Ten on Tuesday

1. My sister-in-law is AMAZING. She's married to my husband's "Irish twin" (they're 14 months apart). We share the same birthday. She's a teacher-of-the-deaf. She has been such a blessing in this journey and I cherish the relationship we've built and all her advice to me. I'm lucky to have her insight, her knowledge/expertise, and her love for Aiden all in one.

2. I spoke with this CI momma today. I love all the friendships I've built over the years. I've never had such close relationships with people without actually ever meeting them. There's something about talking to someone about that certain something and they just get it. One day, we will meet and our boys will play. We have that "cheese-head" link, there's no way we can't!

3. Today I sat and observed Aiden's class again - for a good two hours (he didn't know I was there). I'm preparing for his upcoming IEP and I want to fully understand what his classroom experience is and see him in action. Then I was invited to sit in a speech session with him. He didn't know I was coming, and when he walked in, his face lit up and he ran right to me with a big ol' "MOMMY!" Needless to say, we spent the rest of the afternoon together after that session.

4. Fall is here. I'm bummed though, because all the leaves started changing colors, which I absolutely LOVE, and the next weekend they were pretty much gone after the big wind storm we had. I was hoping for a lot more time of their beauty. I am looking forward to my upcoming field trip with Aiden's class though to the pumpkin farm! Fun times! Living in Texas for so long, I forgot how much I LOVE fall!

4. Parent-teacher conferences for Ryan = complete success. All of the teachers raved how respectful and what a nice young man he was. A few said their class was too easy for him and he needed to be bumped to honors. One said he was their favorite. One asked if he was on "a program"?!?  Last year I would've understood this more, but when further questioned if he was talking about an IEP, the teacher answered, "Well ya, have you seen his handwriting?" So proud of my messy handwriting son who is kicking butt and taking names!

5. Kailyn's volleyball season is over. What an amazing program they put on. And by the end of it, she had a handful of serves that made it OVER the net - scoring a point, many bumps over the net - and scoring a point, and even a couple sets. AND she's become quite the defensive player this season in soccer. Best thing about all of it, she loved every minute of it.

6. Any day now I'm going to start a photograph of the day blog (or just add a tab to this blog). I LOVE photography and I've been playing around with my camera a lot. My dream is to have a successful photography business, but want/need to get some more practice under my belt. SO, I thought what better motivation than to take, edit, and post one picture a day. This way I figure I'll practice a certain technique every couple weeks, without feeling so overwhelmed with it all.

7. I'm having a hard time with this full day of school five days a week thing. I miss my baby. The other night he told me, "Mommy, Aiden's sick." (he has a cough), "stay wit mommy. No school." Okay.  (heart melting and such a sucker).

8. OT has been AMAZING! I have so much NEW knowledge I never understood and so many NEW ideas to work with him on and so much NEW faith in the whole OT program. Miss Amie ROCKS. Aiden loves her. I love her. I have so much to share about it all.

9. Aiden is going through a monkey phase. Last night he insisted on "monkey top and monkey pants" for pjs. This morning he fought me to put on his shirt because he wanted a monkey shirt. So during our afternoon together, we ate pizza then went shopping for monkey shirts. Thanks to Old Navy's character shirts and Curious George, we didn't have to look far.

10. We live in the country. The few people who drive by, fly. Even with kids outside playing. We live on the corner. Today they pounded in the pole to put up our "Deaf Child in Area" sign. Our little po-dunk town had AMAZING turn around with no argument about putting up the sign what-so-ever. One of the five has a girlfriend who is Deaf. Aiden and I will be delivering some homemade goodies this week. So thankful.