Our Week

Sunday afternoon Jason and the big girls went over to Marissa's house for dinner.  Grandma Turpin gave out some beautiful things of her mother’s.

Jason sent me these pictures from his phone during Sacrament Meeting.  Sammi keeps silly putty in her scripture bag.  If her hands are busy, her mind can listen.

Monday Jason and the middle girls joined his family at the beach!  They had a fun time – Lizzy got stung by a jellyfish! 

                                                          The puppies welcoming Lizzy home!

Meanwhile, Becca and I were feeling a little left out, so we did some shopping and had lunch at Chick-fil-A! Chick-fil-A is one of the few fast food restaurants Becca can eat at, so she loves it.  Joy loved Chick-fil-A!! The only way we got her out of there was bribing her with some play time with her Speech Therapist! Bec and I couldn’t go because of Bec’s college class and all the girl’s therapies.

The girls playing together       Bella getting into toilet paper.  This is so normal…awesome!

Look who is holding his bottle!??!?!       Bella watching over Alex in his little room.

Playing with Miss Rosie’s new toy

All of the girls do this – they disappear and I find them in bed watching a movie on the ipad!  Sammi is such a big help.  I am so grateful!

Tuesday Jason, Sammi, and a bunch of Baileys went to see Batman.  They enjoyed that very much!  That night Becca, Becca’s friend, Zach, Sammi, Jason, Baileys and Grandma and Grandpa went to an Astros game.  The girls and I stayed home and watched Mirror, Mirror and ate pizza!

 

Trying squash – he liked it!  Children who are blind can have feeding difficulties.  One suggestion I read was to feed him in his car seat because of the excellent support his body would receive.  We started the intro of squash with this funny looking tool that looks like a binky on the end but with grooves.  So he welcomed it into his mouth, thinking it was a binky, and sucked the squash off.  Then we moved onto the spoon. I consider it a success!

Alex loves his little room!  he coos, babbles, and laughs in there.  He plays with toys – it’s AWESOME!  If he is laying somewhere else, he just lays there.  But in his room, he is alive.  I love it!

Wednesday Bella and I spent down town visiting audiology and ENT.  Thursday Bella got a new Signing Time - she was so excited! She watched it over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Thursday night the Baileys and Turpins came over for dinner and “May I?”  Sammi taught everyone the game “Dummy, Dummy, Dummy.”  Everyone picked up on it right away except poor Grandpa!

Friday as so exciting – they brought over a wheelchair for Bella to try.  She can get a new wheelchair every 5 years, so we have to be forward thinking – she’ll be almost 9 when we can order a new one!    So her PT wanted to think about independence.  She wanted to see if Bella could move the wheelchair herself.  I thought, no way.  But Sammi showed her how, and that was it.  She was wheeling all over the room.  I was so excited!  Bella never ceases to amaze me!  Hopefully in a month or two we’ll have a new chair for her.  Exciting!

 

 

 

Cyndi and her boys came to visit us.  They had never meet Alex!  Can you tell Jacob loved Alex?  Becca spiked Nathan’s hair :)   And I made this fun treat – chocolate drizzled on salty popcorn – sweet and salty, yum!

Friday night we went swimming and had pizza!

Cute Husky!                                       Alex tasting watermelon – he liked it!

Bec, Sam, and I went shopping on Saturday.  School is one month away!  Scary!   Joy and her dog

The Turpins and the Baileys have now gone home.  We will miss you!  Jason is already missing his parents so badly.  It was wonderful to have time together!

Becca and Didi

Yet another video about the little room, and I wouldn’t have included except for Joy’s additions…Joy wanted to add her two cents.  ;)

Something I said in that last video, “It makes me very, very happy to see my boy playing.” :)

What a difference a week makes!  For a little bit, I saw Alex as my blind son.  Thankfully now I see Alex as my son who happens to be blind.  Very different – and very important.  We are all back to loving, smiling, and doing silly things with our boy.  I’m grateful for that!