I'm kind of a big deal...

Welcome summer and welcome routine doctor appointments, therapy sessions and re-evals!  This is part of life and I have learned to embrace it as best as I can, luckily, Adele has absolutely NO trouble gaining fans everywhere she goes.

Today we had an Opthamologist appointment. This is the same waiting area as our ENT, so we are no stranger to this office building. Part of the time, Adele had her BAHA on. We had a lovely group of 7-10 year old sisters very politely ask "what is that head band for?". My standard response to this question when children ask is "it helps her hear better".  Of course, Adele flashes the girls one of her HUGE smiles and starts waving and clapping so she immediately makes BFFs.  We get called back to the office and since they needed to dilate her eyes, we got to go back to the waiting area to make more friends.  Here we encountered a 2 year old blonde boy who was smitten with Adele. While attempting to hug her, he also got a smooch in! Who would have thought a first kiss would be in a waiting area of the Opthamologist's office?

Yesterday, Adele saw her friend Mindy, the Audiologist. Mindy did a behavioral hearing test which consists of Adele and I going into a sound booth, Adele distracted in a high chair playing with foam puzzle pieces, while I sit nearby for comfort. There is a window in front of the booth so Mindy could make visual contact with Adele. Mindy proceeded to talk to Adele through a microphone system and reward her by flashing Sponge Bob on one side and Crabby Patty on the other.  Adele did very well for her age and we found that her hearing WITHOUT the BAHA has stayed the same. WITH the BAHA, she was able to get up to normal range in her right ear!!! (Note that Adele has borderline normal hearing in her left ear).  So, how does this impact her speech? Essentially, it shouldn't, so any Speech Delay relates to other things such as her mouth muscles etc... Our Speech Therapist is evaluating her on Tuesday, so we'll hear more at that time. Of course, as we talked, Adele managed to convince Mindy that she was the cutest toddler on the planet with plenty of smiles and communication! I should mention that Adele has been gaining speech, but at a slower pace than her average peers.

Good news: Adele has AWESOME eyes. Optic nerves look normal and she no longer has a Nystagmus (twitching of the eyes).  We only have to see her once a year!! Physical Therapist is reducing to once a month since she is monitoring Adele and Developmental Hearing and Speech will continue. Adele's 6 month annual review is coming up in a week and a half so we'll get more details at the meeting.

Love my 18qt! Time to pick up our big sister!

Honored

I came to realize the class of 2013 is monumental for me for a few reasons. First, I started co-teaching in 2009-2010 so these kiddos and I were Freshmen. Also, this class got to see me through my pregnancy with Jade, therefore, the first group to see me in a completely different role in my life.

Both experiences have made me see my students in the bigger picture of life. I was THRILLED to co-teach because I began to realize that I could make an impact on even more students. It has been refreshing to work with my gen. ed. students because they are ever so grateful for the amount of one-to-one time they get from me and because it gives me an opportunity to find and assist those who have been struggling silently for years.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

Days like these fill my cup! It's been an honor, Class of 2013!

Tidbits from the Weekend

Friday night was spent with my girls at my friend's house for a delicious dinner and play date. We were in our beds by 10:00!

Saturday morning I got to spend two hours to myself with sweet baby girl before big sissy woke up. 

Later that day, Jade wanted to take Adele for a ride in the wagon 

Grandma & grandpa took the girls for a night. Love this picture!

Mommy got to enjoy a flight of Chardonnays/Cabs with a great friend

After doing a few hours of work, I picked the girls up today at my parents new place!

Quite a gem of a neighborhood & a beautiful home that my parents look forward to remodeling before they make the final move!

Jade & I managed to eeek out some gardening today. This is the result of phase one of three. 

I decided to do myself a favor & base my flowers on the discriminating taste buds of rabbits. We ended up with geraniums for the first time. Phase two includes adding another box plant to the porch. Phase three includes some baskets of herbs on our privacy wall & a few new perennials. 

Jade did a great job of helping me this year! She was able to remove the flowers from the cups, dig a hole and hose off the flowers & mommy! Dirty girl before her bath 

Time to wrap up my day with a little "Dark Places". 

I Run My Own Race

As much as inspirational quotes get old, I still can't help but to post a few that really speak to me. I found this one about 2 minutes ago:

Seems like I run my own race often these days, literally and figuratively. Saturday, I have a trail run 5k which should prove to be a lovely place to run as long as I don't get to caught up in the mud since it's supposed to rain the next few days. 

James & I had an excellent "Come to Jesus" meeting regarding a timeline to purchase a home. We are committing to ONE savings account. Yes I know many of you just passed out, so I'll give you a minute......  Our goal is to put our town house up for sale around February of 2016, then hope to buy sometime over the summer. For the record, assuming we both work in our current locations, we will not be moving any further west or south, other than that, we have no idea where we will actually end up. This gives us three years to build up our liquid assets (I'm making Suze proud!) Just the notion of a structured plan motivates me to stay-the-course. 

We also discussed the need to move "A Day for Adele" to October. We will use the summer to continue organizing and we'll use our experience in Savannah to better communicate and educate our Army.