Catching Up

Nothing fancy tonight, just a bit of what has been happening here in bullet list since I'm in kind of a relaxed, lazy mood tonight ;-)

• Julia and I were driving to a birthday party she had yesterday and we were talking about how her favorite subjects at school are the monkey bars and P.E. (gym).  I decided to ignore the fact that monkey bars are not a subject and I asked her what they did in PE this week.  She said they played soccer both days so I asked her if she liked soccer and she said it's not her favorite.  I asked her what her favorite sport is and she thought about it for a while and then said very definitively "Bocce Ball!"  I couldn't help but let out a few good for your soul laughs.  She joined me in laughing and kept telling me that Bocce ball is definitely her favorite.  I didn't know she like bocce ball so much, we have a set we used a lot at the old house and we'll have to find a spot around here that has enough of a lawn to play it.  Yes, she isn't going to be a great athlete.  Dancing is more her gig.
• After I wrote the post on Emma's Tobii eye gaze trial mentioning that we might want to test the Eco2 next, I received a note the very next day from her SLP saying they wanted to talk to me about the Eco2 and that they think we should trial that system, too, and see which works best for Emma.  I SOOOO love how in sync I am with Emma's speech therapist at this school!
• The weather here has been unseasonably warm.  We went and purchased our tree today and it was in the 60s.  We were even debating if we needed a jacket or not!  Last year we had the girls in 2 layers, hats, gloves, and boots to get our tree.  The wind was whipping and we were so cold and a highlight of the day was the hot cocoa with lots of marshmallows afterwards.  Today we found a truly mom and pop tree farm, had our pick the 3 trees they had that were around 6' tall (seriously!  that is not an exaggeration! this farm seemed to really love the 3' tree...), and came home and had some water with ice in it.  Of the two, I prefer the warmer weather but I wouldn't mind something in between.
• Julia and I decorated Emma's wheelchair for Christmas.  It has tinsel and battery operated Christmas lights.  Emma was over the moon happy with the chair and couldn't stop laughing and squealing when she saw it.  It made my Momma heart feel good to see her reaction!  Julia then got a little sad.  We eventually got it out of her that she was sad because didn't have any lights.  I told her I would get her some and that made her happy.  The next day I bought her a strand of the battery operated lights. We decorated her doll's stroller and then we all went to the mall that night.  Both strollers sporting lights and Emma's with the additional garland.  We had so many people smile and comment on how they loved the lights!  It was so refreshing to walk around the mall and only get positive attention from people.  Not one person said God Bless You to me!  Believe it or not I usually get lots of well meaning??? people coming up randomly to me and Emma and saying that.  For the record, I HATE it when they do that!!!  So, I consider that a great trip to the mall.  Plus, I loved watching the girls enjoying the lights on the strollers.  

Lots of photos to share and I'll post some this week.  Now, off to work on my Christmas to do list!