Kids, kids and more kids

Here are some random pictures and comments about the kids!

Dominick loves to PUSH things. He loves the go cart even though it is currently not running. Since our yard is covered in leaves he loves to cover his go cart up with leaves and push it around the yard.



Bailey is an animal lover. I remember once when she was younger she was in the car with me. There was a stray dog walking on the side of the road and Bailey started crying begging me to rescue the dog. Maybe she will be a veterinarian when she grows up!



Marissa is a PRISSY GIRL. She is definately the "girly, girl". She loves to take pictures, fix her hair and look in the mirror. Hummmmm, I have vague memories of being like that when I was younger, ha.



Justin is the sweetest child you will ever meet. He has the most beautiful eyes you have ever seen and he can be the grumpiest child you have ever run across, ha ha. Oh and Justin has eyelashes that any woman would kill for.....

Justin is a Big Boy

I finally took video of Justin feeding himself his milk. This is a huge step for Jussie Bear. Now it does look a little funny that he drinks out of the can the milk comes in, but although he loves to drink his milk so much that he gets mad when you try to feed him through his tube (when we have to give medicine) he refuses to drink it if it is any other type of container. He is slow when it comes to changing anything, but just like the changes he has made thus far, we are sure he will eventually drink out of a cup. We will work on changing the type of container in the future but for right now we are estatic! He is funny, if you put a toy that makes noise beside him while he is drinking he will hold the can with one hand and keep the other hand free so he can press the buttons to make the music play.

Dominick and Justin Skipped School Today!

Ha, well not really skipped school. They had a dentist appoinment scheduled at 11:00a.m. Of course, smack dab in the middle of the day.

They both had great checkups! Dominick sat like a big boy in the chair all by himself and let them clean his teeth.

Now Justin, whew, that was another story. Because of his sensory issues he does not tolerate anything in his mouth besides his milk or baby food. Up until a few months ago, he would not even take baby food unless I used a certain spoon.

Today, I had to lay in the dentist chair and lay Justin down on top of me. I had to take my legs and wrap them around his legs to keep him from thrusting his hips and legs from side to side. I also had to basically put him in a headlock to keep his neck from moving (I know it sounds horrble, but it was not as bad as it sounds) and then use my hands to hold the sides of his chin. Alex was standing up and held onto both of his hands.

As soon as the lady cleaning his teeth started he commenced to screaming at the top of his lungs and fighting. Let me tell you he is one strong kid! Alex and I were both struggling to hold onto him. I could not see his face with the way we were postioned so I assumed (as anyone would with as loud as he was screaming) he was totally upset with huge crocodile tears. Well that was not the case at all. He did not have one single tear in his eye. As soon as she stopped he stopped all of his commotion like the snap of a finger. Ha, just goes to show you how smart he really is, lol.

Neither one of them had cavities nor did they have any other problems!

Oh I forgot to mention that when the actual dentist examined Justin he was a lot calmer. She is very soft spoken and was soothing him and she said something to the effect of that he just liked her better. I told her probably so because she looked and sounds just like his Grandmother Gin! You know how they say everyone has a twin, well Granmother Gin's is in Mobile, AL!

Justin's Wheels

My parents got all of the kids some sort of "wheels" for Christmas. The girls both got mountain bikes. Dominick got a scooter he wanted. My sister's child got a car she can ride and drive. So the hunt then began for what to get Justin. When Justin is presented with something new and different he usually does not like it, but as always she found something that he loved. Here is some video of Justin in his new wheels!

Thanksgiving and Christmas 2008

The kids had a wonderful holiday this year! Along with Halloween, this was the first year that Dominick really understood Christmas. The girls are 10 now so I had forgotten how powerful Santa is to kids. It is amazing how well kids mind when you tell them you are going to call Santa, ha ha. We were having problems with Dominick waking in the middle of the night and crawling in bed with us. We told him that Santa did not like that and amazingly he quit. He started sleeping in his bed all night long. It is also amazing how soon after Christmas their ways will change. Since Christmas is over Dominick has started getting back in bed with us. We told him that Santa did not like that. He informed us that "It did not matter because Santa had already been to our house." WHAT????!!!! All I can say is that he is really a smart, smart kid ha ha!!

Here is an album of our holidays! Just click on the picture and the whole album will open.

Thanksgiving and Christmas 2008

First Annual Halloween Party 2008

This past Halloween was a lot of fun for us. In previous years Dominick did not really understand Halloween and he was scared of all the decorations. This year was different though. We walked into a store and Dominick picked up a Halloween mask and put it on his face. I acted like I was scared and he took the mask off and said "Mommy it's just me, don't be scared." He did not want to leave the aisle with all of the Halloween decorations and that is when Dominick and I decided that since we had our own house that we would hold our First Annual Halloween Party. We went home and Dominick told Alex that we were going to have a Halloween party and the first words out of Alex's mouth were "Who is going to clean up after this party?" Ha, ha....he always worries about the mess involved! We told him we would and he said ok! This is something we hope to do every year. Not only did the kids have a blast but the parents did as well. We had different activities such as Go Fish, where they went "fishing" for treats and they bobbed for apples. Instead of going trick or treating we had Trunk or Treat. The parents brought candy for the truck or back of their car. We had everyone park on one side of the yard and the kids went from car to car trick or treating. We did not have to worry about what our kids were getting or anyone getting hurt because it was all contained on our property! We had a bonfire and all sorts of spooky treats! Here is an album of all of our Halloween pictures! Some of the pictures are of the preparation and some are from the actual party! Just click on the photo to open the whole album.

Halloween 2008

Backtrack

I will start by backtracking some to catch everyone up on how we have all been.

Alex and I are good. We are both still trying to make it in the health insurance industry. It has not taken off like we had hoped for it to, but we have not given up on it and are still trying to make our dreams of being business owners come true.

Marissa and Bailey are doing great. They turned 10 on December 28th. We have not had a party for them yet, but plan to do so once they get back in school from their holiday break.

Dominick and Justin are doing AWESOME in kindergarten. We are extremely pleased with their progress. Dominick LOVES school so much. In the beginning of the year I drove all of them to school every morning. They all wanted to ride the school bus, but we did not let them at first because I still have to drive Justin to school every morning. They kept asking to ride the school bus so we finally gave in. The first day I was really worried, especially about Dominick. I walked with them to the stop (which is in front of our next door neighbors house) and Dominick told me that he did not need me there because he was a big boy. The driver arrived, picked them up and off they went. I walked off crying, our baby is a big boy now!!

Justin has come so far in such a short time. Kindergarten has been the best thing that could happen to him. In the beginning of the year we were unsure which school he would go to. I was on the phone for 2 days with school board officials, schools, etc. On the second day I got in touch with the principal of the school they are all now enrolled in. During our first conversation she could tell how frustrated I was. I was still confused and had no answers. No one could tell me anything, even at the school board, it was an endless cycle of answering machines and being given new numbers to try to reach someone that could help me. She ended up being a livesaver. She told me to to worry about a thing and not to call anyone else. We lived in her school's district and she was going to handle it all for us.

In the beginning the school did not even have a special education teacher. The principal told me that we had a special needs child in her district and she would do everything in her power to get us a teacher so we could have all the children in the same school together! It was a close call, but 2 days before school started she got the green light for us! They would be able to meet Justin's needs with a teacher!

We are so pleased with everyone at the school. They all bend over backwards for us to make it easy for us. We get to skip the carpool line and go to a special location. The teachers meet us outside with Justin's wheelchair so that saves me from having to park and carry him inside. They ordered a special food processor to make baby food for Justin. Anything you can think of they do it for us! We got very lucky with the teacher as well. Her name is Mrs. Curtin and she is AMAZING. She is younger then us, a recent graduate still working on her masters. She is young, fresh, not intimidated by the school system yet, full of energy, and ready to "save the world". She has intensely worked with Justin this year.

Before he started school this year he was eating baby food and was starting to drink his milk out of the can that it comes in. While tube feeding him we would put the can to his mouth and he would drink it. Since school has started she has been working more on his eating and he is now gotten to where we can sit him down and put his can of milk in front of him, once we put his hands on the can he will pick it up and drink it by himself!!!!

The most recent improvement is that she has been working on him walking. She started out by making him stand behind his wheelchair and pushing it down the hall while he held on to the back. She then borrowed a walker from another student and put him on that. He is doing well on it. CRS, which is Children's Rehabilitation Services had previously told us that we could not order a walker until they knew he could possibly do it. Well the other day I took Justin and the walker into the clinic and we showed them his progress. They were all so surprised and excited. We now officially have his own walker ordered!! It will take a few months to receive it, but they have it ordered!