Happy Birthday Mommy and other updates

For the kids who hopefully will read this many years from now, we – along with the rest of the world – are in the midst of a corona virus crisis.  What that means practically for us is that Matt’s travel has stopped for now and we are yelling at the kids more about hand-washing!  Other than that, its been business as usual at Casa Dean.

We began this month with a birthday celebration for me.  This was the big 40.  Matt planned a little dinner with some friends which I absolutely loved.  These girls have been daily sources of strength and love for me and to have us all together for a night of celebration was the best gift ever.

The next day (on my actual bday), I was loved on by Matt and the kids all day.

And this sweet girl went out of her way to make sure I felt loved and special on my birthday.  She was apparently very involved in the present selection, wrote me the sweetest note, and all day kept checking in to make sure I was happy and having a good day.  She's growing up to be the sweetest little love bug.

We also did a fun “adult” dinner with my parents and sister!

The kids celebrated Go Texas Day at their schools

Olivia has passed along her candy-stealing techniques to Eric (notice how the tables have turned from about a year ago!).

 

Olivia had a Father-Daughter dance at school and it was just the best time for both she and Matt.  Her friend Andrea’s dad was out of town, so Matt did dad-duty for her too.  They got manicures that morning and were very excited about the dance. 

They were so happy to get all dressed up for a special night with their friends

Meanwhile, Eric and I had a fun night at the park.

Eric has also been loving the Spring weather.  We have been playing outside almost everyday.  This is one area where Olivia and Eric's personalities are wildly different.  Olivia likes the park (where there are swings/slides/rockwalls) and she likes to be outside to do activities (cheerleading/ninja line/bike riding, etc).  But, Eric loves to be outside in general.  Everyday he will ask to go outside and he is perfectly content to tool around on his bike/scooter and is constantly in search of rocks or sticks to bring me as “treasures.” He comes home from school with pockets of rocks and we recently had to get a little box for him to keep outside where he collects his rocks.  His teachers tell me he spends the whole time at recess collecting rocks as well.  I just love this little guy!!

And, Eric has been transitioning well to his new class.  This class faces the street where I park, so we can wave to each other at the window every day.  This has been a GREAT tool to use for leaving him.   

He also requested that he be allowed to bring Olivia for “show and tell” last week.  After some negotiating, he finally agreed to take a picture of them instead.

This kid has been pretty funny lately.  A few recent Eric funnies are telling us "I don't care about that" in relation to things he actually cares very deeply about (e.g. sleeping with his puppies); entertaining us with a rendition of a song he learned in Chapel but mistaking the words "Praise Him. Praise Him" for "Bacon. Bacon."  So he sang "Bacon! Bacon! All you little children.  God is love.  God is love."

He still refuses to eat but apparently he did a great job as lunch helper at school

Habitat Fair

One of my favorite things about Kinkaid is coming up and seeing the kids present their work.  There aren't many opportunities, so I relish the ones we do get.  This year, the Second Graders participated in a Habitat Fair.  Each class had an assigned habitat -- Olivia's was the ocean.  And each child got assigned an animal to research.  Then they had to write a non-fiction story about their animal and create a diorama of their habitat/animal. 

Olivia got the blue whale and she -- as well as all the other kids -- did such a great job! 

After you see your child's presentation, the parents and other teachers/administrators walk around to see the projects the other kids did.  We loved being able to hear her story and see her work, as well a walking around and seeing her friends' projects.  Here Olivia is reading her story to Mrs. Lemon, the Vice Principal. 

It was a great afternoon and we loved seeing Olivia bursting with pride at her work!

This and That

We had a busy weekend recently with what is hopefully (knock on wood!) the last traveling weekend for Matt for a while.

Olivia had a few birthday parties on her social calendar.  I just adore the themes that these creative mammas come up with -- what little girl wouldn't love a Unicorn Dance Party.  And, of course this is what you would wear!

She has a sweet little group of friends that I'm happy she can celebrate

And while Olivia was with her friends, I planned a little park play-date for Eric and one of his friends, Hannah.  Its the first time he has ever had a playdate with one of his school friends and he LOVED it!

Another first for Eric was his first time getting caught climbing.  I am pretty lax on letting Eric be alone in a room because I think of him as compliant and cautious.  So I was SHOCKED to walk in and see him like this.

We have been enjoying these little traveling pop-up experiences that have been coming to town.  We went to Candytopia last summer and we hit up Color Factory recently with our friend Sadie.  It was strikingly similar to Candytopia but the kids both loved it.  

 

 

We were very happy to have Olivia to ourselves on Sunday and we took advantage of the nice weather and played outside

My parents came over for dinner and by 7:30, this little one was DONE!

 And, I wanted to quickly document this mainly so we would remember later on.  As I’ve mentioned, we have really been struggling with Eric’s eating—specifically his refusal to eat.  He is still gaining weight based on his consumption of a half gallon of milk/day, but some recent bloodwork confirmed that he’s lacking some pretty basic nutritional requirements.

So, we went to an appointment with the specialists at Texas Children’s.  It was an interesting appointment because it was a very clear visual representation of how deeply uncomfortable and anxious this child is with food.  When we walked in, we were introduced to 2 therapists who would be doing the evaluation.  There were several puzzles set out on the table and the therapists greeted Eric and asked him if he wanted to come sit and do a puzzle.  He immediately agreed and happily sat down and began doing the puzzles.  I quickly realized this was designed to occupy Eric so I could talk to the therapists.  After I walked them through Eric’s history, the therapists sat down and tried to engage with Eric to develop a rapport with him.  It worked and he easily warmed up to them and began telling him about the puzzle he was working on.  Then they asked me what food I brought (I received instructions ahead of time re: bringing foods Eric will/will not eat.).  As soon as I pulled out the lunchbox, Eric’s mood visibly changed.  He pushed his chair out and came around the table, climbed on my lap and laid his head on my shoulder.  He initially wouldn’t look at the therapists when they asked him to try the food.  But, these ladies definitely showed off their professional knowledge by patiently convincing Eric to “crunch his cracker like a dinosaur.”  He ate 2 small saltines.  Then they wanted to see him use a spoon so they asked him if he could teach them to take a bite of yogurt.  Eric was not falling for any of this.  He opened the lid of the yogurt and then came right back to my lap.  The therapists were asking him to smell or touch the yogurt, to which he politely responded “No thank you.  No thank you.”

Then, one of the therapists took the spoon and smeared the yogurt on the table making the letter “E.”  Eric’s eyes got big as saucers and he looked at me and said “Do we put yogurt on the table?” in the same voice I use when I ask him things like “Do we throw balls in the house?” or “Do we climb on the table?”  She told him it was okay and then ask him to touch it.  Another no thank you.  She asked him to smear it with his spoon.  He reluctantly put his spoon on it for a minute and then was right back in my lap.

So, they saw first hand his attitude towards food.  The good news is, they assured me they successfully treat 100s of kids a year with these issues.  We will start weekly occupational where Eric will join up with a group of 2 other kids with similar issues.  While he’s working with that therapist, apparently the parents are in a room with a double-sided mirror watching the kids and being coached by our own therapist on do’s/don’ts and tips/tricks.  So a simultaneous parent-child therapy if you will.  I think this will be good for him and my expectation is that these therapists can figure out what’s going on and help us.  I have some pretty serious nerves about the logistics of getting to these weekly appointments with our already full schedules, but hopefully we can make it work. 

I mean, I don't think there's anything we wouldn't do for this snuggle-bug!