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Thursday, December 15, 2011

this week...

...has been super busy.  The sort of busy that comes with the count down to Christmas.  And I love it!  We are high on the magic of the Christmas season here at our house.  

Every day the boys tell me how many days we have left until Christmas.  Thanks to our advent calendars or as the boys call them, the count down calendars.  In fact, when we hung the one that they put a different ornament on the tree each day, I heard 'john, luke, john, luke, john, luke, ...' then 'luke, john, luke, john, luke, john,...'  followed by 'Luke, you can go first!'  Gotta love that Christmas spirit.

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I ordered our cards last week and they came in this week.  I'm so excited to send them out.  I love Christmas cards.  I love everything about them.  Sending them. Receiving them.  Displaying them.  Comparing them to last year's.  I know that some people are cutting back and not sending cards.  But this is one tradition from my childhood that I'm keeping.  I used pictures from our family photo shoot with the lovely and talented Jessica Zubrod.  I'm hoping to have them all in the mail by Saturday.

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On Monday, I was able to go visit Grace's classroom.  I spent about 2 hours with her and her class and was able to observe her doing some really cool things.   When I first got there, she acted happy to see me.  Oh the sweet JOY that this brought me.  It hardly seems like a big deal or even worth mentioning, but for Grace it is big.  Her teacher, Deb, showed me several toys that Grace loves.  One in particular that she seems to prefer is one where you put the car on top so it slides down.  This is a pretty new skill for Grace.  In the past she has not played appropriately with any toys and I have a basement full of cause and effect toys to prove it.  So the fact that she is playing with a toy the way it is supposed to be played with is huge.  I loved watching her put the car on the top and follow it sliding down with her eyes.


I'm now on the hunt for this toy, let me know if you see one or can find it online anywhere.  It doesn't have a name on it so it is hard for me to find.  I searched ebay under their vintage Fisher Price toys and came face to face with all the toys of my childhood.  Yikes!!

Grace also had snack time during my visit.  I was able to see her walk to the lunch room, get into her seat unassisted and feed herself her snack.  Yup!  She uses a spoon to feed herself her snack at school.  Sister really can do this, she just doesn't want to at home.  We gotta get her want to fixed.

I was also able to observe music time.  It was so fun!  All the kids really lit up during this time.  Music really is one of Grace's favorite things.  Her PT came in to work with her during music and had Grace sit on a T stool.  She didn't really like that because it works her core and makes her balance but she did it.


She also really enjoyed playing the drum during class.




Evidently, Grace prefers to use the big drum by herself.  They think it has to do with the feedback she gets from her hands and the sound when more than one person is banging on the big drum.  I walked with Grace to the gym for her gym time but had to leave after that to go get Luke.  It was so fun to see her in action and meet all of the caring people that work at her school.  They do a tremendous job with our daughter.  I am in awe of them and was really choked up driving home.  Her school continues to be such a blessing to our family.

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Luke was going through his closet looking for some toy that he misplaced and instead came out of his room dressed like this;


Of course, we were late for school because he didn't want to change out of his dinosaur costume.   He is always entertaining himself in some way.  He eventually took the costume off for school but put it on again to eat lunch. 





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Today was his Christmas Program at school.  I was sad going to it because it will be our last Christmas program at this school.  We have had kids at this school for four years and now we are done.  I hate to even think about that.  His class did really well today and the program was super short so I think that helped.  Luke loves to wave to me from the stage and today was no exception.  I love that!

I didn't get any really great pictures but here are a few good ones.



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I am hoping to start my Christmas baking tomorrow.  My goal is to get the sugar cookie dough made so the kids and I can bake and decorate cookies this weekend.  I'm also hoping to finish up with my Christmas shopping tomorrow.  I still have a few small things to buy the boys.



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1 comment:

noreen said...

Ha! I remember when my son used to dress up just for fun in his dinosaur costume!! He even did it during one of his family birthday parties and walked outside so everyone could see. It was very sweet!