New park!

The kids have been wanting to try out a new park we spotted on one of our walks but its always so busy it would be hard to do with Mia along for her walk.  The Busy Little B received a giftcard to Wendys for his birthday and he was so excited to take everyone to dinner because the Wendys near S's therapy office has $1.99 Kid Meals.  Since we ate dinner out and I didn't need to cook, we had extra time so off we went to check out the new-to-us park without Mia along.  They had a great time and another family was there with kids about their ages so it was even better :)

Dare I hope our walks are going to happen more and more often?

It was such a beautiful day we went to the park to walk after all the kids got home from school.  Its harder to do this year because S gets home an hour and a half after the Busy Little B (they used to get home fairly close together).  Once S gets home, we are usually doing chores, homework, cooking dinner, bedtime, so its hard to fit trips to the park in during the day but it was so nice we made it happen :p

Once B was home, I cooked dinner most of the way and then popped in it the oven (turned off, just wanted it to stay warm) when S got home.  We get to the park and I realize I forgot the stroller!  We had Mia with us and she needed a walk to calm her down and burn some energy so we decided to brave it and let W walk with us.  We only went about 3/4 of a mile total (we usually do at least two) and poor W was dragging his feet at the end but he did indeed walk the whole way and Mia was so happy to be out with us that she didn't care we "quit" early ;)

Our walk ended at the playground and W was so very brave.  He's been working hard at doing stairs properly and he very carefully did a short set on his own at the playground, holding the rail, making sure his feet were firmly on the tread before moving to the next stair, and then he went down the curly slide by himself.  His OT at the hospital had been working on going down a slide properly before we lost our time slot and he apparently remembered all her lessons because he did it just right :)  He ran in a big loop, stairs, slide, stairs, slide, etc and every third or fourth slide would run over to me clapping and he'd babble very excitedly all about it before he ran off to do it again :)

Once we got home, the kids did their chores while I pulled dinner out and finished it up.  Our tilapia soup simmered on the stove while I finished up some cleaning and we ate.  Oddly enough, we sat down to eat and finished sooner than we normally would!  Doing most of the cooking before S got home really made up for the time we spent at the park :p  Kids got a half hour of playtime before bed even!

That sense of humor is growing!

One thing I've always loved is watching tiny senses of humor developing.  Baby W will often laugh at things no one else does and he laughs with his whole being.  A few months ago he started covering his mouth whenever he has the giggles instead of those body shaking guffaws he usually has.  One of his favorite giggle moments is our dog, Mia!  He loves it when she does weird things and then he starts to giggle and those little hands come up to hide his giggles :)

Just a couple of pics of some of the snow we've gotten this winter!

Here's Mia, the german shepherd we adopted a year and a half ago.  She loves the snow, even when its so cold she runs as fast as she can to the edge of the yard and then races to get back inside because brrrr, can't be out too long!

The wind during this snowstorm was something else!  It plastered snow all over the side of the house.  When the kids and I read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, we hadn't quite understood about the wind.  Laura writes about it almost as though it is another character in the book and none of us had experienced a wind like that.  And then we moved here and yep, we understand it now!  It does almost seem alive at times and it has become a character in our lives ;)

While I may not appreciate having to walk or drive or shovel in all this snow and cold and winter, I do have to admit it is both pretty and awe inspiring in its ability to blanket the world in such a short amount of time.  The very first snowstorm we had in our new home back in 2015, we started with bare ground and by the time school was out, we had fourteen inches.....Thankfully this winter has not been quite as awe inspiring!

Things are calm

I tend to update a lot when things are scary because the very act of writing about it tends to help me get centered and prepared for the fight ahead so when things are calm, I tend to drift away.  Doesn't seem quite right, does it?  When my kids look back on these pages someday, they're going to want to know where all the happy times are instead of just the bad.  I suppose if I make a resolution to start updating regularly with the good things, there's a high probability I shall fail and still continue to just wander by randomly :\  Hey, at least I'm honest, I guess?

OK, update:

• Izzy has graduated to cardio visits every two years--she is stable and doing great
• we had another baby!  Little W joined us in June.  He had a heart murmur at birth but by the time we got our appointment with cardiology, there was no murmur but he does have some turbulence in one of the pulmonary arteries because it makes a sharp turn but he should outgrow that--as the artery widens and the curve gentles, the turbulence will abate.  His echo looked fantastic
• We moved!  Several states away and while it was scary to leave all we knew behind and have to start over with a new medical and school team, it has been a FANTASTIC decision.  Don't get me wrong, we had an awesome medical team back in our last home but it still felt like we had to fight for a lot of things.  In our new state?  Its so easy to get referrals, insurance covers things our last state didn't, and nothing has been a fight.  I go in prepared to do battle and instead they are suggesting referrals I never even thought of.  The school is the same way!  I had to fight every step of the way before and the new school wants to help and added to their services at their suggestion.  No fighting necessary.  Awesome :)
• We got a dog, a german shepherd named Mia.  She was an owner surrender and her somewhat neurotic behavior at times makes me wonder if they didn't always treat her the best but she's smart and eager to please and wedged herself firmly into our hearts and family.   When the warm weather returns, we will again get to enjoy long walks in the fantastic hike n bike trails here with her.