June 12 - Ahhh, I wrote this blog post at the beginning of June with the intention of coming back to it the next night to add photos. A week and a half later I'm just now getting back to it and don't have the time to add any pictures. Hopefully things will settle down after our move this weekend and I can get some fun updates posted!
May was my worst month of blogging since I started up again a year ago and all I can say is we have been super busy! We started house hunting at the end of March and quickly realized that the real estate market in Denver is crazy right now. Inventory is really low and houses that fit our criteria were on the market an average of 3 days with many selling within 24 hours of being listed. We, along with our realtor, were checking the MLS several times a day and dropping everything to run out and look at homes. We actually put two offers in on two different homes, were in competition on both, and didn't initially end up with either. A week after placing our second offer, the seller called and said that the contract had fallen through and wondered if we were still interested. We were! We closed less than a month after going under contract and are using the four week overlap time until our lease is up on our rental house to work on the new house. Gilby, my dad, and I have been painting long hours, my mom and I have had four days of garage sales, Gilby and I have met with several school personnel and had multiple meetings to determine which school Myles will start kindergarten in next year, and our daily life of work, school, therapies for Myles, appointments, and endless piles of laundry has kept pace. We've tried to throw in a few fun outings for the kids, and a date night or two...even if they do end with a stop at Home Depot.
A quick update on the kiddos --
:::Myles:::
Myles finished up his school year last week. It was bittersweet being that he has been at the same preschool for the past two years and the staff there was great with him. He had a really good year and I'm so glad we switched him from the co-taught class he was in the first year to the general education setting this year. I cannot believe he will already be in kindergarten in the fall, but preschool has set the stage for hopefully a continued positive experience. We're focusing on speech therapy this summer as this continues to be his biggest challenge. He'll be working with his apraxia speech therapy specialist two sessions a week and with his AAC (augmentative and adaptive communication) specialist one day a week. We've ordered him his own AAC device (speech generating device) and hopefully it will open up a whole new way for him to communicate until his speech is able to take over. He recently started in-home occupational therapy once a week to work on more kindergarten readiness skills and overall fine motor/daily living activities. It sounds like a lot of therapy, but hopefully it won't feel like all work for him this summer - he's starting horseback riding lessons this weekend and we'll spend plenty of time at the park and pool.
::Sydney::
Sydney continues to be our precocious, funny, bossy, persistent, sweet little girl with a flair for the dramatic. She makes me chuckle everyday with the things she says. Lately Sydney has been getting very good at identifying her emotions and will tell us exactly how she is feeling. Yesterday during breakfast she wanted grapes, so she grabbed the whole bag and was eating from it at the table. Gilby pulled off a stem for her and put the rest back in the fridge. Of course this put her in a tizzy (it doesn't take much), and she laid her head down on the table and wouldn't eat. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I am so grumpy and sad because I didn't want Daddy to do that with the grapes." Later that same day I asked her to go potty before leaving my parent's house. It always takes a little coaxing to get her to go, so when she finally went into the bathroom I heard her go, "UGH." I asked her why she did that and she said, "I am frustrated about going potty." She'll often run to find me to tell me, "Myles is bothering me so much," and if he gets too close to her she'll say, "There's just a lot going on right now." On the flip side, she'll frequently tell me she is getting "happier and happier" and always wants to know if I am happy or sad. Sydney is also very in tune with tone of voice, so if I ever get stern or raise my voice (which you can image rarely happens!) she will say, "Why are you talking like that?" This then gives me the perfect opportunity to model "I statements" that she is clearly picking up on. Mine usually go something like, "Because I am frustrated about..." (take your pick of things), or "Because I am getting upset about..." (again...take your pick).
The other thing Sydney is really into right now is her "sisters." For a few months she has talked about her "sisters" and asks us probably 10 times a day if we know her sisters. Sometimes we say yes and sometimes no. When we ask their names we most commonly get Tangled, Tinker Bell and Alicia, but that can also change. Often she says they live in California, but according to her, that's located next to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's so fun to see her imagination develop. She's a great sister to both of her brothers and such a hoot to have around.
::Ryker::
Sweet Baby Ryker is our easiest child right now. Apart from not yet sleeping through the night, he doesn't cause much of a fuss at all. A few days after he started crawling he began pulling to a stand (much to our surprise)! At first it was just on lower surfaces, but now he pulls up on anything and has taken to letting go with one or both hands for a brief moment. I'm not ready for him to fly through his baby phase as fast as he is. He still loves to eat, hang out with his brother and sister (who he is so tolerant of), and contentedly plays with his baby toys. We love our Baby Ryker!
I have more stories and photos I want to share, but unfortunately this is it until things slow down a bit. I am promising myself that I will keep this blog updated over the summer!
