Fountains

These pictures were taken 10-14.  Jacob was on an outing with a caregiver to a local outdoor mall with a huge water fountain in the middle of it.   One of his favorite places.  His caregiver texted me these pictures...pretty much Jacob in heaven.   I love them both.

Khakis

Jacob prefers shorts, but when he does wear pants he's pretty much a jeans kind of guy.  I got him a pair of khakis this week and he wore them on Tuesday to school.  Looked like such a little man...

He's really thinned out the past 6 weeks or so.  He was up to a 12 or 14 husky in pants and those are all now falling off of him.  These khakis are 10H and he's got plenty of room.  I think it might be the reduction in ice cream now that fall is here!  Plus he is getting taller.  Sigh.  

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins on Monday night (10-29).  Jacob wanted NO part of it..he is so disgusted with the insides of the pumpkin that we usually have to coax him to participate at all.  The only thing he would do this year was to draw a face on his pumpkin.  He came over to check on us a few times, but with such a horrible expression on his face!  He seems to think we are nuts to want to do this!

In the past, Sydney also has had trouble with the inside of the pumpkin.  But this year she was really excited to dig in, and with a glove on her hand she was scooping the insides out like a pro.  Yay!

Natalie loves to see all the seeds and "guts" inside of her pumpkin.  She immediate wanted me to roast them...which I never got around to doing, unfortunately.

"Whoooooaaaa!!!"

This year Natalie was able to complete a pattern and cut it out pretty much on her own.  She is getting so big!!!

 The face Jacob drew.  Adorable.

 Getting some Sydney love.  :)

 The drawing for Sydney's pumpkin.  She wanted to make her own design with no pattern.

It looked so spooky when it was lit up in the dark!!

Sydney finished way before Natalie (since I did her carving), so she got her jammies on and joined us with her plate of tortilla chips and cheese.  One of the only things she gladly eats these days.

After about an hour and a half, Natalie had had enough for the night so she got her jammies on too and the girls had a little snuggle with Chris when he got home from work.

And a giggle or two.  :)

Almost Halloween!

These pictures were taken 10-29-13.  The girls got new Halloween shirts from their Grammie & Grandpa....matching kitties.  So cute!  We did some Halloween shopping and took these on the front lawn before we headed out.  Sydney didn't have her headphones and so her hands were in her ears the whole time.  And they're blurry...quick pics on my phone.  Still cute.  :)

Curls

I love these curls!  They fit her sweet personality.  I call them her "curly twirlies" and Chris' nickname for her is Curly.  Sometimes she says "Do you like my curly twirlies?"  :)

Today we put some new layers in her hair and she got big ringlets after I washed it.   Had to get some snapshots.

Volume...Medium

Two posts in one day!  That hasn't happened in a long time.

This morning Jacob wanted to play a game on the PBS Kids website.  It's from the show Fetch with Ruff Ruffman and the game has you create your own roller coaster ride.    

I set him up with the computer and he pointed and said something I couldn't quite understand.  It sounded like "museum" and I was thinking maybe there was a museum game he wanted to play.  So I said "museum?" He tried again.  "Medium."

I sat down next to him to try to figure it out.  Once I was seated he said..."Volume...medium.  Down, please."  The volume was turned up pretty high from the night before...I listen to books with the girls and for some reason we have to turn it way up in order to hear.  

 I can't even tell you how pleased I was to hear him use those words..."volume" and "medium."  Jacob gets by on as few words as he can and he almost always picks the simplest ones.  Lately his therapy program has really, REALLY been pushing him to use full sentences and we have been requiring more language as well.  It is so nice to see it working.  :)

Isn't he the cutest ever?  I could look at his angelic smiling face all day long.  He is beginning to look a lot less like a little kid and more like a pre-teen though.  Boo.

First letter

As we are going into our second year of homeschooling, I have found that I have to take teaching moment with Sydney wherever I can get them.  She does not have the concentration to sit for long (or even moderate) amounts of time and do schoolwork.  She is very bright though, and tends to catch on quickly.  That sure makes my job easier!  

We kept up some of our work during the summer, mostly because I want to be less stressed out during the school year.  Between her rigorous therapy schedule and her difficulty doing big chunks of school time, I think it will work better to spread it out more.

She got some lovely presents from Chris' parents for her birthday and so we decided it would be nice to write her very first real letter/card today and send them a thank you note.  She was so excited that it was going to go in the MAIL!  For real!  And the mail truck would come get it!  :)

Here she is writing.   I wrote everything out in pencil and she traced in marker.  For awhile I was having her write everything and realized she's not ready for that yet.  She was getting so frustrated.  She can make all the letters but the size and spacing drive her nuts.  So for now I write and she traces.  She's gotten much better so I think I am going to start fading it soon.

All sealed up and addressed and ready to take to the mailbox!  We have to go across the street to send our mail, which means we got to take the exciting walk together.  She was full of smiles, and we talked about the letter going ALL the way to Nevada!!  In fact she was so excited that she didn't bring her headphones...wow.

After we put the mail in the box, I asked her to pose for a picture.  Too much time to think and her hands went right to her ears to block them.  But still smiling! :)

Hands down!!!

And walking back to the house, ears safe again.  She is so cute.