May Update

Corbin has been doing just wonderfully in his first 3 weeks of speech therapy. He has been having a lot more spontaneous speech & less rote speech (although there are definitely still some scripts). It is remarkable how far those few tips from the speech therapist will take him! Last week, he told himself, "Good job!" 20+ times in his session, and today, he only said it twice.

Corbin is also day and night potty trained! He had two accidents with #2 last week early on, but then has been accident free since. He initiates it himself, too. It was very hard work to potty train him because conventional potty training rules say, "Don't push him. He'll do it when he's ready." Well, he was physically/neurologically ready 6 months ago, when we noticed he never peed overnight any longer. For him, it took us just taking him fighting and screaming to sit on the potty, even when he would strongly protest. After a while, he just stopped protesting and did it! We did a coin reward system with him and it worked so well. He can buy cereal as a snack for 3 coins, computer time for 5 coins or TV for 3 coins. He understands the concept of buying these items very well.

I took Cam and Jamie to their 18 month appointments around the 19th of April. Jamie was @ 26 lbs and Cam was nearly 21 lbs. So there is a full 5# difference between them now. We finally got the referral for Cam's eyes & his opthamology appointment is scheduled mid-May. I'm fairly certain that he will require glasses. Of course, he is the child who can't stand to wear sunglasses or hats on his head, so I know that the adjustment period will be rough. But won't he look so cute in glasses?!

Speaking of glasses, that is a nice segue into showing you these adorable pics:








Jamie is still a pill. Smart as a whip, too. He sure does keep us on our toes, though.

I have no segue here, but look at the twins enjoying their first ever corn on the cobs!





We took a trip to Kentucky in mid April to see our friends, the Parrishes. We had a very nice time, but the first night in the hotel was tricky. We all shared a room, so we had to figure out how to get everyone to sleep with us being in the room. It didn't go so well, to say the least. But the second night was much better. Traveling with three little children is really rough on one's nerves, though- I'm not gonna lie.

Here are some fun pics of our time in Kentucky:

We started out going to Lost River Cave in Bowling Green. At least, we had this grand plan all worked out in our heads that we were going to take the boat tour and such, but the river was flooded, so there were no tours going through. Jessica talked with the college-aged kids running the park & they told her that we were able to walk down toward the cave & see it for ourselves. Well, we got to the area where they directed us, and there was a big "keep out" sign posted.



We forged ahead anyway, with fearless leaders Jessica & Jon leading the pack. Jessica claimed that "rules are for the stupid." LOL. Well, we all made it to the cave safe and sound & nobody arrested us, so I guess it was all good.

Here they are in the cave (the twins are behind me, the photographer):




We went to an old railway, where they had a gift shop with a couple of trains for the kiddos to play in.



They also had some model trains running behind glass & that really fascinated all of the little ones.



We were actually able to go tour one of the trains. Corbin threw a fit because he got stuck on wanting to play with an umbrella that he found on the train & Jamie wouldn't stay with the group because he wanted to open and close every single door that we passed. So, we spent a lot of the train tour trying to calm and corral our children. But the Parrish girls were calm! Here is Beth in the dining car:




We went to Dinosaur World in Cave City on Sunday





It's such a cool place for preschoolers and grade school kids!



sitting on top of a woolly mammoth



we tried in vain to have the 3 year olds pose for a pic with us.



Playing on the swingset at Dinosaur World:



They each got a turn in the dinosaur heads!







Here's a little cutie just swinging away...



They worked for a long time on this jumbo dino puzzle



I wish only that we had a longer time to see them! But we've seen each other 3 times in the past year already, so hopefully soon!

In other randomness, Cam has taken up finding the biggest pair (or NON-pair) of shoes that he can get his hands on & then tries to walk in them. So cute!