What we do on Sundays...

Since football season is winding down, I thought I'd take a minute to post these photos of our usual Sunday afternoon activity: cheering on the Redskins! These photos are a few weeks old, so they come from a time when we did things like make signs out of old paper towel tubes and were a little more--shall we say, "hopeful"--about this year's Redskins season. But we are fans nonetheless. (Noah and the kids are watching the game as I type...)

Holiday Wrap-Up, Part 2

After a week of lazing around the house with my loved ones, I am a little bummed that the "real world" starts up again tomorrow. So I will use this time to distract myself and relive all the good Christmas times. Please bear with me...

Christmas Eve dinner:





I had a few extra minutes because Mom was here to help with the cooking, so I dug through our fancy tableware (why do we never use this stuff?) and pulled out my little jingle bell napkin rings that I actually forgot I had. Calvin was excited to see them and said he would shake his and ring it to signal "whenever I want something." I suggested maybe he should just ring it to signal "Merry Christmas."



Oh, and we even got out the decorative, totally impractical mugs. And why not just use them for milk?



Noah, basking in the Christmas spirit (and the wine!):



Our first Christmas miracle (as we are calling it around here) of the morn was that our kids slept in until after 8!! The second was that we managed to get them to pose for a photo for all of three minutes by the tree.

And I know no family has an easy time getting a good posed shot of the kids. But our efforts are always complicated by Violet's erratic hand movements. And this time, Calvin insisted on including two of the little light-up keychains he got in his stocking. So these are as close to good as we got, but I think they really capture the craziness of Christmas morning. At least you can still see their matching jammies. Or can you?







At least Grammy cooperated. Here she is posing before she rips open a package:



Violet got new shoes:



And so did Calvin:



Here's Calvin in his new sleeping bag. That kid could not stop smiling all morning, but whenever I would ask him to pose for a photo, he looked like this:



Violet takes a much-needed break from the unwrapping craze to watch Handy Manny on her new iPad, a Hanukkah gift from Grandmama and Grandpa!





And Calvin helps me unwrap what might be my favorite gift from the holiday season: a little punching bag and boxing gloves. And on the bag, Noah helped Calvin write, in his perfect first-grade print: "RETT SYNDROME." Yeah, I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of that bag this year!



Other highlights of the holiday week...

Crafts from the kids! I love pulling these things out of their backpacks, even if I can usually recognize parts of them that were previously in someone's trash or recycling. Once I see my kid's name on there, I'm a goner.

Violet made this (I think it's a candle):



And Calvin made this (although not from recycled trash, thank goodness):



Lego construction lasted several days:



Violet supervised:



Learning to "use the force" with cousins Nico and Saskia and one of the kids' new Star Wars toys:






Happy Holidays from our house to yours! May the force be with you in 2011...

Happy New Year!

I had big plans to post the last of the Christmas photos today, but my computer thinks it's Y2K or something and so is not cooperating. I really want to post something today, because one of my resolutions is to keep up with the blog more. (Along with read and write more, and exercise and eat right and all that, etc.) So we'll have to settle for two not-so-great photos from last night.

I, for one, am glad it's 2011. 2009 was a pretty crummy year for us--that was the year Violet was diagnosed. 2010 wasn't much better. So I'm hoping for big things this year!

This is what we did last night:



Calvin also set up two stations--one for roasting, and one for cooling (complete with a mini fan). That boy is always thinking...

Holiday Wrap-Up, Part 1

One of these months, I'm going to try and actually keep up with the blog on a timely basis, rather than just writing posts like I'm writing letters during Civil War times, when loved ones got the "news" weeks later.

Nonetheless, here is the update on our holiday season. It's been a busy one. This past week, however, has been very slow. After a big Hanukkah celebration with Noah's family and a quick Christmas morning with my mom, it was just the four of us to finish out the holidays. Noah has had a few days off from work, so we've been really staying close to home, putting together some of Calvin's Lego gifts, watching lots of movies, having impromptu light saber wars (more on this later), and rocking out on Wii RockBand. In other words, it's been blissful

Until Noah and I both got sick two days ago. Then we traded off childcare duty so we could each take turns with naps. We are on the mend now. But we canceled New Year's plans to stay at home, had champagne with our leftovers for dinner, and are now curled up with our kiddos by the fire, making s'mores. Not too shabby.

I think as this year wraps up, we can safely consider 2010 the year Calvin discovered Star Wars. And so our holidays have had a new flavor, starting with the Star Wars cookie shapes that accompanied the usual traditional holiday stars and trees:





Grammy because a whiz at the detail work for the Yoda heads and stormtrooper faces:





The finished products:





Calvin had two things on his Christmas list for Santa this year, both of them Lego Star Wars sets. I did not know this until about a month ago, but apparently Lego has been doing a whole Star Wars thing for 10+ years, issuing a couple of sets each year that come together into some particular Star Wars ship or location or something. They come with characters and weapons and specific Lego shapes like the moss to hang on Yoda's hut.

Oh yes, I have learned a lot about Star Wars Legos this last month, much of it coming from the Lego Star Wars dictionary, which, during a moment of weakness, I agreed Calvin could buy at his school's book fair in November. (I feared it was just a big advertisement for Legos, and I was right, but we were desperate to get out of that place.)

Since then, that book has been tucked safely under Calvin's arm during many of his waking hours. Seriously, he has studied that thing cover to cover and now knows WAY more about Star Wars than I ever will.

So when he said he wanted two certain Lego Star Wars sets for Christmas, I thought, "No problem. I know where the Lego store is." Then I read more about the sets and realized they were released in 2004 and have now reached the collector status, meaning they aren't sold in stores anymore (although you could find them from some Amazon specialty sellers for upwards of $175--ouch!).

So we broke the news gently to Calvin. We told him there was no guarantee he would get exactly what was on his Christmas list, that those were just suggestions, and that were sure he would lots of fun things, but maybe not those exact Star Wars sets. He wanted to know why. So we told him that those particular sets were older ones and might not be in the stores, or might be too expensive. He shrugged, looked at us, and said, simply: "But Santa can just make them. He's magic."

Oh yeah, ri-ight. Santa's magic. We forgot about that.

But luckily, Santa came through. (Thank you, eBay!) And Calvin did wake up on Christmas morning to find the coveted Lego Star Wars X-Wing Fighter set #4502 waiting for him under the tree. Thankfully, he was happy with just the one, because he reasoned, "Santa knew this was the one I wanted the most." Phew!

Here he is inspecting the goods:



As if this wasn't enough, more to come soon...

Giving thanks for pie... and lots of other things!

Thanksgiving was great! And then we took a little family trip to Hershey, PA, to see the sights and buy lots of chocolate. (More on this later.) Then we came home and all got sick, so we spent most of this week cooped up at home wiping noses, some our own, some our kids'.

So this weekend, I am thankful that we have all mostly recovered from the first bad cold of the season. I am also thankful that while we had to spend most of this last week in our house, we at least had a nice big stash of chocolate to keep us company!

But last week, on the actual Thanksgiving, I was grateful (and still am) for many things: my little family, my bigger family, friends, the awesome vacations we had this year, a house, food, coffee, my new coat I got on sale at Target. All the things I probably take for granted most days. I could do without Rett syndrome, but I am grateful there is a community of people supporting us and working for anything to help my girl. And I am very thankful that while there are many things Violet can't do, she is one great snuggler.

So on the actual Thanksgiving day, I was very grateful to spend most of the day in my jammies, cuddling with V on the sofa while the boys spent many hours making pie. They even made a cherry one for me, because I don't like the traditional pecan. Pretty lucky, huh?

Check them out:






I forgot to take pictures of the actual pies. We were too busy eating them (after rushing to make it to dinner on time.) But they were delicious. Trust me.

School Girl

Just had to take a minute to post Violet's first-ever school photo. And I know I am a little biased here, but I think it is one of the best school photos I have ever seen (and I have seen some good and bad, many of them my own).

I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how this would turn out when I sent her into school that day. Part of me wanted to stick around that day just to see how everything went down. I think school photos must be a tricky feat at any traditional school, let alone one for kids with special needs, many of them preschoolers.

Don't get me wrong. Violet is usually pretty photogenic: sweet and smiley and flirty. But her nonstop Rett-related hand movements mean that she often has one hand hand in her mouth and another tugging at her ear. And if anything is off--like she's tired or hungry or has to go #2 (sorry, but poop is a hot topic in our house)--then she can quickly turn into a fidgety, crying, flailing handful.

I tried to stay positive, though. When I dropped her at school, her curls were neatly combed, she was wearing a cute top and had a bow to match (and had a whole backup stylish outfit in her backpack). I asked her aides to give her hair a once-over before she went in for the photo, wipe the slobber from her chin, and try to hide her armband (which she wears to limit the repetitive hand movements) so it wouldn't be too visible in the picture and mess up her whole look. And then they told me that photos weren't until the end of the day, and I really just gave up hope that anything I had planned for a cute photo would hold out until then.

They are pros at this though and waved me off. And they did not disappoint. What you cannot see in the photo is that one of her aides was crouched behind her, holding her on the stool so she wouldn't fall. And the other aide ducked down in front, holding her hands so she wouldn't block her own face. And voila! Perfection! Have I mentioned how amazing and hard-working her teacher and aides are? Well, they are!

And I have to give Violet full credit for the sweet smile and overall cuteness. I would say she worked hard for that, too, but it just comes naturally to her.

Surviving Halloween

I meant to post right after Halloween to show the kids in their costumes. But to be honest, I needed a few days to recover. My visit to Violet's school for her Halloween party was not quite as empowering as my fun outing with her class for their farm field trip. The truth is, no matter how hard I try to find the positives at her school (and to be sure, there are many), having to send your kid to a special-needs school just, well, sucks. And even though the staff there are just amazing and infinitely kind and patient with the kids, and there is much about the school that gives you warm feelings, sometimes, it is just sad to be there.

Like on Halloween. You have all these preconceived images of kids dressed in their costumes, flitting from one classroom to the next, happily trick-or-treating while gathering candy. And while that was true for some of the kids (especially in the higher functioning preschool classes), many of them don't walk, let alone flit. And it's really hard to come up with good costumes that work in a wheelchair or a walker. Many of the kids don't talk, so it's not unusual to see them with buttons or switches they press for an automated voice that says "Trick or Treat." Even when they get the candy, some of the kids can't eat it because they have difficulty chewing or are fed by tubes.

So it's kind of a tough scene on Halloween. At least it was for me. But I'm still a newbie to this. I'm hoping I can catch up with some of the staff, who do an incredible job of carrying on and creating a fun atmosphere, regardless the circumstances.

Violet had fun. She was adorable in her Minnie Mouse costume. And she was mostly smiles while we cruised the hallways:

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And she enjoyed some of the class games:

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She was pretty exhausted by story time:

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And this is how she looked after the party. (I should have dressed her in a Sleeping Beauty costume.)

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Later, I got to Calvin's school just in time to see this smiling police officer marching in the parade:

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Notice the box of Dunkin' Donuts in his hand? He wasn't allowed to bring anything "resembling a weapon" to school, which is pretty much all of the equipment that goes with a cop costume. So we needed another prop. His dad made the run for emergency munchkins, and they really made the costume. (Plus they were really yummy later.)

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But Halloween wasn't over yet. Later that weekend, we decorated pumpkins:

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And later, we did a little more family trick-or-treating. And the smiles from this duo made me love Halloween again:

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