Living for Today

We've been very busy bees here. I've been emerging from a funk that had left me really unmotivated, truth be told. Sometimes it just takes reading something wonderful or witnessing the beauty all around you to snap you back to what is important in life. Living the in-between. Sure, we all celebrate birthdays and holidays, but we need to remember to love and appreciate what happens in between. Those are the moments we remember and cherish. Without the stress, and the worry of making someone else happy.

Some photos to show what we have been up to lately:

Welcome Summer: Memorial Day Weekend 2011

This Memorial Day weekend was filled with wonderful food, friends, gorgeous weather, wet bathing suits and towels, and the smell of sunscreen. Everything needed to make some wonderful memories, and really get to savor what makes life so wonderful. Last Friday there was a saying that I heard:
Life is hard, and it will always be that way, until you realize it is so. Then life isn't so hard anymore." I urge everyone to do what you can to enjoy every moment you are given, love more, spend more quality time together, play with your kids like you are a kid yourself. My mom once said to me "When you look back on your life, you won't regret not working enough, or not making enough money. What you will regret is not spending enough time with your children." Live beautifully, enjoy what you've got!

We have a crawler!

When we went to visit family in VA at the beginning of the month, Devin started to figure out he could lean forward onto his arms in the sitting position. This was a big deal, and completely out of the blue. Now, this child has always been so interested in the world around him, he has never liked laying down. He hated tummy time, like, dispised it as if it were the worst thing in the world. He was quick to learn to sit up on his own, and seemed pretty content there for like, 3.5 months. But then, all of a sudden, things just clicked, and he is off! Here is a video of him the first day he started crawling <3

A Stay-At-Home Mom

Sure, there's being on-call 24/7, more poop-related activities you can ever imagine, there's a lot of stress, coffee that's ice cold when you get around to drinking it, and oh, the lack of sleep. But there is also love, and subtle points in your everyday routine that will cause your heart to swell and make you change your perspective and realize how short of a time you will have these moments.

I am very lucky, and thankful that my two boys adore each other. The moment that Devin was born, Ryan was right there watching over him. One of the nurses came into our room to check him over while we were still at the hospital, and Devin started to cry, to which Ryan replied "You be nice to my brother!" and quickly rushed over to his side.

Now that Devin is almost crawling, their interactions are more and more entertaining. Ryan laughs, which almost always elicits a belly laugh from Devin. Ryan is kind, and sharing with his little brother, and I couldn't be prouder that they are my two boys. I am so very thankful that we have them, and I really hope their love for each other continues into their adulthoods.

Each day I am thankful that they are here, that we are all here together, on this crazy life journey. I could not think of better people to have around me all the time.

8.5 months

 

Time is going by so fast! He is so very close to crawling, I am guessing by the end of the week he will have it down.

 His other new trick is pulling himself up on furniture. The train table seems to be his favorite place to try it out.

Proud of himself!

My handsome guy <3

Apraxia of Speech

What is Apraxia of Speech? From Wikipedia:

Symptoms of Acquired Apraxia of speech (AOS) and Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) include inconsistent articulatory errors, groping oral movements to locate the correct articulatory position, and increasing errors with increasing word and phrase length. AOS often co-occurs with Oral Apraxia (during both speech and non-speech movements) and Limb Apraxia.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) presents in children who have no evidence of difficulty with strength or range of motion of the articulators, but are unable to execute speech movements because of motor planning and coordination problems. This is not to be confused with phonological impairments in children with normal coordination of the articulators during speech.
Acquired apraxia of speech involves the loss of previously acquired speech levels. It occurs in both children and adults who have (prior to the onset of apraxia) acquired some level of speaking ability. Unlike Childhood Apraxia of Speech, AOS is typically the result of a stroke, tumor, or other known neurological illness or injury.

This is what Ryan has. There is a support walk in September that we are planning on attending. It is, of course, something that I am passionate about, since it involves our every day life. Right now he has private speech therapy once a week, and goes to our school districts special education preschool program 5 days a week. At school he receives additional speech therapy, as well as work on social aspects and academics.

The walk is only a mile long, set in a beautiful seacoast town about a half an hour from here. I need to make the team, but right now we are on it, the boys are both going to participate, and Sean's mom and sister are walking too.

I have heard that I should see The King's Speech since it will hit close to home. I will have to add it to my Netflix queue.

Right now we are working on his high frequency words that he says wrong consistently. Words like floor, girl and squirrel are very difficult for him. His speech pathologist made him a booklet of his trouble words with pictures to work on, and tapping out syllables seems to be very helpful for him. We are also working on greeting/closing people, which is hard for him because he is self conscious about his speech. It's a work in progress, but he has come a long way since he started therapy last August. 

What's New

 My boys LOVE each other so much, it's so much more wonderful than I could have ever hoped. I can't (and can at the same time) wait for Devin to be mobile so he and Ryan can run around together. Ryan tells me that Devin is his baby, and is very careful of him and likes to be right with him, making him laugh.

 Poor Ryan pretty much spent all of February sick. First he had pneumonia, then strep, and then he got this whole body rash. The poor guy, here's to hoping he is better the rest of the year! That darn rash took about 3-4 weeks to fully leave.

 I find all sorts of words written everywhere now. Ryan loves to spell and wants to do it all the time. It started out with words, now he wants to spell whole phrases. It can be tough to do it all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME, but I know he is just learning and I would hate to snuff out that little flame. So I take a deep breath and start to spell.

 Devin is 7.5 months old now, and very chunky. I love it! He is such a happy guy, very attached to his mommy, but Daddy is pretty awesome too. He goes to bed at 8 most nights, gets up to nurse around 1 am, then back to sleep until about 6. Now that the weather is getting nicer, he is happy to be outside. If only we could get some warmer weather and sunshine on a consistent basis. I'm not sure this spring is convinced it wants to be here yet, and here it is almost May.

 My tall boy, he looks so grown up! I can't believe he is going to be 4 in June. I cannot believe how fast time goes by. Makes me a little sad, but I try to just enjoy the time we have together.

 Aren't they just so cute!

 He can stay in this position, but doesn't go anywhere yet. He is pretty content to sit and play with toys, but if he is like his brother, may not crawl until 11 months.

 We love our little town. Lots of neat things out there to see and do. The community garden is right around the corner from our house. We thought we might participate this year, but it looks like we might wait until next year when we would have more time to devote to it.

 Amongst the coolish weather and gray skies, spring is sort of trying to come out. He was a little excited, can you tell?

 A very, very cold and windy day after my birthday, Auntie came with us to the park with some friends of ours.

 Ryan loves his friend Lileigh, so sweet!

 Ryan and his best friend Garrett, playing at the playground together.

 Ryan's goober face, I told him to smile, this is what I got, lol!

 Dying Easter Eggs!

 My boys, just love them!