My First Day at Preschool

My first day was pretty awesome! Mommy made me pancakes and I had grapes and milk to go with it(this would actually be my first breakfast, keep reading to see why). Then I got dressed and brushed my teeth and combed my hair. Mommy tried to get my first day of school picture with my backpack on, but I wasn't into wearing it just yet. Mommy and I walked into my new school and I was starting to get a little nervous, mommy kept saying it is going to be fun, you will have a great day with new friends, I just looked at her like, are you kidding me? When she opened the door to my new room, which by the way we are called the Teddy Bears, I kind of freaked out a little. OK, mommy had to literally pull me inside the door. I wasn't to sure about this new place. The teachers had friendly smiles on their faces and greeted me very warmly as a clung on to mommy. I didn't think it was going to be OK, until I saw a station that had a bunch of cars to play with, I then released my death grip from mommy and ran over and started playing while mommy filled out some paperwork, and talked with my teacher, Ms. Pat. After mommy said good bye, I kind of had another quick breakdown, but then it was time for my second breakfast, so I quickly got over the fact that I was crying for mommy. How great is this place that you get to eat breakfast again. Pretty cool, huh? After breakfast we have circle time, now that is a pretty cool circle, because we sing songs and read books with all sorts of other fun stuff. After circle time we have stations. Now there are a lot of stations set up with many, many things for us to do. Like cars and trucks, kitchen, arts and crafts and more. The stations rotate with new and different items every week or so. All these stations involve me learning my numbers, colors, ABC's and much more. One of my favorite parts of the day was the playground. I have never seen such fun stuff to play with! I walked through the gate and stopped and scanned the grounds and let out a big "whoa", which made my teachers laugh. I played really hard outside and was ready for lunch when we came back in. I ate all my ravioli, peas and carrots and pineapples!!! Then it was time to hit the sack. I slept on my new nap mat that I had been practicing on the week before. Good thing, because I just laid my head down and I was out until mommy came to get me. When mommy walked in the room, I was playing with my new friend, Greyson. He is about my age and we followed each other around all day. You know we are not at that playing together stage yet, so it was more side by side play, but none the less we became good friends! I didn't want to leave when mommy was ready to go, it took some coaxing, which she didn't mind, because that meant that I had a great day! My first day wasn't too bad! I really like my new friends and teachers! I had so much fun today! I can't wait for tomorrow when I can go back and see my friends and play! Here are a few pictures from today. Mommy did the best she could with trying to get some good pictures of me, but I guess I was pictured out, because I wasn't too cooperative really? In my defense I get my picture taken about a gazillion times a week, so sometimes I am just not feeling it.

Mommy, Daddy and Me on my 1st day of School


Gotta look good for my first day

This is my new backpack, it is the Wonder Pets! I picked it out myself

OK, mom enough with the pictures, can we go already, PLEASE!?

Much better..got my nap mat and backpack, I am ready to hit the road and head for school

BYE, BYE!!!!

GEARING UP FOR....

...the FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL!! That's right my friends, starting next Monday Joshua will be going to preschool 5 days a week!! The preschool is called My Friend's House and it is located about 5 mins from my job! He will be going 830 to 2. We are so excited for Joshua. His class is what they call part-time, but they do a lot in those 5 and 1/2 hrs. They serve breakfast and lunch and they have a schedule and everything. He will be learning his basic colors, numbers and ABC's. They also do music and story time. We are so excited for this opportunity for Joshua. I know he is going to enjoy every second of it. One of the main things is that the children sleep on nap mats or kinder mats. This will be something new for Joshua, so this week we are practicing taking our naps on the nap mat and getting ready for our first day of school.

First time on the mat!! Not too sure

Moments later...

Back on the nap mat, you can't tell but he is crying here. The first day was unsuccessful.

But the 2nd day...SUCCESS!!!
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Scroll down for more recent posts, plus check back next Monday for an update on how his first day of school went.

Children's Museum!

Yesterday, we went to the children's Museum to try and salvage what is left of the mini-vacay! Joshua had so much fun! He was all over that place. They have a theme every 2 months or so and the theme right now is "Make It". They have stations set up through out the museum with different things that you can make. Joshua wasn't into this of course, but there was plenty of other things for him to do while we were there. Before we went to the museum we stopped and had lunch at Whole Foods. Joshua was still not into eating since he had been sick, so he was not willing to sit down and eat, but what he did find very amusing were the birds that were in the store. The store has the automatic sliding doors so black birds fly in every now and then and these birds were of course where the food was. They would perch on the banisters and backs of chairs. Joshua would start barking (woof woof) at them when they would come too close and then he would laugh. Whatever works, right? Below is our trip to the museum in pictures!

Side note: Joshua was fever free for almost 48 hrs when we took him to the museum, we had NO IDEA that he would wake up this morning with a rash all over his torso. We feel awful and had we known, we CERTAINLY would not have taken him out of the house. Went to the Dr., she diagnosed him with Roseola. Common childhood disease. High fever followed by a rash. No meds, just has to take its course. His pediatrician said it was classic and he could have been the poster child for it...NICE!!! So, we solved the mystery of the days and days of fever!!!!

Cabin FEVER!!!!!!!!!

So, this little virus has decided to over stay it's welcome! We are going on 72hrs, people! Our little mini-vacay hasn't been much fun as of yet. Joshua has been feeling pretty crappy the last couple of days. We have been battling this fever since Friday and yesterday it almost beat us! We have not left the house since we got home Friday evening and have had a rough couple of nights as well. Joshua's fever was on a roller coaster ride on Saturday. It would go up and then down, up and then down and then up and stayed at 104.5. We had been taking his temperature through out the day, but it never climbed this high, so we decided to head to the ER, because it wasn't coming down after having meds in him for over 30 mins and cold compresses all over his body, plus he was lethargic. When we got to the ER, we got registered and then we waited and waited until they finally called us back to a room to get his stats and gave him some Tylenol(apparently he could have double of what we had given him, which we were unaware of). So by the time we got back to a room to see the doctor it had come down to 100.9 and he was feeling good and ready to play. So, of course the doctor says, well it looks like he is feeling better(uh yea, if you would have been able to see us 2 hrs ago, you would have seen a totally different child). Anyway, she checked his ears, lungs, heart and throat(all fine) and told us that there isn't anything else to do, but to continue to watch him and alternate between Tylenol and Motrin. Really, that is it, well we were doing that in the comfort of our house. Apparently at his age a fever isn't serious enough to run any test until it reaches 105 or above(yea I know!) So we were discharged shortly after her wonderful words of wisdom and came home, put Joshua to bed only to be woken up at 330am to a feverish Joshua, temp spiked again at 103.6. Joshua has been fever free pretty much since 330am today. We have not gone anywhere this weekend except for our lovely trip to the ER. So, because of that I have gotten A LOT done around the house. I have cleaned my whole house top to bottom spotless. I am talking white glove clean. I finished painting the master bathroom. I have done alot of cooking. For dinner tonight, I made homemade chicken enchiladas with sour cream sauce and spanish rice. Earlier today, I made these wonderful desserts. My mother-in-law made these frozen fruit treats one time, and I thought they were great, so I thought I would make them since I had the time. It is basically orange juice poured into cupcake holders and filled with any fresh fruit of your choice and then popped in the freezer. It is a great, tasty, frozen treat!

Next, I made this wonderful lemon, craisin cake with vanilla icing drizzled over the top. Nothing to fancy about it, just had it in the pantry so I whipped it up. It is yummy!


Joshua did a lot of this! Poor little guy, slept until 11am today. I guess his poor little body was tired from fighting that nasty old virus. He also took an 2 hr afternoon nap as well.

In between his high fever spells this weekend, he did play some. Milo loves when Joshua plays with him. They are so cute to watch!

We have postponed are San Antonio trip. We are going to call the doctor instead and see if they want us to come in or not. In the meantime we are just laying low and hanging out around the house, but I don't know how much more of this any of us can take. Joshua even started getting a little restless this evening, so we let him go outside to help daddy fill up the pond. Of course, he cried when he had to come back in. Maybe we can salvage one last day of the mini-vacay! I am so glad my little man is starting to feel better. It is not fun at ALL to see your child sick and no that there is nothing you can do about it!!!!

Fever, Fever, Go Away....

...we don't want you on our mini-vacay! So, today was my last day of work until next Wednesday and we are so excited about this time off, but Joshua woke up this morning with a fever. Poor wittle fella. I knew something was up because he woke up way too early and he didn't eat his favorite breakfast, blueberry pancakes. So, I checked his temperature and sure enough it was 100.9. Not too bad, so I gave him some Tylenol and we went to work. I checked it about mid morning and it had climbed to 101.6. Now I have checked it 2 times since we have been home and with medicine it is 102.5. Poor little guy will not eat or drink. I at least got him to take a Popsicle. He has no other symptoms so I am chalking it up to a virus. I am hoping this little virus goes away by morning because we have plans to have fun! Dan is off all this coming week, because Joshua's school is closed and I still have to work, but decided to take off Mon. and Tues. to enjoy some time with my boys. We really don't have any set plans, just to have alot of FUN!!!! I think on Monday we are going to go to San Antonio to visit their fabulous children's museum and go to the river walk. So, I hope whatever this is that Joshua has goes away and goes away fast! The little man is a trooper though, you really can't tell that he doesn't feel well; besides the obvious not eating or drinking and the fever. Hopefully this is a 24 hr thing! Below are some pictures from last weekend. We had a weekend filled with painting and sliding. Joshua painted masterpieces and played with his new slide, while I took on the master bath to give it a new look!

First ECI Session

This blog does not contain pictures...Sorry! Joshua had his first ECI session yesterday with Miss Katie. I need to make a correction, because I had said previously that there would be 3 coming out at each session and I was wrong. Katie will be the primary therapist that will come out on a weekly basis to help/teach Joshua. The other 2 therapist will come once a month. Joshua was all about Miss Katie. He loved playing with her. He really lit up when he saw her. She went over the previous week with us and asked about any improvements that have been made, which I was able to say "yes" too. He is back signing again. Which is good. The signing has actually helped a little with mealtime and trying to figure out what he needs. The major signs are "more", "food/eat", "please" and "thank you". He also had started to climb on a few things, which she said was great! After our Q and A session, she started her play therapy. She was showing Joshua how to use his words/signs and movement to achieve his goal. Like for instance: they were throwing the ball back and forth and when Joshua wanted to play again, she would make him sign "more" and she would say, "more ball", after much repetition Joshua would sign "more" and say "ball". She informed Dan and I that we should make everything we do with Joshua animated, since he seems to be a very visual learner. For example, when it comes to sliding on the slide, use one of his stuffed animals to show Joshua how the slide works. Everything we do we must label and show him. It sounds pretty simple and common, but when I say label everything I mean everything. Labeling each step that he is doing and what he wants or sees. For example last night when we went to brush his teeth, this is what it sounded like: Joshua lets brush your teeth, one leg up other leg up on the stool, now we put the toothbrush under water, now the toothpaste. Brush your teeth, now rinse the brush under water. Get a drink from your cup, wipe your mouth with the towel. OK, step one leg down, and the other leg down....All done! So, it isn't as simple or as easy as one might think. You have to break it down and simplify it on top of labeling every action. But, you know if it helps Joshua, then I am all for it. So, Dan and I will be taking our knowledge from Katie and putting it to good use. Miss Katie will be back next Tues. When Miss Katie left yesterday, Joshua blew her kisses and said "bye bye". After the door was shut he patted it and looked at me and made a fussy noise, as if to say "bring her back, I want to play some more". It was cute and made me feel really good that he liked her so much. Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement and prayers for Joshua. We really appreciate it and I think this is a great program that will give Joshua just what he needs! Until the next post...

Our little social bug!

So, this weekend was a busy one, not really for Dan and I, but for Mr. Joshua. This little guy had a birthday party and a play date this weekend. What a little social bug he is! Saturday morning we just hung out, went to the grocery store and took a nap. In the afternoon we went to one of Joshua's little friend's 2nd birthday. He had so much fun! There was so much to do between the sand/water table, the pool to the slip n slide. There were tons of kids there which Joshua enjoyed hanging out with. He had a great time playing with friends and the slip n slide. Joshua didn't slide he just stood and played with the sides that had water spraying out of them. He loved that more than the little pool that they had set up. On Sunday afternoon, we went to a friend's house to swim and hang out. They have 3 little boys so you know there was a lot of fun to be had. Joshua spent the afternoon swimming, eating and climbing. He would climb up this slide castle over and over again. He would use the slide side, not the rock climbing side, of course. No matter how many times we showed him how to do it the "correct" way he would walk around and climb up the slide. At dinner time we put the little ones on the floor with trays to eat, because there wasn't enough chairs or booster seats. Joshua loved this! He ate almost his entire plate of food. It was so cute to watch him with his little friend. They were in there own little world talking and exchanging food and napkins. It was fun to watch. When we were leaving Colton asked if Joshua could stay forever...lol! How cute is that? Joshua was so tired from his weekend, that when we left to head home he was passed out within 5 mins of being on the road. It was a very busy weekend for our little social bug, but he had the best time and kept up with the best of them. Below are some pictures from the birthday party on Saturday. They are taken with my camera phone, because that is the easiest way to capture these fun days without hauling the camera around.

Joshua diving into the cupcake! Yummy!

My friend had a neat idea, she decided to give balls out as part of the party bag that the kids take home. Each kid got to pick out of ball...what a great and fabulous idea!

Joshua and the birthday boy, Benjamin!

Girls Weekend 2009

Girls Weekend was a wonderful time as always! I honestly love being with these girls. I am truly blessed to have such a close knit family that loves and wants to be together. Just love, love, love it! This girls' weekend we were missing a few and wish they could have been there to relax and girl talk with us. Now on to the events of the weekend. Friday night was when everyone arrived. We all arrived at various times starting in the late afternoon until late at night(that would be me that got in late, but only because of the torrential rain that went on and on almost our whole trip up to Dallas). It literally slowed us down to like 25 mph on a 70 mph highway. It was some serious rain, but we made it to the house safely.

Little miss Cambell came to her first girls' weekend and was all about it. In the picture below she is eating our Saturday morning breakfast, which consisted of Brenda's made from scratch pancakes and fresh fruit. When I say made from scratch I mean made to order however you like it and with all fresh ingredients, right down to the freshly smashed bananas for banana and walnut pancakes. YUMMY!

After our yummy, hearty breakfast, we all got ready to go out for a few hours of shopping. We all decided to go to the Allen Outlet Mall. So we all loaded up into 2 cars and off we went. When we got there, we all had different places that we wanted to hit, so we all decided to go to the map for direction on where to go. We all did our fair share of damage at the stores and then we were off to lunch. I will say that not one of us bought stuff for ourselves really, except at the Croc's store. We all were childless, but some how manage to keep their spirit alive, by buying items for them instead of ourselves. Funny how that works!

After a big lunch at Posados we went back home to relax. Most of us took naps while the rest of us hung out in the pool. We also made homemade ice cream, which was quite exhausting. I have never help make the homemade ice cream before, but for someone reason I don't think it usually goes down like it did this weekend. We had 2 machines going at once and 5 people mixing, pouring, running, and stirring. None the less, it got done and it was delicious! It is a fun memory that I will have!

Summer and Storey cooking!

Summer and I enjoying homemade whip cream for the ice cream! We were quite proud of ourselves for helping make the ice cream which was fabulous if I do say so myself!

This is the pool that we floated/swam in. There are not any pics of us actually in it, because I was told that wasn't allowed! You know how us girls are. We spent a couple of hours out here during the day and some of the girls got in the hot tub at night as well.

On Sunday morning we got up and we all got ready to go to church. Now let me explain something. We only had 3 bathrooms and there were 11 of us girls. Sometimes, there would be like 4 of us at once in the bathroom doing various things. So, this was quite a task. I am very proud of us, because we all were ready to go and walk out the door on time. It was fabulous. After a wonderful church service of scripture, praise and worship, we came back to the house for lunch and then our goodbyes. I always hate this part. I don't like goodbyes, but we all know that eventually it has to be done. All good things must come to an end! Us girls love our time away to get to be together. We have already planned and marked our calendars for next years girls' weekend 2010. Can't wait!

So, on our way home from my wonderful girls' weekend we stopped to get gas and when we got back in the car to continue south to Austin this happened.

that's right my friends, the battery died! Dead, gone, no juice! Of course we didn't have any jumpers cables so, we started asking around if anyone had any. No one at that gas station had any jumper cables, and there were alot of people filling up their tanks . So, luckily this hole in the wall gas station had a tiny auto section in it and Dan was able to buy some cables, now all we needed was some to say "yes" to jumping the car. Fortunately for us, the first person we asked said "yes" and we were able to get "juice" to the battery and go. When we finally made it home Dan took the car to Auto Zone and they tested the battery and found that it needed to be replaced. So, the final closing to girls' weekend was a new battery. Now I am off to bed to get "juiced up" myself for the start of a new work week! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I KNOW I DID!!!! I LOVE YOU WILKES FAMILY GIRLS!!!! YOU ROCK!