Zeke's First Year of Preschool

We were so blessed by Zeke's first year of Preschool. He had 3 great teachers and a great speech pathologist that worked with him 4 mornings a week. Here is a picture of him with his teachers the last day of school. Lead teacher, Ms Michelle on the left, Ms Logan holding Zeke and Ms Donna on the right.

 We have been given all the information we need to get him into a good school down here in Florida. Such as his IEP (Individualized Education Program), his PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) (which is the next picture) and a folder with what he has done this year at school (which is the next picture in the yellow folder).

We are slowly trying to get into a routine here and checking out local library class times or other classes that we could go to. That way we can get out of the house and into a routine of learning and fun.

We are waiting until the insurance kicks in to go ahead and get Zeke tested to find out if he is or is not on the Autistic Spectrum or if he just has some major communication delays. That will then help us out getting into some programs that will help us. But we did find out they had a cool program where they the student has and IEP (which he does) he can get into the program for free. So that is pretty cool. I'll keep you updated on that. 

I ended up making these little monsters (picture below) for his 3 teachers as well as his speech pathologist. I put them in little baskets, with dark chocolate bars, tea bags, popcorn and some other goodies. I'm really going to miss his teachers...they helped make the school year not only good for Zeke but good for me.

Right now Zeke is loving Nonna and Gramps' pool. He has a little star floatation device and he loves to go in there and get some water balloons and hold on to them. If only we could get him sleeping all the way through the night and not coming in mama and daddy's bed partially in the morning. But I think that is what happens when we end up all being in the same room. Or sleep schedule gets CRAZY!!!

Well until next time...which should be pretty soon. :)

still alive...

 ...here in Iowa. The weather has been beautiful...now only if our sinuses will catch up with it will be great. We all have had some sort of the change of season cold, this weekend was a wonderful "chilled" weekend for getting rid of the junk.
Seeing that last weekend I was suppose to have a house party it has been cleaned since then. Which is nice. So just a little pick up every night (of course after the kids are asleep in their beds and can't get it messy until the next morning is helpful.) Also the thing of putting clean clothes away right after washing, drying and folding is a big thing too.
So this weekend, was very relaxing!!! Rick let me go grocery shopping while he watched the kids...and I have meals planned for the next 2 weeks (hopefully it can stretch that far) However I usually make plenty and we have left overs a couple times or I freeze it and then I can pull it out later.

I also have set a theme and a date for Aspen's 1st Birthday Party! We will be having it before her actual party because it's hard to party on a Tuesday. I wish that more of our family can be here for it...but I'm sure that we will have a great time, none the less. However you will have to wait for that to actually happen and pics and all that jazz will be put up on here. I can't believe in 1 month I will have a 1 year old!!! The time really does fly!

Z has been trying to figure out if he needs a nap or if he doesn't need a nap. Today he didn't have a nap YET he was in bed sleeping by 8:00pm (he might of went to bed early...but I am SO nervous that he's going to wake up at the crack of dawn in the morning!) I'm SO excited because he will have 4 days of preschool this coming week! He does really well with school. On Friday of last week he didn't have school and he was like "what am I doing home...shouldn't I be at school?" He's doing very well in his potty learning too...which is wonderful! Now if only we can be "trained" when we take him out and about...usually it's pretty good but what do I do about park or outdoor play where there is no bathroom and it's a public area?
Rick is enjoying his last Fellowship block...but there is some traveling that is going to take place in the coming month. He will be going to Pennsylvania for part of his testing...where you see patients and then write notes on them and blah, blah, blah. So he will be gone for like 2 days and a night (hopefully). Then at the end of the month he has an interview and a conference down in Florida...the kids and I are HOPING to get down there too...because we will get to see Gramps, Grammy and Aunt Becs for a whole week! So PLEASE pray that the plane tickets go down so that we can get those. PLEASE!!!
Well...I'm just being me...staying busy. My "normal" routine looks something like --- Drive Rick to school/work, Drive Z to preschool, have Aspen & mommy time (this looks like a lot of different things; such as naps, girlie movies, helping mommy start fixing dinner (seriously I'm IN LOVE with my crockpot), singing, dancing, learning, go on an outing (play date, store, library) and so much more), pick up Z from preschool, lunch, naps, pick up Rick from school/work, and then usually every night of the week it's different. Stuff with small group from church, bra business, knitting club, family night. It's worked out nicely that we have dinner around the table nightly around the table which is AWESOME!
I still have had some pain in my joints and such (going to see the doctor again tomorrow about it) so hopefully we can have some answers on that soon...BECAUSE I have some stuff that needs to get finished knitting (a shrug for Aspen and a sweater for Aspen that need to get finished!) PLUS I have to get to Rick and my hat for this winter (all the colors match Z and Aspen's hat...yes...we are doing matching hats this winter) ALONG with the fact that I'm having a niece ("Tink" short for Tinkerbell) and nephew ("Tank") born in the next coming 5 months SO I got to knit them something from Aunt Trina, even though they live down south. Names in the parenthesis are names I picked out as nicknames for them...this way I can call them when they get older "Tink" and "Tank" I think they might get into trouble together. ;)

Thursday Thankfulness!

Right now I'm SO very thankful for a 3 things (well actually MORE than that) BUT that is all I'm going to blog about on this Thursday evening.
(In NO particular order)
~~I'm thankful for Z having a GREAT day at preschool today. He goes to school in the morning for 3 hours and 15 minutes. He's in a class with 6 other students and 3 teachers. Here's some pictures from his first of day!

 They gave me this sheet...I LOVE to know what he did! It's already in folder, so we can look back and see how much he has changed, learned and grown. :)
~~I am thankful for photography and God's creation!!! As well as SOS (Significant Other's Support) at Des Moines University. I'm the "leader" for the photography club for SOS...so I planned a trip to Rose Garden Here are pics I took from that! All of these are SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera)

 ~~I'm thankful for the ability to create (knitting to be exact!)...I like creating with FIBER AKA yarn. And I like creating with GOOD yarn. :) The picture below is Aspen's hat. This yarn is from Baby Llama and Merino Wool.

 I'm currently working on a hat for Z...with the same fiber. :) It's SO SOFT!!! I really like it! I actually made a hat with the green for my dear friend (who is pregnant and having their son in November) it has a little brown pom-pom on top. It's really cute...if I do have to say so myself.