I know it's been a really long time since I've posted anything of substance (besides the post from our vacation - Thank you, James). So I thought I'd post an update from the past couple of months.
In May, Kate graduated from Mothers Day Out. She had attended this program at our church since she was one year old (and I mean, she started just a few weeks after turning one!). It's hard to believe she spent four years there and is now getting ready to turn five!! This year she will be attending a 5-year-old pre-K class at a church in our neighborhood. She will go every day for half a day and she is so excited! She has even become friends with a girl who will be in her class. She has fun going to story time and having lunch with Suzanne on Wednesdays. She is growing up to be such a sweet little girl who is the best big sister Owen could have asked for! She even likes to come up with little "activities" to do with him and she's his best interpreter. She's a funny mixture of princess and tomboy and it's fun to watch her figure herself out. She loves to laugh and dance and hates to have her hair fixed even though she likes it long. I finally told her she has to get it cut before school starts because I won't have time to fight with her about her hair then! We'll see if I can follow through with that one...
We've been busy keeping up with Owen's various doctor appointments and therapies. May was particularly busy while we fought with the tubes in his ears to keep them clear - we were at the ENT doctor's office 4 out of 5 weeks that month! This Monday he had an audiology and an ENT appointment. That was a busy day! But, the audiologist was able to get a good hearing test - he cooperates really well in the booth playing the games they ask him to so they have gotten a very good idea of his hearing range and he's pretty much in the moderate loss range these days. He has speech therapy twice a week now - one individual session and one group session - and he enjoys his therapist. I think Kate even enjoys going. She complains a little when we have to go , but I think she enjoys it once were there. We have all definitely come a long way with our attitudes about speech. It wasn't fun in the beginning! But now that Owen enjoys it and we can see the benefits, it's much more bearable. :)
Owen is definitely in the terrible twos right now, and he can get pretty angry and upset about things, but he is also pretty cute at the same time. Cuteness seems to be a quality that 2-year-olds possess in excess - must be to make up for those tantrums! Some of Owen's favorite things right now are buses, the car wash, and parking garages. :) He talks about them all the time and loves when we get to go to one!
Otherwise this summer we spent some time with James's aunt and uncle and cousin visiting from Louisiana, took a trip to the zoo, went on vacation to Florida, watched the dragon boat races, went to Illinois to see my family (and got to meet my new niece! More about that in another post), and visited with James's cousin and her family from South Carolina. Oh, and we had our kitchen re-modeled, but that will be another post as well after we paint it - whenever that happens.
Still to come this summer are a visit from my brother and his wife and newborn baby girl, a mission trip to Indianapolis with the middle schoolers at our church (while Kate and Owen spend the week with Nana and Grandfather), a quick trip to Kings Island with the same group, and a reunion with old friends in Illinois over Labor Day weekend. Whew! I'm not making any promises, but maybe I'll do a better job of blogging now that I feel like I've caught you up on our life.
