Easter Picture Egg-stravaganza

First- some pictures from last year to see how far we've come!

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter... we did! We had beautiful weather and a great day with our beautiful family. We took a ton of pictures so here are some of my favorites!

There are not a lot of pictures of me with my kids since I am usually behind the camera, so this is a nice one!

Jen and Mike brought a huge tub of sidewalk chalk and Mairead had to try it out immediately.

Since everyone was together, we took a family picture with all of 'the kids'... the big kids...

Mairead is not drinking wine... just juice. Well, maybe a little bit of mimosa...

Either way, she did share it with the bunny.

Ben is in orange.

We were actually able to have an egg hunt OUTside! Something I don't remember happening since I was a kid. Mairead had so much fun collecting all of the eggs. She would gather them up and we would hide them again while she wasn't looking. She did catch on to us eventually, though.

Easter was also Opening Day... Ben was all ready for game time!

How cute are these little bunnies?

Someone left this whole cake here for Mairead to sample...

And, the newest little bunny, Lily!

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great day. I do have some video and I will post a few in the next couple of days.

In other news, Jack is doing really well with standing unassisted lately- he is getting more confident and more strength, so we are thrilled to see that.

Ben is a crazy person and is in to EVERYthing. Tomorrow, I have to take him to Children's to follow up with a cardiologist about his heart murmur. We are optimistic that it will be innocent and nothing to worry about, but it still causes me a little bit of anxiety.

Mairead is doing really well with all of her therapies- we can definitely see progress already. For example, what Mairead understands has been a mystery to me. I really have no idea what goes on in that little brain of hers and it's hard. Sometimes, I get to a low point and think she has no idea what is happening and no recollection of events.

Last week, though, I posted how she knew some of her classmates' names. Yesterday, I was telling her that Mary (her developmental therapist) was coming. I asked, 'what will we do with Mary today?' Typically, she does not answer questions like that. I can see the wheels turning, but nothing happens.

Anyway, today, she said, "castle.' I thought she was just talking about something else. Then, she said, "Dragon. Jump." It clicked with me that last week, Mary brought a toy in which you put a dragon into a castle and pressed buttons to make him jump out. I was SO happy that she was able to remember, recall, and verbalize that. It just makes me feel so much better to know that she DOES understand things and DOES remember them. I know that she is bright- we just need to find ways to get all of that knowledge out! The next step is to have her evaluated by the school system in the hopes of getting her into a preschool program that will continue to help her. The paperwork has been done to get that in motion, so hopefully they will be able to place her.

Thanks for reading and for keeping up with us!_________