Virginia pics

Nannie and Lucy

Fun at the pondFather and daughter

Outside Hanshill... watch out for mosquitoes!
The Hanshill bathtub has hosted generations of splashing

VA

We're having a very relaxing time here in Virginia. It's more than a bit sticky, but that's to be expected. Nate went swimming (with life vest and in Mimi's arms) in the pond yesterday and today and thought it was pretty cool. His Grandpa and Mimi have come up with some new games he likes to play, and he calls my mom (Mimi) "Neenee." Lucy is acting precious and sweet as usual. She adjusted to the three-hour time difference within 24 hours--seems like little babies make that transition pretty easily (at least my little babies do). I took some fun pictures today, so I'll try to post them tomorrow!

Friends

Here are Nate and Lucy with some sweet friends who are the same ages. So cute!

Packing

So, the packing party might be the best idea I've ever had. We got so much packed tonight... and really, I should say they got so much packed tonight, because I probably packed two boxes total and did a lot of directing and answering questions ("Katie, do you really want to pack this mostly empty bottle of 4-year-old Nair?") and organizing instead. Ricci, Katrina, Katie, Lissa, Heather, Casey, and Colleen packed our entire kitchen, pantry, every toy, much of the garage, both bathrooms, and more--dozens and dozens and dozens of boxes. And I think we all had fun! It was great and now I feel so wonderful and stress-free.

Thank you to my sweet, wonderful friends!

Decorating

There are a few rooms in our new house that I want to redecorate right away: the bathrooms, Lucy's room, and the kitchen.

Lucy's room
Currently painted a boyish neutral (looks lighter in the photo):




My changes:
Pink and green bedding and curtains. I'm thinking about a barely-pink pink for the walls. For curtains, maybe something like these, with the same fabric and pom-pom trim as the crib bedding:


Main floor (guest) bathroom (currently painted very lavender):
Wallpaper (very un-Californian!). I like the idea of a bold black-and-white wallpaper and then accenting the room with either ice blue or red accessories. But I've also found some cool colored wallpapers. I like these:

or...

Downstairs (master) bathroom (currently painted an orangeish neutral on all walls and the ceiling)
Needs something. I will definitely paint the ceiling white and then either a light color on the walls or maybe one of the wallpapers from above if I like how the wallpapering turns out in the other bathroom.

Kitchen
We are hoping to do an overhaul with new cabinets and countertops at some point, but for now, the purple wall has to go.

I've found a few fun wallpaper things but might just be going a bit wallpaper happy.

I'll probably just paint over the purple with white or red and wait until we do the kitchen makeover and put some sort of cool 1/2-inch tile backsplash there instead.

Here's Nate's room. I think we'll take down the mirrors; I don't know if there's paint behind them, so that might mean a whole-room repaint if there isn't.

Countdown

We are going to Virginia on Friday! I can barely wait for everyone to meet Lucy. I'm also secretly hoping (not so secretly anymore) to get a few "Wow, Nate is doing so well" remarks; sometimes it's hard for me to see his progress since I'm with him 24/7 and don't get to step back and see the big picture or easily compare how he was a few months ago to now.

Also, escrow should be closing Thursday on our house! I think the only thing left to happen is our loan funding. I've been doing OK packing--I get two or three boxes packed each day, which I consider an accomplishment! :) I'm having a "packing party" tomorrow night--a bunch of girlfriends are coming over to help. Then Jon is taking Thursday off; we will pack the house, pack for Virginia, and (I hope) sign papers for the house. We won't move to the new place until the weekend after we get back from VA.

More pictures from Sunday:

Nate fake laughing on the way to church

My precious girl

Too exhausted on the way home (he doesn't usually fall asleep in the car)

Baby dedication

Today was Lucy's baby dedication in church. She looked very cute wearing the same Dior dress (and adorable bonnet) I wore as a baby.

Lucy:


Me, circa December, 1980:

At our church, the baby dedication is about the parents dedicating themselves to training up the child in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is a high calling, one I can only accomplish through the power of God working in and through me.

We love you, Lucy!

Seasons

I've been thinking lately about seasons of life and how important it is to appreciate and experience fully each season as it comes. I spend too much time wishing for things that will come in time (e.g., no diapers, or talking in full sentences). Often, when those things come, I'm already wishing for the next thing. What a terrible way to live life!

Things to appreciate now: the hectic craziness of running around after a two year old while also holding a three month old... and still having the energy to do it (most days). (Truly makes me wonder how mothers of three, four, or more do it!) The sweet innocence of my baby girl. The absolute trust and devotion of my children. Full days to devote to play. Being young with my husband.

I know I will look back one day and think fondly of these years. I also want to look back and know that I made the best of them, not wasting the time and opportunities God gave.

Happy 4th

We had a nice family day yesterday. I love when Jon is home from work on a weekday! We went to Casey's parents' house in the late afternoon for swimming and fellowship. We stayed for dinner and watched the fireworks (though Nate, who would have appreciated them I think, was already in bed, and Lucy slept through them in her carseat).

Nate update

Therapy
Nate was reevaluated at Cornerstone (the therapy center) this month, and they recommended an increase in hours--from 5 per week to 10. He'll now be getting 5 hours ABA, 2 hours occupational therapy, 1 hour physical therapy, and 1.5 hours speech therapy (the extra half hour is for the parent meeting). I've been debating about whether to ask his caseworker to place him somewhere else closer to us for at least part of the therapy (maybe he could continue ABA at Cornerstone but get OT, PT, and speech at other places). I spoke to the scheduler at Cornerstone, though, and they are able to keep it so that we still only have to drive up there two days a week; Nate would continue to get in-home ABA on Tuesdays and now also Fridays. If we were to split up his different therapies among various vendors, it would make things more difficult schedule-wise, and it would mean more driving around and more adjustment for Nate (new therapists and locations).

The two days we would have to go to Cornestone in Huntington (Wednesdays and Thursdays) would be extended from an hour and a half each time to something more like three hours each time. This would be a big adjustment for Nate, because 1) that would cross over into nap territory and 2) he's already really ready to go by the end of the hour and a half. However, the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning toward keeping everything at Cornestone. Yes, it's a far drive. Yes, I will basically have to sit there with Lucy for three hours both days (too far and too much gas to drop him off, come back home, and then drive back. Edited to add: I do already do some grocery shopping or other errand running if possible up there in Huntington Beach while Nate is in therapy, so I'll keep doing that of course). But Nate is getting to like some of his therapists there, and it's nice to have everything all at one place (just wish it were closer!).

Enzymes
Things are going well with the enzymes. I haven't seen any breakthrough huge improvement, but in general I think Nate is more agreeable (usually... but he's still 2). He's doing much better at understanding and obeying what I tell him to do. He is still refusing any new/unliked food I try to introduce, and his diapers are still atypical, but I'm still hopeful for improvement in those areas too.

I pray that, in the future, I will look back on these days and say, "Wow, all of that work was really worth it!"

Weekend pics

Water boy


Lucy lovin' Daddy

Did I say we weren't getting the house?

Apparently, I was wrong. You heard me--we are now getting the house! We decided we will put our current house on the market (in several weeks, after we've moved to the other place and also done a bit of fix-up work on this house). I packed four boxes tonight in my excitement. (By the way, "tonight" is Wednesday, but I probably won't post this for several days, seeing as I've already said "we might get it," "we're getting it!" and "nevermind, we're not getting it" in a short span, so I'd like to be sure if I'm going to post another change of plan.) Why didn't we do the selling-our-house thing in the first place, you ask? Well, it isn't the greatest market to try and sell and we also think it would be great in the long run to have two properties, but it just won't work right now. But now I'm excited all over again about the new house! Three bedrooms--yay! New decorating--yay!

I have fabric for Lucy's crib bedding, and I sent it to my mom today (now Friday) so she can make the bumper and bed skirt. Here's the bed skirt:


I can come up with the ideas like this, but I have a harder time executing them and figuring out how to get to the end product when starting with just a strip of fabric. My mom's good at that. I have some super cute pink and green fabrics, including the paisley I found several months ago.

Yay for new plans!

Fun with captions

Nate: "Maybe if I smile, Mama won't notice the right hook..."
Lucy: "Go ahead. Make my day."


"90th percentile, really?"


"Ahoy, matey!"

Summer fun

Nate and I love summer! Sun, the hose, and a bucket or two--all you need for at least an hour of fun.

Numbers

Nate's favorite thing lately has been to point to all the numbers he can find when we go on walks (house numbers, numbers on signs, etc.). On our walk today, he saw a 6 on a post. He pointed to it and said his version of "six" (not anywhere close). I agreed. Then he stopped walking and put his hands on the ground so he could turn his head upside down.

"Nine!" he exclaimed. It was so cute.



Here he is being a comedian before his nap today.

News alert

Well.

Big change of plans: we aren't going to get the house. The numbers came back on what our payments would be on the new place. Both these numbers and the numbers on our current house were higher than what we had been expecting based on what we'd been told. We knew doing the two properties was going to be a stretch, and we were prepared for that, but not that much of a stretch. So, when I got home from doing Super Suppers (I love that place!) on Thursday night, Jon told me we aren't going to get the house. I really respect and admire Jon's wisdom and good sense in matters like these. I also really was glad that he was willing to be the one to tell our realtor (I have a real guilt complex and hate having other people mad at/disappointed in me)! :)

Of course, I am disappointed. Having three bedrooms was going to be so wonderful! I was so excited about decorating Lucy's room and about having her in a separate room during the night, as I know I sleep better that way. I was excited about getting to decorate a whole new house. I knew Nate would love having a staircase. But I am also relieved. I was nervous about committing to spending so much more per month on housing. We made a leap of faith when we first bought our current house several years ago, and God really did provide for us. We were trusting that He would provide in this circumstance, too, but we also realized that he gave us common sense and financial wisdom for a reason: we are still supposed to make intelligent decisions as we are stewards of the money He gives us. This would have been more than we could afford, no matter how you look at it.

Thinking we were going to move inspired me into a spring cleaning of sorts; I had already started "purging" on Thursday as kind of a pre-packing thing, gathering about 20 books to give away or throw away (and those were just my own books--Jon has more than I do, but I'll let him choose which ones not to keep). So I am going to keep up the cleaning/organizing/purging, and I may even paint one of our rooms a new color or something to get excited again about living in our cozy, lovely, happy house for a while longer (we don't know how long).

E-mail

I am having trouble with my Cox e-mail address and am only receiving some of my e-mails, so if you have e-mailed me and I haven't responded, I probably didn't get the e-mail. E-mail me at my gmail address for now (and if you don't know that, it's the same as my hotmail address, if that helps).

I'm working on a long post. For now, here is sweet Lucy yesterday afternoon:

Big family update

Nate
Now that he is mostly adjusted to the enzymes, Nate is back to his usually-chipper self and is even doing better at therapy. This morning, he gave his therapist a hug when she came out to get him, and then he walked with her away from me (usually, he wants me to hold him and doesn't want to let go, and then he'll reach begrudgingly for the therapist and often will cry as she takes him away. Sometimes he still waves goodbye to me while he's crying--it's cute but sad). Will, Nate's in-home ABA therapist, mentioned yesterday that Nate is attempting much more vocalization and did really well yesterday with transitions, which have been the hardest thing for him. (Nate doesn't like changing activities, especially if it means he has to stop doing something he likes. In general, he just hates being told what to do.)



Nate's favorite things to do as of late are play with his puzzles, point out any numbers he sees (he knows 1-10 and at least tries to say them all; two is "boo," three is "ee," seven is "asha," and nine sounds pretty close), play with a toy he got for his birthday--cars and a track with a loop-de-loop, go on walks, wrestle with Jon, and kiss Lucy's head.

Lucy
Luce slept 8 hours again last night--woo hoo! She's taking a great nap right now too. Oh, and I've caught her doing this funny thing with her thumb several times. It is exactly what my mom does! Must be genetic.



Also, I've noticed Lucy definitely has the "45-minute intruder," as described in Babywise. She is taking a good nap and then wakes up after 45 minutes. I let her stir/fuss for a while, and then she goes back to sleep and sleeps deeply for at least another hour. I don't remember noticing Nate doing this, but I also hadn't read the book yet then. ;)

The house
It's a deal! (Don't you love how I waited until the third section to tell you that?) Escrow opened today, and if all goes as planned, we'll have the keys on July 11 or so--just before we head to Virginia for a week of family visiting. I already have some boxes, so I'm hoping to get started on packing tonight.

Because we're keeping our current house to rent out, we are doing a 100% loan for the condo. This means a higher payment per month than what we've been doing on the house, so we are going to have to cut down on quite a few of our luxuries. We go out to eat at least twice a week (lunch after church on Sundays and usually one other weekend meal, if not more). We have cable TV and DVR, fast/nice internet, cell phones, gym membership, Starbucks addiction (Jon), eBay addiction (me)... Reevaluating our budget has made me see that we really do live comfortably (especially considering I get to stay at home with the children), even if we don't seem to compared to many of our Orange County neighbors. God has really blessed us! And I am praying that He will guide us through this next phase as we trust in His provision.

Here is some more info on our new house!
- It's in Laguna Hills, just about 5 miles from our current house.
- It is in a pretty condo community that is just behind the church where Jon and I got married (near the intersection of Lake Forest and Moulton, for those of you familiar with the area).
- Jon will have a little bit longer drive to work each day (but tacking 5 minutes onto an already-40-minute-without-traffic drive isn't the end of the world I guess)..
- We are 5 minutes closer to church.
- I think we'll put Nate in the upstairs bedroom and put Lucy in the room next to ours downstairs. Nate is still in his crib (and loves it), so we'll probably set up his crib and his "big boy bed" in the new room and let him choose. If he chooses the crib, we'll probably wait a few weeks to transition him to the bed and then put a gate on his door so he can't go out of his room during the night.

Well, I have just used up all of nap time! :)

House

The deal is looking good on the house. They counteroffered, and we made a few small changes to that and signed our counteroffer last night. I'm hoping that's the end of it and we'll have a deal today!

Two quick updates

We put our offer in on the house last night and should hear back tomorrow morning! I'm assuming we'll receive a counteroffer and then will go from there. If it works out, we're asking for a 15-day escrow, which means we'd be moving soon (early-mid July).

Also, I realized I haven't written much about Lucy lately. She's doing great. She is consistently sleeping at least 6 hours at night, but she has gone as long as 8 and a half. She did 7 and a half last night. And then she is doing much better at going right back down to sleep after the night-time nursing; she sleeps in the morning until 8:00 or so. At her 2-month appointment earlier this month, she weighed 10 pounds 12 ounces (50th percentile), and her length was 50th percentile (I can't remember the inches number though). She is smiley and precious! Oh, and she has started talking and cooing more, which is really cute.

Here's Nate watching his wonderful Daddy do yard work today on Father's Day.

For Kara Johnson

Nate is saying "go" when Jon stops and he wants more. :)

There are no other offers on the house, so we're meeting with our realtor tonight to put one together. I'm already dreaming of how to decorate the place!

Hunting results

We saw six condos last night. Three were automatically disqualified (one because it had no outdoor play space for the kids; the second because it had a large array of "just not right" things about it, including the stairwell's walls that were covered with jutting-out, small rocks, and a set of doors downstairs that opened into what I expected would be the laundry or a closet but ended up being the cavernous underbelly of the house; and the third because it had way too much expensive work it needed done, like a complete kitchen remodel, some new floors, and bathroom remodels). Of the remaining three, two were the same model (about 1250 square feet) and one was a bit bigger (about 1400 square feet). All had three bedrooms. The bigger home had wonderful sized bedrooms, good floor plan (master bedroom on main floor and other two bedrooms downstairs together), and a great living space, but a borderline terrible kitchen, a strange/tiny "eat-in" area that wouldn't fit a table and chairs, and cosmetic ugliness (needed new floors, scraped ceilings, and lighting). The smaller models had a less desirable floor plan (one child bedroom on main floor, with master bedroom and second child bedroom downstairs) but overall were the best choices. We ended up liking the very first one we saw the best. And, incidentally, it was the lowest priced house of them all!

Here's the kitchen, which is much more open than our current one (yay!):


I would want to get new countertops eventually and at least reface the cabinets because they aren't in the best shape. Also, I'm thinking we could perhaps find (or have built) a skinny desk for our computer that could fit in the corner where they have the table/wine bottles. Otherwise, we could do some sort of built-in cabinets there since it is otherwise just wasted space.


Once we saw the second house that is the same floor plan as this one, we realized that this house (the one we like) knocked out the wall between the kitchen and living area, which we love. Here's the (rather terrible) kitchen in the other house (you can also see the front door to the right, and by the front door is the upstairs bathroom to one side and the upstairs bedroom to the other, behind the kitchen):



Other good things about our choice house: a wonderful skylight above the stairs that lets in lots of natural light; recessed lights throughout; scraped ceilings; open kitchen; lots of grassy area behind; an enclosed patio in the front for "kid play"; very close (100 yards or less) to a park with slides, swings, etc.

We should find out today if there are any other offers on the house, which will help determine whether we will even make an offer.

Hunting

Jon and I are going to see several homes for sale this evening. They are 3-bedroom condos (one is a 4-bedroom) in a price range that would make it possible for us to keep our current house (rent it out) and also live in a place that is big enough for our growing family. I don't mind having our kids share a room, but it doesn't really work until the younger (Lucy) is at least a year old. Anyway, I'll let you know if we find anything worth blogging about.

Enzyme update

It has been about two and a half weeks since we started the enzymes, and I think we are through the worst of the adjustment period. Late last week, I found out that the best way to give them to Nate is just get it over with using a medicine syringe instead of sneaking them into his food. He was starting not to trust me when I fed him (seriously), which was sad. Now he knows he just has to drink the medicine I give him (enzyme powder mixed with juice), then I cheer for him and he's done. I had mentioned last week that his "physical symptoms" were better, but I was wrong; his diapers are still worse, which actually is a good sign (means his body is getting rid of all the bad stuff that has been in there). In general, Nate is returning to his happy self, and I'm very hopeful that he'll be even better than his happy self in the coming weeks, perhaps communicating more, obeying when I tell him to do something, and even saying a new word or two (or more?).

Hilarious

Weekend

This weekend (over Friday night), Jon, Lucy, and I went with a big group to some friends' lake house a couple of hours away. Jon went wakeboarding twice (and has the major soreness to prove it), and Lucy showed off in her cute suit. Nate stayed with Jon's parents and sister. I love having family so close by and so willing to watch and love our kids.

Proactive parenting

The first book I read about autism had a section devoted to parents being advocates for their children. I read it but didn't realize how much it would apply to me, even here in affluent Orange County. I'm finding I have to be extremely proactive in making calls and following up to make sure things get done for Nate. Basically, no one else loves my son like I love him.

It was three months after Nate's initial evaluation through the state before he ever started therapy. Now at his therapy, which I am happy with overall, PECS (the picture system I wrote about over two months ago) still hasn't been implemented (should be this month).

Interestingly, a two-part article came out in the Orange County Register last week about how Orange County's regional center has "the worst complaint record with regards to services provided" in the entire state. Two days after the first installment came out, I received a call from Nate's RCOC caseworker--the first call in six months. (We are having a new IFSP meeting. IFSP stands for Individualized Family Service Plan; these change to IEPs--Individualized Education Plans--when Nate turns three.)

The "private sector" hasn't been any better. The neurologist, who is part of an organization dedicated to helping children with autism in Orange County, diagnosed Nate back in March. At the evaluation, she/the organization recommended Nate get a new speech evaluation (for therapy through our insurance in addition to what he's getting through the state) and get some bloodwork done; they would be taking care of getting the referrals and getting all the information together. Once the end of April rolled around and I still hadn't heard anything, I started making calls. We finally got a speech evaluation scheduled (it happened today after two reschedulings), but, five calls later, I still haven't received the information for getting the lab work. There's more annoyingness and calls and dropped balls, but I won't bore you. :)

Speaking of that speech evaluation, we went this morning to Speech Pathology Associates, which is here in Irvine (which I'm very excited about), and we spent a little over an hour with the head speech pathologist for her to evaluate Nate. It was the same woman who sat in on his neurology appointment in March, and I like her a lot. It is obvious she loves children and enjoyed Nate. She listened to me as if I knew what I was talking about and my knowledge mattered (which, of course, it does, but not all doctors operate that way). She agreed with me that Nate has good receptive language; he identified most of the objects she asked him to point out (but he didn't understand categorizing: when she put a little bed in front of him in addition to a few other objects and asked where we sleep, he didn't know). Nate behaved well and in general is doing so much better with eye contact, referencing (looking up during play), etc. He showed off by expertly completing a puzzle she brought out for him. At the end, the doctor said she'd like to have Nate come in twice a week (I'm not sure if that's two hours or two half hours--probably two hours). She has to complete her report and submit it to our insurance for approval, and then Nate should start his therapy there in two or three weeks. :)

Play time

I love how Lucy wonders what is going on when Nate plays with her and pokes her...





And these are my new favorite pictures of her (they're clickable so you can see them bigger):

Zoo

Today was Nate's first trip to the zoo--and Lucy's first time too, of course. I think Lucy enjoyed it more than Nate did. I'm being facetious, but only a little bit. Nate just isn't himself while his body is trying to adjust to these enzymes.





We did see lots of monkeys, birds, and barnyard animals.



Nate's cousins fed goats and sheep, and Nate finally got brave enough to try it once (though Nate is usually not the shy one in a bunch, he definitely is a bit skittish around animals, and he was especially today since he has been feeling/acting poorly).