Potty training day 5

Who would of thunk it. Stephanie is actually going to go out of the house today with undies on after not having an accident since Tuesday afternoon. She is doing so great. She went all day yesterday with no accidents and the same thing so far today. Yesterday she still held it in the morning but once she finally went it was fine from there. She didn't hold it today at all. We, me, Stephanie, and one of the therapist are going to take Stephanie to a public bathroom to show it to her and see if she'll go. Then again to another one over the next few days before school starts back up on Monday. Nervous about that and having her have full access of the house again but we are so much further than I ever thought we would be. She definitely proved Jeff and I wrong. She loves going in the bathroom and still goes there a few times when she doesn't need to go but I would rather have her liking it than not liking it. She even went #2 today and the therapists were both surprised at that one. They say that it usually another whole process. There is still some fine tweaking but she is doing wonderfully. They are going to give Jeff and I the afternoon tomorrow by ourselves in between 2 therapy session. I think we can do it. So very very proud of her.

Potty training day 3

We are doing so much better than 2 days ago. We all made it through that first day and over the hurdles yesterday. She no longer needed to be scheduled yesterday so she had a lot more accidents but a bunch of those were in the bathroom. She had 27 accidents yesterday but only 2 today. That is what is suppose to happen when they aren't put on the toilet at timed intervals. She had 6 successes today and finished all 10 steps of the program. She is suppose to start the maintenance program tomorrow but I'm not sure what that entails. She is so proud of herself and we are all so proud of her. Emily also went on the potty twice today and she is all ready to wear her own undies next week. Way to go Stephanie!! We knew you could do it!! Keep it up!

Potty training day 1

We all made it through the first day of Stephanie's potty training with the therapists. The first one was here today at 9:00 and we were underway with new undies on at 9:30. They have their own potty training program for kids with any special needs so it was going to be different that the times I had tried. For the most part there will be a therapist here from 9-6 this week. We are scheduled through Thursday but if more days are needed we will add more. I was really nervous about it today and had a nightmare about it last night. The day started off okay but I knew she was going to be stubborn and she was. The just of the program is that every 5 minutes they have her check her undies to see if she is dry and if so then she gets a reward, a mini m&m. Every half hour she goes on the toilet for at least 5 minutes. She gets unlimited fluids and for right now we try to keep her just on the wood floor for easier cleanup. She loves the reward and even by the end of the day she would hear the timer beep and say "dry" knowing what was coming. They then have their own procedure for when she has an accident. She had a rough start after having 5 glasses of juice and she held it and was in so much pain she wouldn't keep her undies on and was scratching herself. She hadn't gone for over 4 hours. She finally went a little on the floor and I rushed her into the bathroom and after crying for a few minutes (and me ready to give up again) she went on the toilet!! So excited for her and she was so much better after that. She wasn't in pain anymore and did great the rest of the day. She did still have accidents and we went through 10 undies today but she did go on the toilet 4 times throughout the day. At least she didn't hold it anymore and now just needs to make the connection to the bathroom. Once she does that then they don't program it anymore but we are not ready for that quite yet. Overall it was a great day and it the furthest we have ever made it so it can only get better from here, right? Great job Stephanie! Keep it up. Emily so wants to be doing what Stephanie is doing. I told her next week is her week. She wants it just for the chocolate though.

More songs

Part of Stephanie's therapy is singing songs as she loves music. Since then Emily has been singing lots of songs and pretty much gets most of the words. She sings them all the time and Stephanie thinks it's so funny when she sings them. She sings them pretty fast and sometimes if you missed the first couple words/lines you have to listen closely to figure out what song she is singing. She has broadened her choices of songs since starting with "rock a bye baby (on the tree-bop)", "itsy bitsy spider", and "happy birthday". Now she also sings, "row row row your boat" (down the street), "ring around the rosie", "Frosty the snowman", "wheels on the bus", ABCs (after G she skips to L M N O P but you can't understand many of those or the rest of the alphabet), "twinkle twinkle little star", and "old macdonald had a farm". She is so excited for Abby's party next week so we can sing Happy Birthday to her and to my mom since we didn't get a chance to get together for that before Thanksgiving. As soon as we were leaving, after Thanksgiving, she was asking for the next party. Thankfully we don't have to wait all the way til Christmas and she can see everyone next week. Hopefully she isn't too shy and she will sing some of the song to others. It's very cute how she sings the extended version we have. She does it very well.

Great job Emily

I am so proud of Emily today. She was so excited to go pick up her new glasses and did a great job of keeping them on most of the day. She really only had them for half of the day but maybe took them off 4-5 times. She even took them off once and came running to me and said "uh oh", and asked me to put them right back on her. I have noticed her eye crossing more with them on today and I don't know if that is normal and her getting use to them or if it means the prescription is wrong. So I'm going to call the eye doctor tomorrow and see what she says. I hope tomorrow goes just as smoothly. She loves that everyone says how much they love her glasses and seeing other people wearing glasses too. She does look different with them on and so darn cute. I'm sure it will get to the point that she will look different without them on. Once I started taking her picture today she kept asking for more pictures. Weird since she usually doesn't want her picture taken. Great job little peanut. Keep it up.

Little Emily

The girls are all better after ending up with ear infections after all that but it was a long week of sick kids. Since the kids were better we needed to get Emily to the eye doctor. A couple weeks before she got sick we would notice her right eye wandering inwards at times. Jeff has this same problem so we knew to be on the lookout for it and made an appointment at the eye clinic right away. We knew that the sooner it gets corrected the better the outcome. We both took her on Monday and she did great. First they had her look at a TV screen to look at pictures and see if she could tell what they were. I wasn't sure if she would say what they were whether she knew or not because she sometimes clams up in front of strangers. She did very well and said most of them and some of them she may have known but just said something. Jeff said sometimes she gave an answer without really looking at the screen. She was a model patient when she had to get the drops in her eyes, she didn't even flinch. After her eyes dilated the Dr. was able to tell that she was slightly farsighted in both eyes and that was one reason her eye was straining to see and looking inward to relax. So she needs glasses. I ordered them today and they should be here in a week. I can't imagine her wearing glasses. I hope it isn't too much of a battle to keep them on. She knows she going to have glasses like Daddy and like Mommy sometimes but until they are here and she needs to wear them I'm not sure what she'll do. If the glasses don't work then we will patch her strong eye for a certain number of hours during the day. The patching may go along with the glasses too. If that doesn't work then it will be surgery. But it is a while before we need to think about that. Always something going on here. I'll post once the glasses come in I can get a picture or two.

A week off

We have had a week off of therapy but it is not because we are gone and doing something fun. Stephanie had a great week last week and then all of a sudden got sick last Wednesday. She seemed better on Saturday just in time for trick or treating but her fever was back on Sunday. Then of course Emily got sick on Saturday and still has a fever today. There are times when they looked very sick but a little while after the had some medicine they would be jumping around. That energy was short lived though. Probably because besides a of a few pieces of Halloween candy they haven't eaten much since last week. Hoping they can both recover soon and we can be back to normal. Not sure if they have the swine flu or not but they are sick regardless of what you want to call it.

New from Stephanie

After the last post of Stephanie's progress with her first month of therapy she had a little set back but then more steps forward. Last week she had a couple of rough days and I'm not sure what was the cause but it may have been not as much sleep. Not to say she didn't sleep well but she would wake up crabby after 11-11.5hrs of sleep at night and since those 4 days of sleeping like that she is back to sleeping about 12.5hrs and has been much better. Unfortunately Emily was under attack on her bad days. She got bitten on the cheek twice in a couple days and got 2 bad scratches on her face, both on the same day. I feel so bad because Emily is no nice to her but I think she knows Stephanie doesn't mean it. But since those 4 rough days she has been her good happy, talking self again and even though she came down with a fever yesterday she has been happy. Yes, she got a haircut yesterday after having such a hard time last time we went. She even said "haircut" and pointed to the correct store when we got there. She had no problem whatsoever. So proud of her. Besides saying "haircut" yesterday, last week she started saying "love you" when we say it to her. Today she even asked for "more juice"!!! Besides saying "nigh night" she never puts 2 words together and for her to do it on her own and have it be to ask for something is great. One of her therapists said yesterday that she said "more music" along with the sign for music but I hadn't heard her put 2 words together before. I canceled her therapy for today because she still had a little fever and the first session for tomorrow. She has 2 others tomorrow but I'll see how she sleeps and how she is tomorrow before deciding on those other 2 sessions. Trick or treating is on Saturday so I want her ready for that and for the kids Halloween pictures that morning. She is all about saying "trick or treat" so I don't want her to miss that. Get better and keep up the good work.

Emily growing up

Emily is just growing up so fast. She has learned to jump off the ground with 2 feet which is something she has been working on for a while. Her jumping has been more like marching up and down with alternating feet very fast but she called it jumping. So now she is doing a great job jumping when she is on the ground and the trampoline. Her vocabulary is also expending tremendously. She is now able put together sentences and sings some songs. She sings the first couple lines of "itsy btsy spider", "happy birthday", and "rock a bye baby". She even does the hand motion for "itsy bitsy spider". She sings then pretty fast and kinda of loud, even "rock a bye baby". It is so cute and she is so proud of herself. She also tries to sing "ABCs" but after the first 6 letters or so she jumps to the middle of the alphabet and you can't really hear anymore actual letters. But she tries. When she wants me to sing "happy birthday" she knows there is more to the song that then normal 4 lines. She starts saying " Lord bless you", because she knows we have our own family ending to the song. Wierd that she would remember that now because we haven't had a party and sang it since my brother and dad's birthdays 2 months ago. What a good memory. What a little cutie.

Pay attention dady

This weekend Jeff has been busy working on the other side of the townhouse as our old renter moved out last week. We are, or I should say he is, putting a new floor downstairs, painting, new bathroom upstairs, and some other things. So he has been very busy and even stayed up all day on Friday working after working Thursday night. Needless to say he is a little tired. Last night, after working most of yesterday (he did take a little break for the game) he took a little break after Stephanie went to bed to watch the beginning of Sunday night football. I also wasn't feeling great after dinner so he helped get the girls ready for bed. I was playing on the floor with Emily while Jeff was watching some football but mostly falling asleep on the couch. I kept waking him up and he said he was going to be going back to work. But of course he kept nodding off. I told Emily to go and wake him up and she would go by him and say "daddy's up". Then she started taking her doll house toys over by him and then all of a sudden she said "daddy pay attention". I couldn't help but laugh and Jeff woke up saying "what did she say"? She must have heard me say that to him at some point but I never heard her say that before and she used it so appropriately. That also kept him more alert and he did start paying attention. Too funny.

Baby number 3

I just realized I don't think I have posted much about our new arrival. I had a doctor appointment today and after the last miscarriages it is always such a relief to hear the heartbeat. Today the baby's heartbeat was at 140 so going with the old wives tale I am more convinced it is a boy. I don't think the girls' heartbeat ever got that low. I also also having a different pregnancy this time around. I didn't lose weight and wasn't nausea during the first trimester this time around. I didn't really gain weight either and so far have gained maybe 5lbs. My back is hurting more than it did with the girls' and it is different back pain than I usually have. I am having low back pain where I usually never do except some sciatica pain I had with Emily. I made my appointment for my ultrasound for 3 weeks from now and then we can see how big our baby is getting. I am still determined not to find out that sex of the baby but Jeff still does. I told him he can find out if he can tell tell by himself from the picture on the screen what the sex is. I told him he could study ultrasound pictures online but there is no way he'll do that. So I'm pretty sure we will be waiting. Today I also measured a little bigger than as far as I am so I am expected to be early again. Since the due date is the first day of spring I am expecting this one to be a winter baby. Not that we get spring around here in March but you never know. It is already feeling like winter here and I keep thinking it's not going to be nice again until after the baby is born. That seems like a while away.

Therapy so far

We are only a few weeks in and I can see changes in Stephanie already. They are working on her behaviors and language first while I they are still getting her to play with them her way. That means she gets to lead the play time and choose the activities. While they are playing the therapists are constantly saying the words of things that she is playing with. Like for instance she has the game Lucky Ducks which is really a game of matching the shape on the bottom of the duck to the a place on the pond where the ducks swim. Stephanie isn't ready to play it the way it is suppose to be played but loves putting the ducks on the pond and taking them off (the pond also quacks the whole time while they swim). So they try to have ahold of the ducks and every time she asks for "more" they say "duck, duck, duck". That way she gets to hear the word over and over and when it is time for her to say it she will have heard it in that situation so many times it will be easier for her to remember it. They also have a clicker (number counter) and every time she says a word, any word, they click it and keep a tally of all her "words" throughout her sessions.
They also have us learning about what to do with her tantrums and her whining. So now if she is whining about something whether we know what it is or not we ignore the behavior until she stops. This also goes when for she is crying and wants to be picked up and snuggled. She gets no attention for that kind of behavior. We also are following though more her doing things she can do and if she needs help she needs to ask for it instead of throwing a fit. She needs to follow through on something when she is asked to do. Like she can take of her pull up herself when she is wet but sometimes she doesn't want to and it's a battle of us getting mad and her crying. So now we say "Stephanie take your pull off" and we may have to say that for 5-10-15 minutes, until she does it. We say it every 3-5 seconds during that whole time. Driving Jeff and I crazy sometimes. She isn't allowed to do anything else until she does what is asked either. This will go along with anything that she is asked to do that she can. It is her making the choice and choosing to do it on her own. So far she has been testing us and has made it to 10 minutes a couple of times but eventually she does it. She was even having a tantrum at church yesterday and I took her out to the back and had to say "put your dress down" for about 5-7 minutes until she finally did. Once she did she had no problem going back to church and was fine. So things are getting there. They are about to move onto the next step for her and I'll find out more about that later this week.

Out of all the words they click, she has somewhere between 30-40 words that she says or has some approximation for the word. I can't wait for her to talk. She has been saying "mommy" again but this is only when I am ignoring her bad behavior and she want me to pick her up. Hard not to give in then but I want to hear her say it nicely.
Keep up the good work Stephanie.

No naps for Emily

This week Emily has decided she no longer wants to take a nap. She use to sleep for 3 hrs and we would have to wake her at 4:00 most days because she then she would like to be up til after 9:00. But this week she hasn't napped at all. I think it is because of a few reasons. First, nap time is when Stephanie's first therapist comes and Emily likes to play with them as well. Even though I try to keep her away somewhat because I need them to focus on Stephanie. Second the therapists are not very quiet and Emily is use to it being fairly quiet when she is napping. One of the therapist is louder than the others and I know they are really focusing on language so I don't want them to think they need to be quiet. Third, I started watching a little girl last week, Lizzie, and she cried when I laid her down or she would fall asleep on the way here and not need a nap before she got picked up. So Emily knew that she was the only one who had to take a nap. At first she would cry off and on for a half hour and them be quiet. She doesn't resist going upstairs but doesn't want to get into her crib. Now, after she won't sleep in her bed she will lay there and play for a hour or two being very quiet so I thought she was sleeping this week but when I would go check on her she would say "no nap today". So then I knew she didn't sleep. She does sleep good at night, usually from 7pm-8am so she is getting enough sleep. But she would normally sleep from 8pm-7:30pm with a 3 hour nap in there too. Maybe she just isn't as tired. She does get more cranky by evening but I keep telling her she should have taken a nap if she's tired. I am just not ready for her to give up her nap. Looking ahead though if she is done it may make any preschool decisions for next year easier. I think it would be better if she isn't going to sleep that she is at school in the afternoon so she isn't bothering Stephanie's therapy. That is awhile away but come the beginning of the new year I need to register her somewhere. Then the new baby will be here and I'm sure lots will change.

Therapy has begun!!!

We had our workshop day last Wednesday and that began Stephanie's first official day of intensive home therapy. This will continue for at least a year and then Stephanie will have to qualify for another year and at last a 3rd year. She receives about 25 face to face hours of therapy from a team of therapist. She met them all on Wednesday and had no problem warming up to them. For the first month they are just going to follow her lead and get her to fall in love with them before they really start teaching or demanding things from her. They will do a lot of teaching and reinforcing during her play but will also do some table time work. Every time they are playing with something they repeat the word 3 times, something I find myself doing already. She will also be taught some signs and will give it a 90 day trial to see if it helps her communicate. Right now she will start out working on 5 signs. She had her first therapy session last Friday for 2 hours and did great. She had a couple whining moments but had lots of fun with the therapist. Today she had 2 sessions, each session is 2 hours long, and all was going great until the last 45 minutes. She was asked to put her smoothie cup away and she didn't want to. But the therapist would not have it. When they ask her to do something, whether a word, action, or task, they won't let her get her way. She had a full blown tratrum for 45 minutes. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere, do anything else, or play with anything until she put her cup away. The therapist also said "put your cup away" every 3-5 seconds the whole time she was having the tatrum. Stephanie is very stubborn and I think she has met her match. All of her therapists have been pretty easy on her but when you only have 45-60 minutes once a week it's hard to have anything accomplished when she is crying for 45 minutes so most of them are very easy on her. They just kind of let her do what she wants but that is also why she hasn't made much progress. Now it is time for the real work to be done. Tomorrow and Wednesday she just has one session but 2 on Thursday and then 3 on Friday. She will sure be busy.

Thank goodness for smoothies

Smoothies have become an everyday snack in this house for Stephanie (and myself). I had made them for myself before and would give them to Stephanie but they were usually to thick for her to drink. When she started to become a more picky eater I thought I had to find a way to get some fruits, veggies, and protein in her. She has been eating only carbs, lots of noodles, but the only fruit she will eat is watermelon, no veggies, and very little meat. I read I could put spinach into the smoothies and it would be undetected. So everyday now after nap time (more Emily's nap than Stephanie's) she gets a smoothie that ties her over til dinner. She has a mixture of frozen fruit, plain yogurt, spinach or carrots, tofu, wheat germ, and milk. I also tried some V8 juice which Stephanie couldn't detect but I can. I am going to try some V8 juice on its own sometime, she might like it. I still give her fruits and veggies at lunch and dinner but it may a texture thing or a chewing thing that she needs to work on. It's weird that she use to eat all sorts of fruits and veggies before and for the last year the veggies have disappeared and within this year the fruits have gone too. I don't like her drinking them but that better than nothing.

Back to school and more

Today was a big day for Stephanie. She went back to school today and I think she was excited about it. She knew what we were talking about for the last week and she was excited when we got there. She went right up to her teacher and gave her a hug so she definitely remembered her. We got there early since we wanted to be able to find a place to park (didn't help too much) but she would have rather gone right inside the school than wait 10 minutes til the bell rang. There is only 1 girl from her class last year and all the others are new. But she only has 6-7 kids in her class on a given day. So glad I pushed to keep her back because otherwise she would be in K4 with 20-25 other kids. Now she has 1 main teacher, 1 associate teacher plus a speech and occupational teacher who are in and out of the classroom. We are going to wait a month and possible see if she can get some PT. She still walks on her tip toes and even when you tell her "feet down" she still doesn't walk correctly. But then it's another evaluation and redoing her whole IEP (individual education program). But if it helps we'll do it.

Besides that today we got the call from the state and her number is up for her in home therapy to start. We need to finalize paperwork and have a meeting reconfirming that she still needs therapy. I had to call a leave a message so hopefully I'll know more tomorrow. Hopefully that can get done this week or early next week and then it doesn't take a long time to get her team together and we can get therapy started ASAP. She will have very busy days ahead of her but she's up for it. She'll have school in the morning (except Friday) and then home for lunch and then therapy after that the rest of the day. Since she doesn't have school on Friday she'll have therapy almost all day. I know it is going to be a slow process and some difficult times but she will be finally getting the help she needs. We have been waiting almost a year (we got the diagnosis Oct 1 last year) but heard once we get on the waiting list (that can take up to 6 months) there is a 18-24 month wait. So I am happy with less than a year. Because she is high functioning (except language) and on the border of the spectrum I'm not sure we could have gotten a diagnosis earlier. I've learned so much about all of this in the last year. So glad it's there for her now.

State Fair

Elephant Ear


More Elephant Ear


Chocolate chip cookies



More cookies








Emily ate the whole thing herself.




I love the state fair and look forward to it every year. Our family vacation is around the same time as the fair so there aren't many days to choose from. So we went the day before our vacation and it worked out fine, until it started to rain. At least it didn't rain until the afternoon so we had done most everything by then. The girls were very good and had a good time. Emily loved seeing the animals and getting up close to them. We had baked potatoes, an elephant ear, a sundae, chocolate chip cookies, corn on the cob, and a cream puff. Now it doesn't sound like too much. The kids eat some grill cheese sandwich too. No chocolate covered bacon on a stick for us. The threat of rain didn't keep the crowds away but thankfully we were there early enough that I was able to go through the exhibition booths this year. Didn't buy anything but it was good to see them and not have to fight the crowd with the double stroller.

Stephanie's new accomplishment

This is something last she learned last month right around her birthday but I kept forgetting to post. But she just kept doing it right now so I needed to post it before I forgot again. She has learned to open the fridge. It is great for her to use her muscles like that and is a great accomplishment for her. But now when she finishes her juice she goes in the fridge to see if she get another drink out. She sometimes goes and gets her milk then. Sometimes if there is nothing out she will voluntarily go and get something out of the fridge. It usually isn't a problem but she drinks so fast (like Jeff) that it she is out of something to drink very quickly. At least she can't pour herself something or get the juice or milk out. That will be something they will work on once her therapy starts next month (keeping fingers crossed). More independence for her and learning to open things and pouring would be good for her to learn. She has a little break now from therapy before school starts. I think she deserves it. She did good all summer going to speech 3 times a week. Now she will have OT next week and that is it until school starts the first week of September. She might get one day of speech in if a new therapist can fit her in but I'm not counting on it. I am just hopefully the intensive therapy starts right away in September.

Emily's birthday

Emily was so excited for her birthday. She knew a couple days before was Stephanie's birthday and then it would be her turn. She was so excited to have balloons and cupcakes for her birthday too. Stephanie snuck downstairs while I was changing Emily's sheet (too much water at the fireworks) and I could hear her by the presents. So I yelled to Stephanie that those were Emily's presents and not to touch. Emily kept saying "mine presents", "my turn", "Stephanie don't touch" and she ran downstairs. She loved opening presents and everything was "mine". Stephanie of course wanted to open and wanted to play with the presents. Thankfully whatever Emily opened first was something Stephanie wanted to play with so Emily could open more presents. Emily went to get her picture taken and did pretty well. She kept saying "my turn" because she came with 2 days before to get Stephanie's picture taken. For some reason she wanted to keep hiding and not stand where she needed to stand for some pictures. She got excited when the photographer brought out some balloons but then she was running around with those and not standing still for any pictures. Then she got some beads out and she was able to get a cute one of those. We went to get fish for our new fish tank after her nap and she was so excited she wanted the fish to come out right away. She tried carrying the bag with the fish home but it was too heavy so she was happy carrying the net. Sometimes when she is carrying something that is light but awkard to carry and do something else she will say "heavy". Once she was carrying a leaf up the ladder on the swingset but couldn't climb and carry it so she aksed for help because it was too heavy.

Emily is a very happy, talkative, goofy 2 year old. She is still very shy when it comes to strangers or even family that she hasn't seen in awhile. It just takes her while to warm up to people, especially in a big crowd. She loves saying "Abby Noah", two of her cousins, and since Stephanie can say "abby" it is nonstop all day. She remembers everything and repeats everything. She has just started to say "Love you" and it is so precious. She loves to do what I am doing. She loves to clean, wash her hands, cook with me, read her books, color, play with her dolls or animals. She plays very well by herself and tries nicely to play with Stephanie. She loves playing outside in the pool, on the swing and the slide, in the sandbox, in her car, and blowing bubbles. She goes to swimming lessons and get to come to some of Stephanie's therapy appointments and loves it. She gets mad when she doesn't get to go.

At her doctor checkup today, which she was so excited about yesterday, she would not cooperate. She wouldn't get on the scale or have her height measured. So we had to do it the baby way. Stephanie did great though. She weighs 24lbs and was 34in. (I measured 33in at home) which puts her at 20% for her weight and 50% for her height. She's small but she's not that small. Her feet are small though since she hasn't been able to wear Stephanie's shoes from then summer she was 2. Otherwise she has been able to wear all of Stephanie's old clothes. That sure has been very nice.

Emily can read one of her books and it is so cute. She reads Truck Duck and it is about a different animal driving a different vehicle on each page. She knows all of them but when it comes to plow cow, she says "moo" instead of cow. She is starting to recognize letters and know the "E" for Emily, "M" for mommy, and "S" for Stephanie. She is a great sleeper at night, usually in bed by 8:00 and sleeps til 7:30-8 and then takes a 3 hr nap. She loves her crib so we won't be moving her out anytime soon. Soon we are going to start her potty training since she goes on the potty still and got big girl undies for her birthday so hopefully we can get out of diapers by the time we go up north next month on vacation. Summer is already flying by but it's been lots of fun. Happy Birthday sweet Emily.

4th of July

Watching the parade




Noah marching in the parade




Stephanie waiting for the fireworks



Saw one firework


Birthday girls waiting for the fireworks




Emily watching the fireworks starting




Stephanie amazed by the fireworks



The kids had a good 4th and we took them to their first parade. They sat very nicely and don't realize about the candy being thrown out yet so they were happy to just wave their flags. We went to the Waukesha parade with Christian's family and we saw Noah march in the parade. After the parade we came home for lunch and nap, even though Stephanie didn't nap. It would have been nice since we were going the fireworks that night but it all worked out fine. We went to the fireworks with a lot of my family and the kids love seeing everyone there. We go to a park in Greenfield and they could see the slide and swings from where we were sitting and were desperate to go on them. I took them over there and that was a mistake. There were so many kids and so many parents not watching their kids that they were just running and pushing all around. It was impossible to watch both kids because Emily was going slow because of all the kids but Stephanie was going faster and I couldn't watch them both. So we went back to get Jeff but Emily didn't want to go up without me and kids were just going all around her because she was going slow. So we went back to the blankets and tried to distract them with some snacks and water. Thankfully the fireworks weren't too far off. As soon as they saw one of the ones they set off to get you ready for them they kept asking for more. Once they started they loved the ground fireworks because they were very loud and bright. The fireworks kept Stephanie's attention for about 5 minutes and Emily's a little longer. So they kept looking around and weren't interested until the grand finale. Of course they wanted more as soon as it was over. When we talk about them now they want to go back for more fireworks. Not sure if we will see anymore this year though. I'm glad we didn't go downtown to the Lake front fireworks since those were over an hour long. They would have never made it. Overall if was a great 4th all around.