Preschool

I can hardly believe Nathan is old enough to go to preschool.  I wish he could still get at-home therapy, but it's how the system works to get him therapy.  The thing that helps me be ok with it is that he needs to be around his peers and that he loves it so much!

The best of first day pictures

His class has a unusual set up, but it works great. Nathan is in a small class of 6 students who are all autistic.  They have a special ed teacher, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and psychologist to work with Nathan individually on his goals.  Nathan's class is paired with another class of 10 typically developing kids.  Nathan's class joins them at least for snack and recess, but as Nathan is able to he will join in with the typical classroom for more activities. They have several para-professionals in the typical classroom to help out the special needs kids if they need a little extra support.  In total, there are 9 professionals working in the 2 classrooms.  I'm really happy with the classroom Nathan is in.  From all the research I've done on the effectiveness of preschool classrooms, the ones that mix autistic kids and typically developing kids have the best outcomes.

Preschool open house

They did a great job getting the kids ready for preschool.  First, Nathan's teacher, occupational therapist, and speech therapist all came to our house to meet Nathan and so we could talk about Nathan.  Nathan was so happy meet all of them and was very friendly.  They also had a preschool open house so mom and Nathan could go see the classroom and meet all the staff before preschool actually started.  Nathan was so eager to go see everything.  He colored his snack mat, stood for pictures, and explored the classrooms.  Of course he found the trains right away!

On his first day, Nathan did great.  When I was driving him to preschool, I was talking to him about preschool and he said, "Preschool.  Bus."  I was so happy with him for  making the connection!  He will get to ride the bus to preschool very soon.  Once we got in the building he couldn't wait for me to sign in so he could go into class.  He went right in and didn't even care if I was there.  I said goodbye and had to get him to stop playing for him to say goodbye back.  It was so weird being at home without him.  I really started to miss my little buddy.  But Nathan's preschool teacher, knowing it was probably going to be hard sending him to preschool, sent me some cute pictures and let me know he was having lots of fun at singing time and reading time.

Nathan was happy to see me at pick up.  He would not stop talking about "preschool teacher" afterwards.  He can say all of his teachers names except for his actual preschool teacher, Miss Melissa, but calls her "Aunt Alissa".

He is absolutely loving it! His teachers tell me all the time that he loves singing time.  And he's even made a little friend in his class.  There is another boy in Nathan's class that we see before they open the building to let the kids in.  I've been helping Nathan to go up and say hi to his friend Odin and Odin says hi back.  Well, this last Thursday Nathan ran up to a boy that looked like his friend and said, "Hi Odin," all on his own.

And to be completely honest, mommy is loving preschool too.  Evy gets a completely undisturbed nap and I get so much done.  And Nathan gets in a lot of therapy at preschool.  It's a win-win-win for everyone.

Evelyn at 6 Months

- Evy is so curious.  She loves to look, feel, and taste everything.
- Crawling.  Yes, crawling at 6 months.  And she's fast too.  The other day while I was making lunch Evy crawled around the couch, under the table, into the kitchen, turned around and went back to play by the couch.  And it's pretty much the cutest to watch her scoot and then turn to give you a smile.

- Likes to crawl over to see what her brother is doing.  Those two love each other so much.  It melts my heart.
- Loves serburts.  She laughs so much when you do it.

- She is starting to get stranger awareness.  If your mommy, daddy, or brother you get a huge smile.  If she doesn't know you, she will not even give you a half smile.  She just stares at you.
- She loves to see her daddy.  She'll watch him go around a room and whenever he looks at her she gets the biggest grin on her face.

- Blowing raspberries, usually when she's tired and ready to go to sleep for the night.
- 6 month stats: 16 lbs 15 oz (64th percentile), 26 3/4 inches (80th percentile), and 42 cm head circumference (41st percentile.)

- She's starting to grow out of her 6 month clothes. I'm going to be really sad when she can no longer fit in these jammies.  I just can't stand how cute it is to have her face framed in a hood.
- We pulled out the jumperoo for her and she loves it.  Not sure if she loves the bouncing or the being able to look around at everything more.

- Started eating solids.  The first time she had them it was quite comical.  She would shutter in disgust with every bite.  Now that's she's getting used to eating solids she actually quite likes cereal and will sometimes try to help get the spoon in her mouth.
- She is doing better at sleeping since we started solids.  She was getting up a few times a night before, but now she's maybe getting up once around 5 am.  Hallelujah.

- What do you get for a 6 month old for her 1/2 year birthday?  Bibs for those solids she's starting to eat.  Evy seems to like them.
- Everything Nathan drops, Evy has to put in her mouth.
- Evy's hair is still red and she has such pretty dark blue eyes.  Evidently, red hair and blue eyes are the rarest hair/eye color combo.  Just in case we needed another reason of how special this little girl is.

- With how curious and independent she has been getting, it's so nice when every once in a while I get to snuggle up with this little girl.  It usually happens when she is sleeping these days, but she's also starting to give me squeezes when I pick her up.  I love when she gives me these little baby hugs.  

Rocky Mountain High - Part 5

On our last day we went to see Bear Lake.  We had our lunch right by the lake and Nathan liked to walk out on a rock and scare mom and grandma getting too close to the edge.

My family wanted to go on a short hike to a waterfall and I thought we could probably do a short hike.  How had I forgotten the lesson I learned earlier in the week?  Was I crazy?  We put the kids in the carriers to go on the hike, but about 5 minutes in we knew it was a no go.  Nathan was having another fit in the carrier so I hiked back up the mountain. At least this time we were able to get back a lot sooner.  We played in the car for about 30 minutes until papa and Adrianne were back from the hike.

While we were at the lake, my dad started talking to a park ranger.  He told my dad about a dirt road that had been closed for 3 years, but that had just reopened two weeks earlier.  The park ranger assured us that it was really smooth since it just reopened.  There is only one paved road through the park so we were ready to see something new.  It took us the back way up to the top of the mountain.  There were a lot of glaciers, waterfalls, and even a few lakes.

And then it was time to go home.  After 2 weeks of being away, it was really nice to be home, back to our schedule, and see Brad everyday.  But we sure miss our grandma, papa, aunties, and uncle Byron!

Rocky Mountain High - Part 4

AKA: the best part because Brad was able to join us!  We had really been missing daddy after being away for so long.  We were so glad he was able to switch around his call schedule so he could come on vacation too.  We took him to all our favorite spots in the park, including the friendly chipmunks.  And we even saw a giant moose right by the side of the road!

Rocky Mountain High - Part 3

You may wonder why Nathan's arm is wrapped up.  Well, being a boy Nathan hurt himself again.  So we spent one day figuring out where we could take Nathan to be seen with our insurance and getting him taken care of.  Luckily it was just a sprain this time so his arm was wrapped up for just a little bit.

We spent another great day driving around the park.  My dad and sister went on a hike, but since I had learned my lesson, I politely declined joining.  We did get to pick them up at this gorgeous lake.

Rocky Mountain High - Part 2

Or the day we learned to never ever take Nathan hiking again.  It started out great.  You could take a ski lift to the top of a hill and then hike or ride back down.  Nathan loved the ski lift.  He sat so so still.  We decided to hike back down.  We didn't think it would take that long.  Well, 3 hours later, I was regretting the decision to hike.  Nathan did great for the first little bit.  He loved walking down the trail, but after about a half hour he didn't want to walk anymore.  So I put him in the Ergo.  Well, he didn't want to be carried either.  So the thrashing began.  And the hitting mom in the head.  Oh that was a long hike.  It was a pretty hike when you could enjoy it for a second.  Next time we'll just ride the ski lift over and over since Nathan wanted to go again once we were down.

We decided to hang out at the pool in the afternoon.  Nathan loved watching Auntie G in the pool.  He was getting so excited he was shaking.  Nathan actually loved watching Adrianne so much he got in the pool with her. Which for a little boy who HATES bath time is a big thing.  We just have to keep telling Nathan bath time is splash in the pool time and he's game.

Rocky Mountain High

So after a week in Utah, my family came for a week in Colorado.  We rented some condos outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our first day we went for a drive through the park.  Our first stop was to Adams Falls.  It was a short hike, but Nathan only wanted mom to carry him.  It was an omen of things to come on our future hikes.   He did calm down once I was carrying him in the Ergo.

We continued our drive up into the mountains.  The road climbs quite a bit, but the views are quite spectacular from 12,000 ft!

At one of our stops there were a million chipmunks.  And they loved people.  They would come right up to you.  There was one guy who just sat super still and he had them climbing all over him.

We did go on one more hike that day. We hiked to the top of a mountain.  We're just that adventurous.  Really you could park really close to the top and then walk up the rest of the way on a paved trail.  I took Nathan with me in the Ergo.  He loved telling me to, "Giddy up Mommy!" and have me gallop away.  It wasn't too bad going up, but once you turned around to go back down the wind was in your face and we were frozen.  Poor little Nathan kept burying his face in my back to try and keep warm. We did get to see a some pretty amazing views so it was worth it.

If you look closely there are 3 lakes

Utah Trip

It’s been about a year and a half since I’ve been to Utah, so since we live within driving distance now it was time for a trip.  We had quite the to do list while we were there.

Things to Do While in Utah

- Meet my aunt Jessica for the first time.

Who is pregnant with my baby cousin.   My uncle got married last year and now they are having a baby boy in September.  My mom and sister threw a baby shower for Jessica while I was visiting and it was so nice to meet her for the first time.  

4 Generations 

- Make Nathan be friends with my friend's son

My best friend from high school has a son who is 3 months younger than Nathan.  We got together and let the boys play together.  While they were playing Nathan started singing “Friend in Me” from Toy Story.  Yes, I think they will be friends just like their mommas.

- Eat Mexican food with my grandparents

I got to drive my grandparents to our favorite Mexican restaurant.  I loved being able to chat with them.  From our last visit to a Mexican restaurant we knew not to let Nathan eat the salsa.  But Nathan loves to “dip dip” everything right now so we asked for some ketchup for his chips.  Our waitress said she also had tomato sauce so it would look just like everyone else’s salsa.  Nathan not only dipped his chips in the tomato sauce, he ended up eating it with a fork!  

- Expose Nathan to the great outdoors

My parents have a cabin in American Fork cabin by Silver Lake Flat and we stayed over one night.  Nathan liked to go on Ranger rides.  And he liked to play in the dirt!

The perfect game for a little boy who loves trains 

 

- Let Grandma Packer meet Evy for the first time

We drove up to the Farmington to spend the afternoon with Grandma Packer.  Evy has never met her Great Grandma before.  And Nathan liked the cookies and toys.

- See my Aunt’s new house

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures, but Wendy’s new house is awesome.  She designed the whole house and it’s amazing.  I need her to come out to Denver and help me decorate!

- Let cousins play together

I missed the opportunity for a photo op again, but we spent the afternoon with Alissa and the girls.  I hadn’t met Sara and she is just such a cute little girl.  Nathan and Anna had so much fun playing together.  I can’t believe how big Ella and Anna are getting!

- Meet my new niece for the first time

Aaron and Kendra’s little Lydia was only 2 weeks old when we visited.  She’s a little cutie and just wanted to sleep most of the time we were there.

- See the new Provo Temple

And while I was visiting Aaron and Kendra in Provo I had to stop to see how the new Provo City Center Temple is coming along.  Brad had many concerts in that building so I can’t wait to see it changed into a temple.

- Take Evy clothes shopping for the first time. 
We have to start her young.  There are some great outlet stores by my parents’ house so we girls had to do a little shopping while I was there.

- Let Nathan eat all the sugar he wants

As the son of a dentist, Nathan hardly ever gets sweets (nor does he really like them.)  But Nathan got his first ice cream cone and first sucker while we were in Utah.  They were both hits.

- Play with all of grandma’s cool toys

Grandma keep all the cool toys from my childhood for the grandkids to play with.  Nathan had so much fun playing with all the “new” toys.

Fixing the car

- Figure out what the big deal is about Swig

If you're not from Utah, Swig is a drink and snacks place in Utah that is super popular.  I’m so glad I didn’t order a whole dirty Dr. Pepper for myself.  I had a sip of my sisters and I’m not a fan.  I’m not a fan of regular colas anyways.  I did like the “Dizzle” (ie. Sprite, coconut cream, pineapple, and peach) Adrianne ordered for me.  And the sugar cookie totally lived up to the hype.

- Eat all the raspberries we can

Nathan loves raspberries and my parents have raspberry bushes in their backyard.  We went out a couple of mornings and picked them for our breakfast.  Oh so yummy.  Nathan would eat them out of my bucket as I picked.  I saved mine for waffles and cream.

- Let Nathan play with Papa

Nathan and Papa had so much fun going on walks, going to see the chickens, and jumping on the tramp.  I let him watch Nathan one night while I ran out and I came back to one filthy dirty Nathan from the shenanigans they were up to on the tramp.  But Nathan loved it and he loves his Papa.

- And just generally enjoy spending time with our family

We loved seeing everyone and spending time with them.  Now that we're closer it's going to make it so much easier to see the people we love.  See you again soon!