First Day of School

Yesterday was Lincoln's first day of school. I think he did great. He was happy when he left & still happy when he got home. A good sign I think. :)

The girls & I had to walk about 1/4 mile to get him to & from the bus stop in his travel chair. It was HOT & miserable waiting there, especially for drop off. But the girls are such troopers & seemed to have a good time despite their red sweaty faces. And Roxy even walked the whole way as long as she got to hold my hand!

We convinced the bus drivers to pick him up & drop him off in our driveway, until the TUSD routing department can make the change official. I have no worries that it will be worked out eventually because it is a requirement of his IEP.

Here are some pictures of Lincoln & I waiting for the bus.

Transition

After we moved we decided that it was time to get everyone sleep trained & sippy cup trained. June was the stubborn one who woke 1-3x/night & absolutely refused to drink milk from a sippy instead of a bottle. No one else had much of an issue with the change. June spent several nights learning to put herself back to sleep without a bottle, and then about a week later we "tossed" all of the bottles as well, so she was left with milk sippy cups at mealtimes & water sippy cup for bedtime. She handled this change pretty well. I will say that her naps may be a thing of the past with this bottle to cup transition, but they were rare anyway.

We had tried to make this change with her several times over the past year, but it always would interfere with Lincoln's & Roxy's sleep too much to continue for long. Thank goodness for a larger & more soundproof house!

Now, everyone is sleeping through the night for the most part. When they wake they are usually able to put themselves back to sleep. And bottles have been 100% eliminated from our household. YAY! Although the girls' milk consumption has been cut to about 1/3 of what they were drinking before. I am certain they will survive this transition.

Just in time to lose sleep & break out the bottles again for Cora. ;)

Appointment Updates

Got a call for Dr. T about Lincoln's MRI & kidney ultrasound. His MRI shows no real changes. His SEGA is 11mm in size & has not grown in the past year. The kidney u/s shows either an angiomyolipoma or a calcium deposit in his right kidney at 8mm in size. Nothing to be worried about the doctor said because it is such a small thing, but it is something new - that wasn't there when he was a baby, so we will do another u/s in 3-4 years to check on it's size.

We are considering adding a medication to his regime called Afinitor. According to the doctor it helps control the SEGA growth, which we don't have to worry about yet, and it also possibly increases cognitive function. Unfortunately there is the side effect of immune suppression, and with Lincoln headed back to pre-school next week, this is something we will have to consider carefully.

I had my 34.5 week OB appointment today. Nothing exciting to share. Not dilated at all & baby girl is head down. This pregnancy is so different than the others because at 34-35 weeks all of my other three kids were breech & I was already 3-4cm dilated at this point. So really we will just have to wait & see what baby Cora has planned for us. :)

Monsoons

Monsoon pictures from the new house.

My Cuties in June & July

Anniversary & Lincoln's 4th Birthday

Andy bought me some pretty flowers for our 9th anniversary. I just had to take some pictures!




We bought Lincoln a therapy swing for his birthday. Here it is installed in the rec room, also known as the "toy room" or the "play room".



Here is June with a birthday card I got years ago from Grandpa Prettie. I had it saved & decided that June & Roxy should give it to Lincoln for his birthday. They all played with it until it was too well loved to work anymore. It lasted over a week surprisingly!

4th of July

We did some fountains in our driveway this year. The older kids seemed to enjoy them, even if they were a bit hesitant. Roxy was pretty nervous, so I had to hold her the whole time. But no tears & some giggles were had, so I call it a success. :)