Wordless Wednesday: Sibling Love

Celebrating and Dreaming

Well we have had two speech therapy sessions, a birthday and lots of fun the last few weeks.
This week has been crazy busy with trips to the zoo, the farm, The Great Cloth Diapers Change, doctors appointments and just normal day errands. It was a great way for us to celebrate Earth day week. We decided we were going to take the kids to the zoo for Treyton's birthday but it was going to rain all day on that day so we went early. Both Avalynn and Treyton love to see and learn all about the animals and it was Earth day weekend so we got all kinds of goodies. We also took a little trip out to a new friends farm. I can not wait for the day that we have our own farm and are living out our dream in a very sustainable way. Our kids thrive on being out in nature and playing freely. Yesterday they were able to play with chickens and baby lambs and bossing baby goats around because they were being mean to the week old lamb. I love to watch them pure joy on their faces when they get to climb a pasture fence gate and run as fast as they can in the pasture. Climbing a fence gate is apparently easier then climbing anything at the park. Avalynn and Treyton were climbing with no fear at all and were completely free to do so. That kind of freeness is so refreshing.

Treyton turned two! It's hard to believe he is already two. My sweet hard headed little man is growing up way too fast. In just two therapy sessions we have already seen so many improvements in his talking. He now prolly says between 10-15 words. That is a huge jump from the not even 5 he was saying 2 weeks ago. It is so awesome to hear him actually use words. He still doesn't really like to use them all the time but that will change I'm sure. Treyton has also decided that he is too big for diapers. He really hates having to put one on the go to bed but I don't want to have to change sheets everyday so he wears it.

Avalynn is still doing preschool type things just not as structured as wee were being. The more I read and learn about "unschooling" the more I love it. We are basically letting Avalynn decide what she wants to learn and when. If she doesn't want to learn till she is 7 that's cool she doesn't have to learn till she is 7. She has already expressed that she want a sewing machine and hot glue gun for her birthday so she can learn how to make things. So come September my then 4yr old will be learning to sew and use a hot glue gun properly and safely. Avalynn loves to learn about animals but not from books she wants to see it and play with it. Yesterday she was chasing chickens trying to pick them up. She can point out which ones are roosters and hens and which ones lay different colored eggs. It's awesome how fast she has learned these things. So for us unschooling is how we are going to be learning.

Tony and I have started learning how to make soaps. It is very fun. However not as easy as we thought it was going to be. We are not giving up though. Tony is still loving coffee and making beer. He is getting really good at making beer and really enjoys it. He will also be heading out to camp pull a shot in June for a week. He is beyond excited about 30/30 giving him this opportunity. I'm still learning everything I can about breastfeeding/lactation process and childbirth. I'm also loving learning about sustainable living/homesteading. It's truly amazing how far our world has come from these practices and we as a family are wanting to get back to this simpler way of living. Simpler doesn't always mean easier or less work and that is what we are looking forward to.

Being a mommy

So many decisions to make when you're a mommy. From how to feed your baby to what kind of diapers to use to how you are going to educate your kids. Some are very small things but some are very very big. Being a mommy is very hard especially now in the "Pinterest age". Mommies are being tricked into believing that all moms are doing all these amazing crafts and making all kinds of yummy food everyday. I'm here to tell you that is definitely not the case. There are days at my house I can hardly keep up with making a PBJ and you know what that is perfectly fine. My kids aren't going to remember the spotlessly clean house and the crazy perfect crafts or the food that most of the time they don't/won't eat. My kids are going to remember me playing silly games and loving on them when I think I need to be doing something else "productive". My most important job is being mommy. My dishes and all the toys on the floor can wait. This lie that mommies are told that they have to be perfect at everything and do every little activity they have pinned on their craft board is making mommies have major "mommy guilt". Mommies don't buy into it! Remember you are the best mommy your kids could ask for. You mommy are what your kids want. Your attention and time is the most important thing to your kids. Yes all the other stuff can be fun but we shouldn't feel like we aren't having fun when we aren't doing huge art projects. Those simple moments are the most fun. The unprepared and impromptu activities are the memory makers. Find those simple memory makers and lets not stress about the rest.

Evaluation Day

Well we finally had Treyton's speech and overall evaluation today. He is pretty much right on with all of his development except speech. He does have about a 40% delay putting him at a developmental age of 14ish months for his speech. So we are going to be doing speech therapy once a week for an hour at a time in our home. It was so fun watching him interact with the ladies doing the evaluations. It normally takes him a little bit to warm up to any one new. Today he was pretty much instantly drawn to what they were doing. He did most everything they were asking him to do. He is still very stubborn and if he doesn't think it's fun or interesting he isn't going to do it. Talking over the evaluations and what the ladies saw and thought about each thing was amazing. They really got a true read on Treyton today. He played just like he would have if it were just us. Our 6 month goals will be for Treyton to be making more letter sounds and word approximations, which would be like saying tup for cup. We are very confident that he will meet these goals and surpass them.

Wonderful Gift

God knew exactly what He was doing when He had me move to Springfield, MO. I am extremely thankful for the kid that wouldn't stop talking to me while I tried to watch a Colts football game and that never gave up on me even when I turned him down. My life would be completely different had God not placed Tony in my life. I am so thankful for such a loving and supportive husband. He has overcome many things in his life and I am so glad he did! He is a wonderful father to our kiddos. Watching him love them and take care of them makes me love him so much more then I ever thought I could. He works so hard to provide for us. He is teaching me to never give up on dreams because they can and do come true and long as you work toward making them happen. He is showing our kids how to have a passion for something and to go after that passion. That man knows how to make me madder then any other person. He also knows how to make me laugh and smile more then any other person. What a wonderful gift God gave me when He gave me Tony.

My Sweet Girl

Having a daughter that is just like me in so many ways teaches me a lot about myself. Avalynn is a very very smart girl but she is still a wonderful 3 year old. For awhile my sweet girl made me want to pull my hair out. We were having a tough time getting her and myself through any task with out one or both of us very frustrated and on the verge of tears. This girl of mine is just like me only I'm the one who should know how to control and express my emotions with gentleness and calm. Yet I was acting like 3 year old who is still trying to learn what her emotions are and what they all mean. My sweet girl has taught me how to truly be a calm and gentle person and parent. She is watching me to learn how to deal with her emotions so that means I have to actually do what it is I want her to do. We have had great weeks of no freak outs on either end. Yes we both have our moments but we talk through what is happening and say sorry if we need to. It's been a great transition that I am so glad we got to and through.


Avalynn has really been enjoying learning. We have had a wonderful time going over the ABC's. She loves to watch the little music videos all about her letter of the week. She has recently started rhyming words together. She pretends to read the news and likes to "make great music" (that's what she tells me) with her pencil. She has become a very compassionate little 3 year old and I hope she continues to be as she gets older. I'm so very excited that she has such of love for learning. I am very blessed to have such a sweet girl to call me mommy.

Treyton's Next Step

We had our meeting to get everything set up for Treyton's next evaluation. This evaluation will be more involved then the last. We will have a speech pathologist and a developmental therapist come to our house to do the evaluation. I am very glad we are able to have to assessment done in our home. I believe this will make it so much easier to get a true read on where his over all development is at. As soon as we are done with the evaluation we will have a meeting to go over what the assessments the two specialists and our service coordinator have done. This will tell us if we are going to be enrolled into the Early Intervention program further or if we just need to do a few more things with him on our own. In order for us to be accepted into the program Treyton has to have a 30% or higher delay in one of his developmental areas. As much as I would like for us to get a little help with developing Treyton's speech I really hope that we don't get accepted because that would mean Treyton doesn't have a 30%or higher delay and that would be amazing. I am very happy with our experience that we have had with everyone at the Family and Child Connection and Early Intervention office. They have all been extremely nice and helpful. They have worked very fast get everything done for us so that if Treyton needs to be fully enrolled into the EI program we can get it done sooner rather then later. I am very anxious to see what our next evaluation will say but in the mean time we will continue to do exactly what we have been doing to help Treyton to learn to talk.