Getting back into the swing of things

That's for you Papa! :)

Well we're pretty much back to normal now and are settled into a good routine. Ben has therapy on Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday morning, and I teach Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Monday the therapist meets us at Nana and Papa's house, so we usually spend the day there and Uncle Mike and I cook up a nice dinner. Friday I try to find something fun to do for Will, which usually involves either our neighbor's swimming pool or Nana and Papa's. There are a lot of fun things to do in Wilmington. There's a nice aquarium, rivers, beaches, and good public libraries. Of course we don't spend much time at the beach because Will still hates it there. He mostly either wants to go swimming in the pool or "fishing" in the creek - he uses his Uncle Mike's old fishing pole to catch sharks, turtles, whales, you name it. One day we'll take him fishing for real.


These next couple of pictures aren't the best quality - they were taken outside and it was so humid the lens fogged up on me, then I had to try and fix them in photoshop. Anyway, Will's vocabulary is really hilarious right now. He uses big words like unfortunately and concerned but he's not quite sure what they mean. He'll say "unfortunately, you need to come and play with my train track." He's learning to spell and can spell his name, Nana, Papa, and of course Poo-poo. (thanks grandad!) He's not too interested in drawing and would rather run around the yard with his lawn mower mowing the grass or explore the "jungle" in our back yard. As I type this he's very involved with his Thomas train track - he makes up stories and talks for the different trains. They have very interesting conversations, mostly about crashing.

Ben is coming right along. His head finally grew in diameter - it was 45.1 from last November until this June, and now finally it's 45.5. .4 isn't much but it's something! We have him on a series of probiotics, vitamins, and detoxifying supplements. We had him tested and he had an unusually high level of arsenic in his system - I found out recently that small animal owners are being discouraged from giving their pets tap water in Charlotte because of the high levels of arsenic in the water. Would have been nice to know while I was making Ben's formula out of tap water! But anyway he's a sweet and happy little guy as always. He uses some sign language now - he'll sign for milk and sometimes he'll use the "more" sign. His favorite thing right now is patty-cake, but he wants to hold your hands while you do it. If you try to clap his hands together he yanks his hands away and grabs yours and makes you do it. He knows all the motions too - he's an excellent director. :) Still no babbling though.

Brian loves his job here and I have 11 students now, so things are going really well with Brian and I! It took me 2 years to get 11 students in Charlotte, so I'm very happy. And I have an orchestra gig coming up, which I'm really excited about. Hope everyone is well!