Sickness, steps, and smiley faces

It has been a while since I last posted because we have had so much going on. The best news is that Nana is now home. She was discharged from the hospital last Sunday and is resting comfortably at home. She is one tough lady, that is for sure! Her homecoming meant that there were lots of preparations to be made... I'll get to that in a bit.

Another reason we have been busy is because all of the kids were a bit under the weather this week. They had nasty colds with coughs, and no one was getting any sleep. Mairead handled things pretty well but the babies were miserable. They were so tired but they were so congested that they couldn't sleep. They just wanted to be held all the time. It turns out that Jack has an ear infection (his third), so he may have had the worst of it. They are on the mend now, but still not quite themselves. I am anxious for them to get better so that we can all get some sleep. And, so we don't have to be stuck inside anymore. I love cartoons as much as the next person, but we are ALL sick of watching tv and feeling lousy! I also could do without the runny noses, thousands of tissues, changing sheets from people being sick, and no sleep. You know, the not so fun parts of being a parent!

The boys never sit still, but they were just so sick that snuggling on their little chair together was about all they could do. They were pretty much attached to their blue blankets this week.


The other night, my mom brought home lobster for dinner. Mairead loved seeing him. Dave always points them out when they go to the grocery store, so she knew just what it was and how to say, 'lobster.' She kept petting it and saying, "oh, so cute!" Please forgive the Oreo cookie crumbs on her face.

She has impressed us a few times this week so I have to share. I gave her a marker and some paper the other day, and she drew a face! She has never done this before... most of her coloring is just scribbles, but lately she has had more of a purpose. It's hard to see in the picture because she wouldn't move her hand, but there were definitely eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I was so proud of her- this is another new skill! I asked her what she was doing and she said, "eyes." Then, she started to scribble a bit over the eyes and said, "glasses." Pretty smart, huh?

The other cute story is from this morning. She was looking out the window to see if she could find the cardinal that lives in our yard. She was saying, "red bird, are you? Red bird?" I couldn't see him so I told her that he was hiding. So, she covered her eyes, counted to 10, and then said, "ready or not, here I come!" I was blown away- I didn't know she knew how to play hide n' seek!

We are thrilled with all of the progress she is making. We do, however have a lot of important dates coming up. Tomorrow, for example, I am taking her to a local elementary school to be evaluated by a team of teachers to determine whether or not she qualifies for an IEP. There is a lot riding on this since we really want her to go to public pre-school in the fall and get the services she needs. Early Intervention ends on her third birthday, but she still desperately needs services. In Lowell, pre-school starts at age 4 unless the student has an IEP; in that case, she can go at age 3. She has done so well with the therapies she now has that we know we can't wait for her to be 4 before she goes to school... that would be a whole year without some of the services and social settings that she needs. There are some private options, but the local public preschool is really what she needs.

So, please send us some good thoughts and prayers for tomorrow so that the team will see that she is a smart little girl who needs their help. I don't want her to show them all of her 'talents' because I want her to qualify, so hopefully she will clam up a bit during the evaluation!

June 1 is the day we see the neurologist at the stroke clinic, and that day is fast approaching, too. I thought it would never some-- I first called to set up this appointment on February 3! Now that it is almost here, I am certainly anxious about what the neurologist might have to say about what is going on in her little brain. We have so many questions- hopefully he can begin to answer some for us.

The boys (other than being sick) are doing great. Jack is trying to talk all the time! And, he has been taking 2-3 real steps at a time! His new thing is to ask, "where's the bird?" when looking out the window. He is also trying to say, "Help, please," and a few other phrases. Ben mostly likes to concentrate on the physical side of things. He thinks he can do whatever Mairead can do, so he is constantly toddling along after her, trying to climb things, dance, and keep up with her.

When you ask the boys if it is windy, they both blow and make a whooshing sound. They also like to demand 'crackers' constantly.

Anyway, back to Nana. When we learned that she was coming home, there was a lot of activity around here to get her house ready and comfortable for her. The biggest project was the set of stairs that lead down to her house. We had been waiting for warmer weather to replace them, but suddenly they needed to come down quickly with a new set in their place.

Jimmy and Lee came up for the day to help. In a role reversal, Brian was the foreman of the job while my dad and uncles were his crew. It's funny because when he was just a toddler, he was following them around while they completed projects, carrying his little hammer and screwdriver. Now, he is the expert carpenter! They did a great job and got it done in one day!

Mairead and Ben wanted to check out the action, but had to be kept away from tools, etc. So, Jimmy entertained them for a while.

Thanks for checking in with us and thanks for all of your good wishes and prayers for Nana. Things are starting to settle down a bit now... we've had just about all the excitement we need for a while!