Kahlia at Grandma and Grandpa Brown's house at Christmas time trying on her new "dress up" dress - SO cute! :-)
All four kids showing their scarves (except Kahlia) that great grandma Roberts made for them last year.
The kids getting ready to open up gifts on Christmas day - such a happy time for the kids! :-)Such a long time since I've posted - life goes on, and we continue to move forward! Kahlia is coming along in SO many ways - but in the area of speech - still, no progress. It's so sad to have her be 3 1/2 and literally not have the tools to tell us what she really wants to say. She gets frustrated as she tries to tell us what she wants, but nothing comes out that makes any sense at all. We are trying to get back into the loop at OHSU with a different surgeon - we need some answers and I want them now!! I am hoping that we can have her next surgery before she's 5 so we can begin her crucial development of speech.
In the area of physical therapy, she has almost achieved all of her yearly goals set for her, and socially - she is SO friendly and fun to everyone. Potty training? Not so well. I tried for almost 2 weeks to keep her almost exclusively in little panties, but unless I reminded her and took her to the bathroom, she had SO many accidents, and more puddles and wet clothes then I choose to think about - yuck!! It was exhausting, so as of today, I'm taking a little break for a while unless she asks to go or unless I randomly have her go to the bathroom -she's back in pull ups until I want to try again. Sigh... I wonder if she's just not quite ready to be able to hold it with out just going... other then that - everything is going SO SO well on the Kahlia front! She moved into her sister Makenna's room and absolutely loves it - so does Makenna! They have bunk beds, but because they are both double beds, Makenna would prefer to sleep on the bottom with Kahlia - so cute! :-) Makenna is such a little mother - she does SO good with her - she plays with her, reads to her, loves her. So fun to see the bond between them continue to grow.
In November, our family went on a 4 day cruise and spent 6 days at Disney World. We decided to leave Kahlia with grandma and grandpa Brown, which was tough, but made our vacation a little more relaxing. She had a good time with g & g - we are SO grateful for them!!
After vacation - after homeschooling all 3 kids in the fall, Makenna decided to go back to school in December - but the boys decided to stay homeschooled. It's actually gone really well! Pretty much exhausting and a lot of work, but so worth it! I've made HUGE steps with David in the areas of reading and math - I'm thankful for the opportunity that I've had to be able to work with the boys. Some days are definitely better then others, but over all, it's been a great experience. On the down side, it gives me less chance to work with Kahlia on an individual basis - she kind of gets lost in the shuffle sometimes, but she's definitely not forgotten as I take her to ESD preschool twice a week and speech therapy twice a week. Next year the boys plan to go back to school which will free me up to focus on Kahlia - which she really needs! :-)
This weekend is the 10&under State Championships in Eugene, where both Makenna and David will be swimming. So excited to see how they do!! Next weekend we head up to Corvallis for the 11-14 State Championships where Brendon will be swimming - looking forward to the next couple of weekends! :-)
