We started out December with our two oldest performing with the Millennial Choirs and Orchestra's (MCO) Christmas Concert. We actually took Claire along. She was only 3 months old. We got soooo many dirty looks when we came in and sat down with a baby. The concert was 2.5 hours long and she started fuss in the last 10 minutes. I quietly got up and walked to the hall. When it was over, I came back to grab my bag and everyone around me couldn't believe how good and quiet she was. I love proving people wrong.
While I feel singing with MCO can be uplifting, I'm not sure the time commitment is quite worth it...yet. There is a lot of volunteering that parents are required to do and the pick up line is horrible...
Nothing like the 5 year old stealing your phone for a classy selfie 😂
Baby Claire sporting some cute sunglasses. I'm pretty sure all my kids have a picture like this one when they were younger than 6 months.
Here's our festive tree. Adam's family had a wonderful tradition of getting an ornament every year. We continue that tradition and I love getting them out each year and hearing the kids exclaim 'I love that one' or 'these are my favorites'. It's also fun deciding what ornaments the kids will get that year. The kids made each other presents and wrapped them themselves. They stuffed all sorts of things under the tree within a week of it being up.
This is Luke at the Therapy Connection. Our MAPS Dr. requested that he be seen at an 'official place' as she felt my trained college student wasn't good enough. We drove 25 minutes there and Luke would receive 30 minutes of therapy that did nothing. Many times they would strap him in a chair to 'help him focus'. Of course that didn't get any results (surprise surprise). Luke does so much better in an environment he's familiar with and given time to warm up and relax. My helper, Alia, gets so much more out of Luke than our therapist at this place ever did. On top of that, it cost $90 for 30 min. I pay my girl a fraction of that per hour. We went to the therapy connection for 5 months (more as a formality and because Lily and Elliott were getting speech therapy at the same time).
I should also note that we started Luke's 'yeast protocol'. This is 76 days of specified supplements. He had to get one prescription for Fluconozole and then take MCT oil for a month and Candidex for a month. All these things had to be taken a specific times of day and had to be timed with food (or the lack there of). He also couldn't have any processed sugar, honey, maple syrup or even most fruits. He could only have blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapefruit and apples. It was pretty hard feeling like my full time job was to give him supplements on a timed schedule, but I was going to do it if it made him better/improved his health.
As you can imagine, we pretty much had to avoid all holiday parties and forgo many of our holiday traditions related to food (which were a lot!!). That was really hard on the kids but I was really proud of them and tried to compensate in other ways. We also just talked a lot about how it was hard and how we missed our old food. I can't tell you how many times I cried in private because I was just so tired of the rigidity and not being able to ever have a break in cooking.
He had loads of die off the first few days. Poor guy. He slept poorly because his stomach hurt and had loads of mucus-y diarrhea. (sorry TMI!). This would happen for 4 days or so, each time we changed the yeast supplement. His stimmy-ness also would go crazy during the die off because toxins were being released and made his inflammation worse. I kept reassuring myself that we had to take a few steps back if we wanted to take a few steps forward.
Here's our Christmas card. This was the first year that I didn't send a Christmas letter. I just didn't have it in me. I didn't want to have to write about Luke because anything I would say in a 3-4 sentence blurb just wouldn't cut it. It was also really hard to get good pictures of Luke. He doesn't like looking at cameras and it's hard to get an organic smile with him also looking in the right direction. It took our photographer two different sessions on two different days to get 3 photos that were pretty good. It's amazing the things you take for granted. Getting a smiling photo of my son AND him looking at the camera is priceless.
My kids took an art class this semester from a woman who used to teach art in schools and is now retired. They go to her home once a week for an hour. Best part! It's only 5 minutes from my house. Big time win! She is really amazing about teaching them to use all the different mediums but to really allow them to embrace their own style. She has a warm personality that helps the kids to feel confident in what they are creating. At the end of the semester she had an 'art show' at the Sachse Library where the kids could showcase their favorite pieces that semester. I was really proud of all the kids. Elliott's rooster got a lot of comments. He did a great job!
My kitchen wall (and now the kids' bedrooms) have been turned into an art gallery because we want to showcase all of them!
Alex's art has really surprised me. He's really taken to abstract art and portraying large or emotional themes: space, war, peace. I think art has been a good outlet for him and I'm excited to see how he progresses with it.
These two are taking a Sunday nap. I'm pretty sure there's nothing more relaxing than a sleeping baby on your chest. I always want to go to sleep when that happens.
Oh the pink alligator! My kids took science classes at the Heard Museum in McKinney this semester. Elliott's class was below the main entrance down some stairs. To get there, you have to pass the gift shop. Well, my friend took my kids to class the first few times and Lily kept mentioning that she really REALLY wanted a pink alligator that she saw in the gift shop for Christmas. She mentioned this alligator every other week for 3 months. After the classes had ended in December, I decided to go back (without kids) and buy this famed alligator. I was honestly expecting it to be much larger (given that most of Lily's stuffed animals are medium to large size), so I was taken aback that it was the size of a beany baby. I took a picture for Adam on my phone and he was just as surprised as me. I just have to laugh because I loved stuffed animals just as much as Lily does when I was a kid. But I can't say I ever had any stuffed reptiles, pink or not. 😂
This is a picture of the kids in the basement or jail cell of the Fort Smith National Historic Site in Arkansas. We love going to National Parks or Historic Sites so we can do the Junior Ranger program and earn badges. But that's not the reason we drove all that way. We took a day trip to Arkansas to go 'investigate a form of therapy for Luke' or so we told our kids. We drove 4 hours to go see goldendoodle puppies (which our kids had no idea that we would be getting one) and we just told our kids that this lady 'happened to have puppies' and would they like to see them. The kids were a little timid but they thought they were really cute. There were two out of the litter that we were particularly interested in and we eventually decided on the smaller of the two. He would be delivered on Christmas Eve.
I take way too many sleeping baby pictures. There are worse things. She is the cutest, squishiest baby.
Here's the adorable collar I bought for our puppy that would be arriving in a day. The Christmas bow is so cute.
Here he is! This is Finley. His name means 'fair haired hero'. We felt it fit him perfectly. We had to structure our day so the kids would be out of the house most of the time. It was really hard to keep Finley quiet because he whined most of the first day he was here. Poor little guy. I just held him for hours and then put him in our bathtub with lots of towels when he wanted to sleep. Somehow, our kids remained oblivious to his squeaks and grunts. I don't think Adam and I hardly slept that Christmas Eve.
Here's the tree in all it's Christmas Eve Glory. I think I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas because all the anticipation is at its highest. Thankfully, this year I wrapped all the presents before Christmas Eve. That was a relief to go to bed before 11pm.
Here's little Finn in his crate. He slept so much that first month with us. He was only 6 weeks old when he got him. His favorite place was under the couch. Now (9 months later) he can only fit his head under the couch.
Alex got a new chess set for Christmas. He's been challenging everyone to play him. I am happy to report that by July of 2019 Elliott could actually win against Alex 50% of the time. Alex has been annoyed by this, but I tried to explain to him that he should be glad that he has someone that he can play that challenges him. I'm not sure if he sees my view point yet.
Look at the squishy ball of fluff!
It's safe to say that Finley was the favorite Christmas gift this year. I always said we wouldn't get a dog until we were done having kids. I didn't expect it to be this quick afterwards, but the opportunity came and we took it. We haven't looked back.
Comments