31 for 21: Soccer Saturday

Hunter and his team had a great game today! The last 3 games have been super exciting and Hunter and all of the boys have been improving so much! I love watching him play!

My mom and I were remarking on how Hunter seems to be getting a little taller and losing his baby face.

That is Hunter...the big head, heading the ball!

Defense

Kicking for the goalie

After game huddle...they won!

This is the only pic I got of Ella today....she waits pretty patiently during each of Hunter's games, and as soon as it is over she takes Hunter's ball and goes to make a goal.  She is quite good at controlling the ball!

31 for 21: My spirits raised!

I have come to the realization that so much of my mood is directed by my children...most specifically Ella. I don't want to imply that her direct actions always effect how I feel, it's more the indirect stuff, the school stuff, random health stuff, the worries about it all. It all weighs heavily on me, and sometimes my mind gets so bogged down with all of it that I just feel....well blah. Of course I still joyfully interact with my children, and always feel blessed for the life that I have, but my mind constantly races. It's a problem. I know. But then a day like today comes a long and I feel rejuvenated, reset.

 When I went in to pick the kids up today Ella was leaving the music room. She saw me and said "I not get kicked out of music. Just going potty," and showed me the bathroom pass. She independently walked to the bathroom down the hall, did her business and went right back to class, turned in her pass, grabbed her backpack and jacket and came back to me. That in and of itself makes me happy. The level of Independence in that crazy open concept school, the fact that she knows where she is going and that the teachers TRUST her to go by herself says a lot! While she was going to the bathroom Ella's gen ed teacher came up to me in the hall and said that Ella did great with her hearing aids again today, that one fell out during recess and she immediately came running to her teacher for help to put them back in. She said that they had a lockdown drill, followed by a fire drill. The special ed teacher has asked her (the gen ed teacher) if she should send an aide in to be with Ella during the drill because of the noise and confusion and the gen ed teacher told her "no, lets just see how it goes." LOVE THAT. Even better my girl did exactly what she was supposed to do. She didn't freak out due to the loud bells and alarms even with having her hearing aids in, and she didn't get lost or distracted in the confusion. YAY!!

 Chris took Hunter to guitar lessons this evening and Ella and I went and did a sneak attack on Nana at the mall! We were just stopping by to show her Ella's new hearing aids in person and we ended up shopping for 4 hours. I have to say that this is the most fun shopping trip for us 3 girls ever. I, of course, always have fun shopping with my mom but typically when Ella is with us it involves her running off, grabbing everything, having to be strapped in the stroller which at 7 years old she hates! Tonight, none of that. She was awesome! No stroller involved, no asking to be carried, none of it. She was pleasant and happy to be having "girl time!" She entertained many an employee, even had someone stop and say the Pledge of Allegiance with her. The girl is magnetic. Sometimes it takes the good days to make me remember that. People are drawn to her for sure. We did have to make multiple trips to the bathroom, but it was fine, we made it every time and had good conversation walking back and forth, lol, including "mom I love my hearing aids." We even did a girls dinner, just the 3 of us.

 Tonight I have a very happy heart!!!

My little guy about to go to guitar

Giving sissy a kiss goodbye.

Ella and her stuffed unicorn that she got on our shopping trip today!

31 for 21: Happy Day...mostly.

Ella wore her hearing aids to school today for the first time. The hearing aid lady (man I really need to figure out her title) suggested that this week Ella only wear them at home and "practice." Well, Ella asked to wear them to school and has done great so I figured why not. I will admit I was super nervous all day, worried she would mess with them, worried she would be overwhelmed by things being a little louder, and worried she would lose them. But all that was for nothing...at least for today...Ella wore them ALL day. Her gen ed teacher said it was like they weren't even there, that she didn't see her mess with them at all. Including gym class!!!! Hooray! I am so proud of her! Also, when I picked her up today a little boy standing in front of her in line said "Guess what? Ella scored a goal in gym today!" So sweet. I am so glad that the kids in her class, kids I know in the school, and kids in Hunter's class fill me in on some of the things Ella does during the day....it's pretty much the only communication I get.

The not so great part of the day, I think Ella's bladder issues are back.  I'm not sure I wrote about them before but Ella started having a lot of pee accidents and was having some pretty serious anxiety over it. She didn't want to get in the van because she had several accidents in there and she didn't want to sleep because she was afraid she would pee the bed.  She would go to the bathroom several times right before we would walk out the door. I took her in and they screened her urine and all was good. The doctor thought that maybe she was having bladder spasms and put her back on the medication we used to expand her bladder 2 years ago, a smooth muscle relaxer, for 2 weeks. That seemed to take care of the issue. Now she has been off of the meds for about 2 weeks and woke up this morning soaked. No biggie, though that never happens. Then this afternoon I had her go to the bathroom right before we walked out the door to get Hunter, not 20 minutes later she had an accident in the van. Ugh. It upsets her, though I was able to blow it off as no big deal and she was okay tonight but I don't want to start this again. Guess I'm going to have to take her to the urologist.  Anyone else had this issue???

31 for 21: Seriously????

It's that lovely time of the year where the school fundraisers are in full force. I HATE fundraisers...I get that they are a necessary evil, I guess, but I hate them. This years involves the kids getting lanyards and penguin keychains. Apparently EVERYbody has them. So, in order for them to get a lanyard and 2 penguins and a gross squish ball they had to sell 4 items, a piece. Because of course they have to be equal in their cheap prizes. Thankfully my mother is a sucker for these 2 and so am I : ) So the kids and I went to school early, because you can only get the prizes before school, and went into the gym. I, of course, am the only mom in there other than those handing out the prizes because Ella can't just be unsupervised for 20 minutes before school starts. And let me tell you Ella was keenly aware of the fact that her mom was in there when others weren't. She told me about 20 times "you can go now," annoyed, and kept trying to get in a different line than me. Luckily Hunter could care less that I am there, and I am so thankful that he can still be seen with me! Poor Ella, I love that she gets it, but also hate that she gets it. Know what I mean?

The "seriously" part from the title comes in with these pictures. I THOUGHT that as my kids got older they would totally understand that if they just stand there, look at me and smile we could be done in 5 seconds. BUT NOOOOOOOOO! They are forever thinking of ways to make me crazy.  Hunter's fake smile kills me and Ella just enjoys looking at anything other than me all while jutting out her bottom jaw. So here are 6 of the 15 pics I took tonight...the best 6, ha! SERIOUSLY?????  JUST COOPERATE!  Oh yeah and they are showing off their stupid lanyards and penguins.  I hope they enjoy them cause that's all they get!!!

31 for 21

Nothing much to write today. Ella didn't wear her hearing aids to school today (at the advice of the hearing aid lady,) we did put them on right after school and she did good. We had McTeacher night tonight, (school fundraiser at McDonalds) and Ella did seem a bit overwhelmed by the noise when we first got there. And to be fair it was super loud and crowded, and I was a bit overwhelmed. Ella adjusted pretty quick and was fine!

Here she is after her bath...with hearing aids in, ready to watch a movie and relax!

31 for 21: Hearing Aids

Ella got her hearing aids today!!! She wore them from her appointment at 3:30 until bedtime without touching them! I am SO proud of her! She was pretty funny and basically yelled every word she said at us for a couple of hours. The hearing aid lady said that Ella's voice will sound different to herself with the aids on so she was just experimenting! Luckily by the end of the night her voice returned to it's normal volume! The lady (I do not know what her title is???) recommended that Ella not wear the aids to school this week and that we wear them at home to get used to them before sending her to school for 6 hours, so I guess that is what we are going to do even though she seems to be just fine with them.

I love the color combo....the purple matches her glasses perfect!

Not a great pic of Ella but wanted to show what it looks like from the front....

Ella also got her new boots in the mail today!!!!

I want some!!!

31 for 21 : Slacking

Man I am really slacking this October. I guess I have somethings to discuss...but no energy or desire to write about them. It's all the same ole stuff though, and mostly thoughts and problems I am having with school. All I have today is a pic of the kids taken tonight. Ella fresh out of the bath and in jammies and Hunter about to go up for his. I love Hunter's smile in this one....his true smile doesn't show up for pics very often these days so I am happy to see it when it does!