I love the fall season. I love the weather and the activities and I especially love the food! This year we missed out on picking cherries for schedule reasons so we made it a point to go for Apples. I am so glad we did. We always have to much fun walking through the orchard and filling out buckets full to the brim of fruit. The kids love to to pick and apples are great because they grow so close to the ground! We got two 5 gallon buckets full. So I spent the whole next week doing a lot of cooking and baking. I failed on a few recipes but now I know what not to do next year ;) But truly a lot of it tasted really good. So I am already looking forward to next time. We also got a few peached while there so I was able to make peach strawberry jam and it is delicious!!!!
Penny gave Vinny an Apple so he loved knowing on that!
We also found a great little swing set on craiglist ( I love that site). So James spent a whole weekend getting that put together. We still need to add a fresh coat of paint the price was right so we are very happy to have a place for the kids to go burn off some energy. They are constantly asking to go outside to play. Then will run full blast and then jump on the swings on their tummies go fast. It is really funny to watch.
Our yard is slowly coming along. We still have a weed infestation but I am confident we can get rid of that. We do have some really nice areas that are mostly grass so I am happy to just see green now instead of dirt. Next year it will look awesome and be a great place to spend as a family. :)
We have been worried about Penny's hearing for a while. It has been really hard to get a conclusive hearing test completed on her. She just wasn't consistently reacting to the sounds so we couldn't tell when she was ignoring or not hearing. This plus her tubes have fallen out again. (very frustrating because they are called "permanent tubes" and typically have to be removed surgically so for them to fall out a second time is really annoying, anyway...) So the doctor suggested we do a sedated hearing test and ct scan to see if we can get some answers. With the hearing test they place wires in her ears and then hook the to her head. This way they can measure how the brain reacts to the sounds and can tell for sure how much she is able to hear. So we got the results back for the hearing test but not the ct scan yet. (different doctors)
Her audiologist said she has some permanent hearing loss and they recommend hearing aids. I was disappointed to get his news. However after much research and thinking I know it will be best for her. We are really hoping it will improve her speech and understanding. So we have them ordered and should be getting them next week. It should be interesting to see how it all works out and how well she tolerates them.
So my parents came to town to help out with the boys while I spent the day the hospital with Penny. It was great to have them there and not have to worry about anything and just focus on my little girl. Of course the next day the boys went fishing :) and we did a little shopping. It was nice having an extra pair of hands to help with the kids while we were out and about. We got two carts and Vinny was able to try sitting in a cart all by himself. We placed our purses strategically to help him out but he loved it!
I have been doing a lot of evaluating of our life and schedules and I was really dreading sending Penny back to school this fall. It just adds a lot to all our plates and she is always so exhausted by the time she gets home. This plus many other reasons such as..... potty training, wanting scotty and Penny to have some time to be kids together, I could go on and on. But the conclusion was I wanted to try homeschooling for her preschool this year. Once I finally made the decision and told her school a weight was immediately lifted off my shoulders! I am so glad to have her home with us in the afternoons and being able to keep Vinny on his nap schedule is a big plus!
The kids love our little school sessions. They keep asking for ABC's and I feel like they are learning. They both know A and B and the sounds they make and the other day Penny made the letter B sign with her hands and said "buh" to James. I was proud. I think it is sticking. We are going slow with one letter a week and intermittently adding colors, numbers, and shapes.
While we were playing with chalk the other day penny wrote a letter P all by herself!!! It was a little mis-proportioned but she told me what it was I was very excited. I know this was the right choice for our family at this time. I think by doing this Penny will be more prepared for kindergarten as I can spend one on one time with her and slow down if she just isn't catching on. Time will tell if I made the right decision, but I am pretty sure I did.
So as fall comes we are busy with new things and learning and growing along the way. I will keep you updated on the hearing aids as we begin that journey. Until next time :)
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