Thankful Day 4

Today I'm thankful for:

• My very supportive husband
• An extra hour
• Warm baths
• Shopping with gift cards
• Warm drinks
• Our dog 

Thankful Day 3

This will be a short post.  Today I'm thankful for:

• Our family
• Shrinkwrap for windows in the winter
• Little children in footie, cuddly pajamas
• Cars that run
• Neighborhood get-togethers - no driving required
• Electric power

Thankful Day 2

Today both girls were off from school and we had such a fun day together.  Today, I'm thankful for:

• Waking up without alarm clocks
• Hot drinks.  Especially the Pumpkin Coffee from Dunkin Donuts I purchased today with my gift card
• Grilled cheese sandwiches with soup dinners.  Everyone eats without complaints so we are able to have conversations that don't include "how many more bites do I have to eat????????" and "can I be done now?  how about now?  what if I eat a banana instead??"
• Family movie nights - and inviting a neighbor over to join in the fun
• Fun afternoons with friends.  Today we met friends at Chuck E Cheese for lunch and games.  Julia is always such a trooper tagging along to all Emma's therapy appointments on her days off from school that this was just the special treat she deserved! 

• Giggly girls during physical therapy and a PT that is so great with both my children - not just the one getting therapy!

Thankful Day 1

Last year during the month of November I shared things I was thankful for and I'm going to do it again this year.  I believe thankfulness is a muscle that we need to exercise - the more we stop and allow ourselves to really think about all we have to be thankful for, the more blessed and happy we feel.

Today I feel overwhelmed with how many wonderful things happened to us today.  I am especially thankful for:

• A package received in the mail from a stranger.  It's a part we use to troubleshoot and control Emma's CI and somehow I had lost hers and a replacement unit is very expensive and not at all in our budget.  I've been looking around the house for this part everyday for weeks because I feel something is "up" with the CIs and I wanted to use the part to do a bit of troubleshooting before the CI warranty is up next month!  Last week someone posted on an internet CI group that they had this part and were offering to give it away for free to anyone that needed it.  Someone else had requested the part before me, but they were going to use it as a spare and the person wanted Emma to have it since it would be her primary (not spare) unit.  The part arrived today in the mail along with a lovely note.  Tonight I feel so thankful that a stranger took the time to help make our life a bit easier.  Once again I'm reminded of how amazing it feels to be blessed by the kindness of strangers!
• Caring teachers and finding a school that is the perfect environment for my child to learn.  We attended the parent teacher conference for Julia today and I really appreciated all the time and energy her teachers put into communicating with us and helping our daughter learn in such a warm, nurturing environment.  Julia's school fits her personality to a T and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to send her there.  
• Spontaneous comments.  Emma's teachers told me today that Emma used her talker 4 times during craft time without being prompted.  She asked for glue, scissors twice (my girl LOVES using the one-handed scissors), and crayons.  Emma has never used her talker spontaneously at school and only used spontaneously a couple of times at home.  This is a major goal we are working on with her IEP and it's wonderful to see that Emma is starting to connect well with Evie and to use it appropriately without prompting.  
• A beautiful card and note in the mail today for our anniversary.  Along with a generous gift.  Thanks so much to the person who sent it (you know who you are - I don't want to call you out here because I'm not sure if it would embarrass you!).  

Wishing everyone days filled with much to be thankful for.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is a pretty big deal for my little girls.  The talk about what to "go as" is a pretty serious discussion in our house.  Julia usually narrows it down between two different possibilities early on and flip flops from one to the other for a long time.  This year Julia chose Cinderella and we just so happened to have Cinderella's Wedding Gown from our trip to Disney in 2011 and it still fit.  Lucky me ;-)  Then we went to the mall and she fell in love with some butterfly wings and decided she would go as Cinderella with wings.  She looked adorable!  I know, I know, I'm not the most unbiased person.

Emma usually goes with the flow.  She likes to dress up but hasn't really shown much interest in choosing her own costume so it's pretty much been whatever we have in the house but not this year.  In August we were shopping at TJ Maxx for who knows what and she spotted a rack of Halloween costumes and did her happy wheelchair dance and squeal until I took her over to check them out.  That is once I figured out what was making her so happy!  She wanted this candy corn fairy costume and was over the moon with it and so I bought it for her.  Of course.  It was the first time Emma has pretty much ever asked for something when we weren't giving her a choice between two items.  She spotted it, got me to take notice and then smiled all the way to the register.

The children from our block went trick or treating as a group like they did last year.  The ladies went with the children and the guys stayed to give out treats.  Our one neighbor had a bonfire and everyone met there to give out candy for the houses.  It's a great way to enjoy the night and the children have SO MUCH FUN!  The adults do, too.  We really love this neighborhood!

This year we recorded Julia's voice saying Trick or Treat onto a Big Mac type program on the iPad and   Emma was then able to just touch the screen to say Trick or Treat. It was a big hit with the children - they were happy to hear Emma say trick or treat - and the people at the houses we visited.  I think Emma liked having her button.  The only thing that wasn't ideal is her external speaker stopped working and we had to rely on the built-in speaker, which isn't very loud :-(  I think we'll use her birthday money to buy a better external speaker - if anyone has one they like, please let me know in the comments section.  She had a logitech and it stopped working after only about 20 uses!

Julia's favorite treats are the lollipops.  She did not get that from me or Chris.  Emma was all smiles when she received chocolate.  She had not met a piece of chocolate she didn't love.  She does get that from me.  One house was giving out sodas.  The children were running to that house and yelling to each other they were getting soda.  It was so funny!

Hurricane Sandy came through town but, thankfully, our neighborhood was mostly unaffected so we had Halloween as usual.  During the storm we did put on the Halloween music we borrowed from the library and carved a pumpkin.   It was the first time Chris and the girls ever carved a pumpkin.  Yikes!  How did it come about that I'm the only one in the family that ever carved a pumpkin?  Emma loved how messy it was, Julia loved tracing the stencil onto the pumpkin and helping me toast the pumpkin seeds for our snack, and Chris was surprised at how hard, yet satisfying, it was to carve.  We all agreed it was a lot of fun and will do another one or maybe two next year.

We wish everyone a Happy Halloween!