Bennett is 3!

Bennett had his third birthday on Thanksgiving this year. He has already made out with an impressive haul. We got him a train table, complete with way too many train accessories. He has been really loving trains for the past few months and always plays with them whenever he has the chance. It's so cute to listen to him squeal "tains!" and "choo choo" when one catches his eye. Grandma Jackie gave Bennett The Very Hungry Caterpillar themed bedding. It is perfect in his room and even had two pillow cases with Bennett's name embroidered on them. The new bedding meant it was time for the real big boy full-size bed.

My mom was here, so she took the kids out while we got everything ready for the big reveal. We had to entirely rearrange Bennett's room to get everything to fit well. And it was a risk to do everything suddenly as Bennett doesn't always love a change in routine, but this worked out. He was so happy to see everything and proceeded to play with the trains and cuddle in his new bed. He loves the sheets with all the stuff the caterpillar ate and spends time every day counting the oranges, plums ("pums!), etc.

Bennett's party isn't even until this weekend. It is also VHC themed and Mom is going a bit overboard. I have found Etsy to be a great party planning/decorating resource for those of us who lack any artistic and creative abilities. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures.

My mom stayed for a little over a week. Overall, we had a good time and everyone is still living. So that's a win. We bought her an Ipad for all mom-related holidays for the next two years. She took a couple of classes for that at the Apple store and seems to be doing well with it so far. We really didn't do anything else very exciting while she was here. She made some yummy food as is her habit.

Unfortunately, after she left, Vivian and I came down with the stomach flu. Bernie got it a few days later. Bennett seems to have been only mildly affected up to now...I hope we can at least get through his party. And then maybe we can avoid having that type of illness when we go to Phoenix over Christmas.

I am going to register Bennett for preschool tomorrow and maybe we will take him over on Thursday. I am really excited/sad/nervous for him to start. I think he will do well, but I guess it's my job to worry about it.

I have been walking/slash running with a friend of mine. We are trying to get ready for a 5K in April. It's not easy getting out to exercise with Bernie's work schedule + 2 kids, but we are managing a 2-3 times per week (except when someone is vomiting of course). We are quite the sight with our huge strollers and four screaming children. Vivian gets especially pissy for some reason.

I just asked Bernie if there was anything I was forgetting about and he wanted me to remind everyone how great of a husband he is. And he's right of course.

We have been going to JC Penney portrait studio a few times a year since Bennett was born. It is important to me to get milestone pictures of the kids and family photos every once in awhile. I know they aren't the most professional or creative photos, but they were serving the intended purpose. Anyway, they are habitually late. And it makes me crazy. It's especially bad when you get two kids ready, schedule the appointment when they will be happiest, and then have to wait 20 minutes while the prior session finishes. I thought I solved this problem by only booking the first appointment of the day. We went in at 10am today and no one was there. We waited 10 minutes and then told the manager we were leaving and not coming back. I am finished with that bullshit. Consider this my official warning to anyone else in Longmont...go somewhere else for your photos. I don't think I will go to that store if not absolutely necessary...like when they send me $10 free coupons.

The photo drama leaves me in a conundrum. Vivian just turned one and Bennett will be three. And it is time for a family photo. We wanted to have my friend Sara's husband Tyson take them while we were in GF this past summer, but my dad's drama and Vivian's allergy issues prevented that from happening. So, I am going to try and find someone around here. I have one person in mind, but if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.

In more exciting news, I think we have decided on a preschool for Bennett. I was originally convinced that we would send him to Tiny Tim (where his therapists work) for at least this spring. It's a great program that combines typical and challenged kids with qualified teachers and therapy. Sounds perfect, right?? Well, we decided to go through the school district's evaluation as well to see what they might offer. They recommended a public preschool near our house. We checked it out this week and really like it. There are only 6 kids in the classroom with two adults (the teacher and an assistant). Speech and occupational therapists come in each week to work with the kids while in class. The teacher is a special education teacher and has experience with kids like Bennett. She was very nice. So, I think we are going to take the leap of faith and start him there in January (Tues/Thurs mornings). We will have another IEP meeting next week to iron out the details and sign paperwork.

We will probably continue to see his current OT and ST at Tiny Tim as well. We will see how he does with that plan and adjust as needed. I don't want him to be too overwhelmed.

Trip recap, etc.

We had a nice (but short) trip to Minneapolis. The kids really enjoyed seeing Grandma and Auntie Jodi. It didn't take them long to warm up because Grandma had beed doing lots of Facetime with them before we left. The wedding was fun, although the ceremony itself was not something the kids were able to make it through...not that I expected them to make it through an hour in a church in the first place. I think we stayed for the first 20 minutes and then watched some Mickey Mouse in the car. Bernie enjoyed seeing his friends again. He's right that that was probably the last time they will all be together for the foreseeable future.

If anyone ever gets to that area with kids, the children's museum in St. Paul was great and so was the Thai restaurant across the street. I am still thinking about that food. It's nice to be able to go into a restaurant and order basically anything off of the menu and not worry about there being any dairy in it.

We got back the day before Halloween, so there wasn't much time to prepare. Bennett went as a pirate in jammies (sans hat) and Vivian donned her cupcake gear. She stayed in the wagon while Bennett and I went door to door. He filled his bag by going around the block and is now constantly asking me for "cany!" I suppose I should hide the bag or something. Maybe Vivian can wear the Mickey outfit I got for Bennett this year.

We are happy with our new phones and the ipad was so awesome to have for the plane ride. Bennett is already a pro at one of the preschool apps. I am looking into a few options of speech apps we can work with at home. He continues to make good progress and will now try to imitate almost every word you say when asked. He knows his numbers 1-10, most letters by sight, shapes, and colors. I think there is a lot in his head we just can't know because of his communication challenges. His new favorite thing in the world is trains. He says "choo choo" every time we see one or talk about them. I guess the train table sitting in the basement was a good choice for a birthday gift. Now I just have to find somewhere to put it which involves selling some more of the baby stuff on Craigslist.

Vivian is now our 1 year old baby. She is experimenting with crawling on her hands and knees more. I don't see her walking in the immediate future as she doesn't even like to practice while we hold her hands. She is quite the little imitator though. Her current favorite think is playing patty-cake complete with hand-clapping, rolling, patting, and throwing it in the oven. Hopefully I can get a video of that soon.