It's Been Awhile.... Christmas 2011

 Hamming it up for the camera!

 Walking on the beach on a warm winter day.

 Feeding the dolphins at Sea World.

Making sure he's on Santa's "Nice" list at Sea World!

Spring Break

Enjoyed a few days at the beach...

Happy Resurrection Day!

We had a joyful day of celebration for Easter weekend--dying eggs, church, dinner with friends, and last, but not least the traditional Easter egg hunt! Now Pierce has a clue Who this is really all about!

He has made a ton of progress in the last month. He attempts to imitate most everything he hears. It takes a mommy's ear to understand him much of the time, but he does well. He can even defend himself verbally now. Big Sissy tried to deny doing something the other day and he responded, "Yes, she did!" I was thrilled to hear him put these words together! He is actually saying two syllable words, too. He can still pitch a pretty good fit, but it is a blessed relief that he is finally communicating with words. This is major progress after a period of discouragement. He's gotten up to 25 lbs. now and about 34" tall. Not very high on the growth chart, but it's growth! He's so dern smart. He can spell him name and knows all the alphabet letter names and sounds. He "reads" by spelling out words he sees in books! He loves to count everything and is quite good with numbers as well. We were practicing math facts with his sister the other night at dinner, and he started shouting out answers, sometimes correctly! We're so thankful for his teachers and his babysitter's family for all their help. He's finally semi-successful in big boy pants, too! Not 100%, but doing better. A visit with his orthopedic doctor helped us to decide against operating on his foot, but we may still do the hand operation to bring his fingers together.

This past year and a half has not been easy, and times are indeed challenging (we are physically, emotionally, and financially stretched), but we are so thankful to be the parents of Pierce!

Christmas

Pierce definitely "got it" this year. Big Sister did her best to explain it all to Pierce and it was fun to see his excitement, though he did have one "lesson" to learn about waiting until Christmas to open his presents! Christmas Eve after church, he chimed right in with Sissy, "one, one", wanting to open a present before bed. Most importantly, though, he understands a bit more of the One whose birth we celebrate!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

One Year Together!

Prayers

Pierce started his special 3-year-old preschool class! He's there for 2 1/2 hours, 4 mornings a week, then they take him in a little bus (he's the only rider) to his babysitter's house! Now, whenever he sees a school bus, he points and says "Mine!". He loves his backpack (which had to be big enough to hold a 3-ring binder), another item that is "Mine!" Don't dare mess with his beloved backpack! It was a bit of an adjustment at first, but he seems to enjoy it now. He is in a class of only three students at the moment, so is getting all kinds of special attention, including speech. He still is not saying much more than initial sounds of words, but we're hopeful that it will all connect soon.

October 13 marked one year together--our "Gotcha" day! Wow! Our lives have certainly changed over the past year, but it sure went by fast. Pierce is a challenge and sweet blessing wrapped up in one precious package!

Summer

I have some catching up to do! Spring was a challenging time--I (strangely) came down with mono--so all "non-essential" activity got scaled back in the interest of survival. I'm afraid blogging fell into the above category. We made it through, though, and enjoyed a relaxing and fun summer. Visits with family, and a trip to Walt Disney World, Sea World, and the beach and birthday #3 for Pierce were the highlights. I really didn't know how it would be going by myself with two children (Bob couldn't come), but decided to give it a try. Pierce embraced every new experience with everything that was in him--he didn't want to miss anything!

Pierce has made good progress with his speech and is making beginning sounds to words. We had him tested and his receptive language is well above average--woo hoo! Not bad when you consider he never heard English before last October! He will start a special program at school in September and will be getting speech therapy as well as instruction in a small class every morning. He is such a smart little guy and loves exploring and figuring things out (a little scary for Mom, sometimes :) !)

We're trying to decide whether we should pursue surgery on his hand and foot in the coming year. If we're going to do it, this is the time (so says the doctor)! We're praying for wisdom in this....

Summer for us is now over--Mom goes back to school this week!

The Beach!

With Uncle Rick

Drip Sandcastle

Family Pic

With Uncle Rick and Aunt Sue

Visit from Uncle Rick and Aunt Sue and presents!

Pierce Turns Three!

Pierce had a great early intervention teacher and speech therapist (just can't find her pic at the moment). He'll be going to a morning three year old class in school starting September.

Watching the July 4th fireworks!

Vacation Bible School

Walt Disney World--at Epcot!

This one was taken at Sea World.

The kids really enjoyed the pool at the resort where we stayed! Pierce was a bit cautious after a couple nosefuls :)

Pierce was sooo determined not to miss anything, but he did succomb to sleep eventually.

Magic Kingdom Fireworks

Race Car Driver!

Just couldn't fight it any longer!

The Alice in Wonderland Tea Cup Ride

Carousel Rides

Epcot

Easter

We had a wonderful celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, but Pierce was all about those candy-filled eggs (he'll get it eventually :)!

I Got Glasses!

And I even keep them on!

Blessed

Pierce just amazes me every day. He is learning so fast and is making more sounds. We've made kind of a game of this. If you were a fly on the wall in our house, you might think we were quite ready for the nuthouse! I'd be pretty embarrassed if anybody ever caught me on videotape! He is so proud of himself when he makes a new sound and gives himself a big round of applause! He recently got a puzzle with a variety of geometric shapes, including pentagon and octogon. He has almost mastered it in about a week. I was thrilled way back when his older sister knew the difference between a square and a rectangle at this age--he's got pentagon and octogon down! Almost everything is him responding to what he hears, though (receptive language good).

We took him to the pediatric ophthamologist last week. Next post you will be seeing Pierce in glasses. I thought I was young getting glasses in the third grade. Oh, my! They really are cute, though. If we can just keep them on him.

This morning we went out to breakfast to celebrate his big sister's "Gotcha Day"! Can't believe its been five years since our sweet girl was first placed in our arms. We are blessed indeed!