Happy Halloween

From three of the cutest kids you will ever see!  I hope everyone has a Happy and Safe Halloween!  Our kids are super excited! 

On a side note, I have noticed several new visitors to our blog.  If you are new here, please follow my blog and leave me a comment with your blog so I can return the favor! Plus...next month I am hosting my first giveaway and it is a great one!  You will not want to miss out on it. 

SWING!

Yesterday the lighting outside was perfect! We walked over to our park and snapped a few pics.  Don't you just love the faces the Hippie can make?  She is such a ham!  The Professor was unimpressed with sitting in a real swing, but he sure looked cute!  Hope everyone has a great Saturday! Enjoy your families and stay safe!

Professor Getting Down

Something Worth Celebrating Too

Yesterday was incredible!!! The Hippie ran in the door from school and flung her backpack down.  She began rummaging through it, grabbed a small book and literally threw it on my lap and exclaimed, "Look at this Mommy!"  On the front was a very cute picture of her. It read "Hippie's Sticker Book".  I peeked inside and there were several stickers.  One sticker said, "for pointing".  Another said, "Raised hand for needing help".  But, the last two stickers "Mouthed to her teacher" and "mouthed all her site words"!  We were in COMPLETE shock!  To be totally honest, I really thought that the Hippie was not going to progress any this year.  So what did we do last night?  Loaded up for some celebration ice cream!  The Hippie was so excited and proud!  I just wanted to cry I was so happy!  Our girls are making strides with their Selective Mutism!

When you go out with grandparents....

Sometimes you come home with candy. 
I am so thankful our kids have wonderful, loving and involved grandparents...3 sets and 2 great-grandparents! And in case you are wondering....no the Hippie could not finish it! It is sitting on a plate in the fridge just waiting for her. 
Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Food

When the Genius was a baby, she had some pretty serious feeding issues.  She was unable to eat even baby food til she was close to two years old.  We had her in therapy for months to help her be able to eat.  Because of that it seemed like we got both the girls off to a rough start on eating foods.  Now we are trying to make up for that and help them learn to like a variety of foods.  The Genius actually likes some healthy foods (grapes and spinach salad without dressing are one of her favs).  The Hippie could live on wheat bread, sugar and crackers.  We have started some new dinner rules at our house.  The girls were not thrilled with these new rules, but they have accepted them and our dinner time is going MUCH smoother now.  The other night we had grilled chicken, bacon wrapped asparagus, cauliflower mashed "potatoes" and spinach salads for dinner.  The Genius actually liked the dinner!  She asked for seconds on her asparagus.  The Hippie was not very thrilled and hardly ate any of it.  We asked her if she understood these new rules.  She said, "Yeah, it's cause you want us to eat new and yucky foods."  Kids!

What Did That Boy say?????

Where we live, there is a small park in our backyard.  Literally.  I can look out the kitchen window and see the jungle gym.  As you can imagine our girls spend a LOT of time over there playing.  9 out of 10 times they will be the only ones out there.  The other day a little boy from their bus was out with them.  He is 5 and in Kindergarten.  They played together for awhile and we checked on them frequently.  Saturday as we were on our way to the Farmer's market the Hippie spoke up from the backseat.  "That little boy uses lots of words that we don't understand because we don't know what they mean."  My husband and I exchange meaningful glances. "Um what words sweetie?"  "Things like 'Holy Crap'!"  "Oh, well we are very proud of you for telling us that he says that, but we really don't say the word crap.  It is not a nice word to use."  "What does it mean Mommy?"  "Poop" Giggles from the backseat. 

Oh those kids....

I actually have a blog about some kids.  And they are not our kids! Shocking, I know!  At church today I went downstairs to go feed the Professor (the seats upstairs just don't cut it when you are short and trying to nurse a baby).  While I was feeding him the 3-5 year old class came in to have a snack.  They could not see us and so I was able to overhear what they were saying.  The teacher asked them, "So in our lesson today we learned that God takes care of us.  What is something He does to take care of us?"  One child answers, "He gives us a home."  The teacher enthusiastically replies (thrilled that the youngsters remembered the lesson), "YES! God gives us a home to live in and what is one way a home protects us?"  One adorable little girl says, "Our homes keep us safe from evil villains!"  I woke the Professor up because I started laughing so hard!  Evidently the teacher wanted them to say that houses protect us from storms.  One little boy answered correctly and then the same little retorts, "well and homes give us the stuff to make hot chocolate too!"  I bet her mama has a lot of fun with her!  What a cutie!

Sweet Hippie!

This is what she wrote when they were told to fill the paper.  Allow me to translate....
"I have a baby brother.  He is cute! He is special and very cute."
I love our kids and love their relationships with each other.
Have a great weekend!

First Laugh

The Professor has gone and done it.  Last night he started laughing!!! Seriously, there is no sound on earth that can compare to your babies/kids laughing.  We all gathered around him and tried new things to keep him laughing! It was precious!  Hopefully today we can record it and share it later.  But last night we were all too busy laughing and getting him to laugh.  Evidently we wore him out because he went to bed early AND slept all night! Way to go Professor!

Something Worth Celebrating

Today was a big, big day here at our house.  If you recall, I recently blogged about Selective Mutism.  The Genius has not been speaking to her teacher, or really even inside her classroom.  However, she is talking to everyone else!  All the kids, other teachers, parent volunteers... Her teacher was frustrated with the lack of communication.  She was taking it personally that the Genius was not speaking to her.  She really wants to talk to our daughter.  Since we have seen such HUGE progress with the Genius (meaning, a major, major decrease in anxiety) we felt the time was right to apply some mild pressure.  So for a few days we talked to her about talking to her teacher.  Eventually we gave her three choices.  1. She could  whisper to a friend and have the friend tell her teacher something. 2. She could mouth words to her teacher without actually speaking.  3. She could talk to her teacher.  We told her she could pick a reward and that the reward was equal to the choice.  Choice 3 would get her the biggest reward.  She told us she wanted choice number 2. We said ok and she asked if she could have ice cream.  Of course we agreed and told her if she mouthed 1-2 words we could buy some and all have a small bowl after dinner.  If she did more than that we would all go out and she could even have a double scoop.  Guess what we did tonight? Yep! We ALL went out for ice cream and the Genius had a double scoop!  She mouthed 10 times to her teacher!!!! We did not even tell the teacher we were doing this, but when we opened the Genius' homework folder there was a note from her teacher saying that our daughter had mouthed words to her ALL DAY LONG!  You cannot even imagine how thrilled we are.  Cloud 9? Cannot even compare to how we feel tonight!!!!  This is a HUGE GIGANTIC step for a child struggling with Selective Mutism.  Today was worth celebrating and that was the best ice cream I have ever had.  We are so proud of our girl!

Queen for the Day

Recently the Hippie was Queen for the Day.  She waited and waited for that day.  She came home just glowing so my hubby snapped a few pics of her.  Personally, I think she looks like Max from "Where the Wild Things Are".  Either way, hope you enjoy them!

Family Fun Race

A few weeks ago the girls and their Daddy ran a 1 mile together.  It was kinda like a fundraiser for the school and promoted family wellness.  It was a lot of fun and the girls ran the whole mile!  I have a few pics that I wanted to post from it.  Enjoy!

Fun at the Fruit Farm