.

 



The Sickies

Well, the last several weeks have not been fun for us as the kids have been off and on sick.  Last week, I took the kids in for ear checks as it seemed like they both had ear infection since they were digging in their ears quite a bit.  The doctor said their ears looked clear and they most likely just had the Upper Respiratory Virus that has been going around.  So, home we went, with no medicine.  This was disappointing as we were on almost a full week of off and on fevers.  Well, the next day, Thursday, the kids seemed to be a lot better.  Doesn't it always seem to work that way!  Then, Saturday afternoon Cooper started coughing quite a bit.  And that night he got coughing so hard that he actually threw up.  Since then, he has had off and on fevers, getting as high as 103 degrees.  We've had to give him both ibuprofen and acetaminophen to help bring the fevers down.  Sunday and Monday nights were just awful, Cooper was having a hard time breathing and up coughing a lot.  We even spent time sleeping in the recliner to try and help his breathing.  So, I finally broke down and took him into the clinic today as it seemed like he was still getting worse.  I'm glad I took him as he has ear infection in both ears and is also being treated for bronchitis and pneumonia.  Hopefully, now that he's on meds he'll start to feel better!

Words and Big White Wedding Dresses

Cooper had his evaluation this last Friday and was immediately accepted into the Birth to 3 program.  We will have someone come out to the house every other week for the next 6 months.  While they were here for the evaluation they gave us a few suggestions on how to encourage his speech and we have been working on it.  They did state that it is very clear that his gross motor skills are at a 24 month olds skill level or even higher.  They also stated that his fine motor skills are at about a 12 month olds skill level.  We decided the first approach is to try working words into his gross motor skills. 

So, this weekend we started doing this and we taught him to knock on things that he wants to get into and try and say "knock, knock" and he immediately took to this and started saying the words.  That was on Saturday, but we haven't gotten him to do this since then.  Granted he did come down with a nasty cold again and doesn't seem to want to do anything but cuddle.  Hopefully, he'll recover quickly and jump back into learning his words. 

Josie has been enjoying all the visitors that have been down to work with Cooper and has discovered that she really enjoys helping Cooper learn.  Cooper really enjoys the attention that Josie gives him and wants to do everything that she does.  Hopefully this will keep up and Josie will help teach Coop his words!

Ever since Christmas, and slightly before, Josie has been in love with big party dresses.  Well, the other week, Josie got to spend the night with Grandma LeJeune and Grandma took her shopping to Once Upon a Child to pick out another play dress.  Josie found the rack of First Communion and Flower Girl dresses and fell absolutely in love.  She picked out a white dress that also came with a veil.  So now, at home she insists on wearing her big white wedding dress and veil whenever possible.

Cooper Update

I know I haven't given an update on Cooper lately, so hear goes.  Cooper had a hearing test on New Year's Eve and everything came up perfect.  He did have a slower reaction to his low tones, but they figure he was just getting bored with the tests. 

So, we have moved on to working with the Birth to 3 program.  We met with the Program Coordinator last week and immediately signed Cooper up.  She said that they expect an 18 month old to be saying 25 words and a 2 year old to be saying 50 words and be putting atleast 2 words together.  Well, since Cooper is 20 months old and was only sort of saying "momma," we new he was immediately accepted.

The next step is for the speech therapist and the early childhood teacher come out to the house and evaluate him.  One of the requirements of the program is that he be evaluated by 2 different people, using 2 different evaluation scales.  Then, they will put together a report and determine a program for him.  They will also determine how often the speech therapist will come out to work with him.  Most of the time they spend about 1 hour every week or 1 hour every other week.  Mostly, the therapist will just give me different ideas of how to work with Cooper.  The great thing is that everyone will always come right to the house. 

Since the program coordinator was here, we have gotten Cooper to say 4 words.  The words are not the most clear but he is attempting them.  He also will only say these words on command.  The words are: momma, more, milk, and boot.

I'll update after our next meeting.