How Far We've Come

This may seem silly to some... I'll try to put it in context, but have to admit up-front that I got noticeably teary in Jake's school conference today :).
This year has seen such a change in Jake. He is reading for pleasure - of his own accord! Less than three years ago, Jake was tested and qualified for special education, largely based on his inability to recognize all of the letters in the alphabet, sound out simple words, etc. - in spite of being obviously 'smart' in other ways. His main diagnosis was severe dyslexia. When I asked people at that time (like the diagnostician and the director of the dyslexia school here in Austin who helped interpret his test results for me) if he would ever read, no one would give me a solid answer or really even much reassurance.
OK, so here's what made me cry today, and granted my hormones and emotions are a little off-kelter, but still it was huge to me. Jake takes the TAKS test this spring and has to pass it in order to pass 3rd grade. They gave the kids a pre-test, using the actual TAKS test from June that was given to 3rd graders who didn't pass the spring test -- and JAKE MADE A 100 IN READING!!! They don't expect 100's; they are testing to get a baseline to know what to teach and focus on for the next few months until the tests are given to the 3rd graders. I am so proud of him and so happy that he is going to be a reader and enjoy the many doors that will open for him. I have to add that, once again, we have been blessed with an amazing teacher for him this year. She turned his face towards hers today and told him she wanted to be sure that he heard her say that he is a strong reader. She said to him, 'you have dyslexia and I have freckles... Working with Mrs. Sternad (who is doing his special ed time with him this year) is a blessing to help you with the dyslexia, but nothing about being pulled out of class to work with her means that you are not a strong student and a strong reader.' I love our school - thank you Mrs. Neuman!

Maternity Photos

A few weeks ago we had maternity photos taken with the kids, and we just got a link to a slideshow with the images. We LOVE these photos. Heather did our engagement pictures as well and she's great. Anyway, I don't know how long the link will be live, but check them out at: http://www.heatherwalkerphotos.com/courtneymaternity/.

False Alarm

Well, we thought we might be having the baby today - I was having contractions some yesterday and then all through the night. They were pretty frequent and some were painful, but they weren't consistently spaced. So, the Dr. asked us to come to his office this morning and sure enough I'm showing no signs of being in labor. I'm a little disappointed and feel a little silly, but am back home and going to try to get some work done and some rest. Martin is working from home. The kids' school is having their annual cook-out today where the parents come and eat with the kids, so we'll go to that around 11:30 but nothing else is planned for the day.

A Quick Update

I was waiting to pull pictures off the camera to post, but realized that a few friends and family are reading this blog to get baby/delivery news so I figured I would post a quick update. We went to the Dr. today for our weekly appointment and there have been no changes. The baby is growing and has a healthy heartbeat. I am not showing any signs of being ready to deliver so we'll just keep going weekly for the next couple of weeks. We moved our appointment to Tuesday of next week because Mondays aren't good for Martin's work schedule - so my previous estimate of a 10/21 birthday for Kiley is likely to be 10/22 (or 10/29, but I'm really hoping for 10/22). I like even numbers more than odd, and the sooner the better. It would be nice if there is a week between her birthday and Halloween so she can have her own party each year and not have to roll it into some kind of Halloween shindig unless she chooses that.

We had a busy weekend - Sydney had two soccer games, Jake had football, and Sydney cheered at her first game. Jake WON!! They had a big win on Saturday morning and were so excited. They really focused on correcting mistakes they had made in the past and they played great offense. It was very exciting. Sydney's team won one game and lost the 2nd by 1 point, but she really hustled and scored a goal on Saturday. It's been good that the last couple of teams they have played have provided some competition for them - I think they had won every game so far up until Sunday. Sydney's first impression of cheerleading is that it's kind of boring. But, her regular coach was out and so things weren't as organized or high energy as I think they will be. I heard from another parent that the coach may miss 1/2 of the season because of traveling, so that's not ideal, but we'll see how it goes. She does seem excited to learn the cheers and she looks adorable in the outfit. We will post pictures soon!

We continue to make baby steps towards being really ready for the baby, but I feel like we're going to be in good shape. We found and bought a glider/rocker today off of craigslist. I had been reluctant to spend a ton of money on something we would only use for a year or two. But, when they come up for sale they go FAST so I was about to cave and buy one new. Now we won't have to...

I know this isn't a very exciting post - I'm not feeling really entertaining these days - just ask the kids or Martin :). But, it's only a few more weeks and we'll get to meet our sweet baby girl. We can't wait!

So Close and Yet So Far

This title could apply to more than one aspect of life right now :). First, it is relevant to Jake's football game tonight. His team is mostly new to flag football - and naturally it shows, although they are working hard and getting better. They have lost their first four games now, but last night was SO CLOSE! They ended the first half up by 1 point with a score of 6 to 7. The boys got stomped last week and all want so badly to win a game, so they were very excited. In the 2nd 1/2, the other team scored but failed to get the extra point. Our team answered with a touchdown and extra point, so we were up by 2. There were 37 seconds left and the other team got the ball very close to our end zone. The boys knew they pretty much just had to hold them for one play. And yet... the defense let the other team get behind them, the QB threw a pass to one of their players and off he went the length of the field for the winning touchdown. It was really hard on the boys.
Jake made his share of mistakes in the game, but none that resulted in big plays or scores by the other team. All in all, he played fairly well - he got the flag a number of times, and on that last touchdown run he was trailing the opponent with the ball by several feet but he chased him down with full effort the length of the field and that made me proud. After the game, one of his teammates was in tears, and as we got to the parking lot Jake asked, 'why do we have to lose every game we play?' I told him they were getting close; they had lost on one type of play that they could practice defending against in the future, and that their time would come. Fingers crossed that it will motivate them to work even harder next week! We forgot our camera again - so will have to post football pictures after next week's game on Saturday morning.
On the pregnancy front, I'm getting close, and yet each day is LONG and it still seems far away. Our Dr.'s appointments are weekly and remain uneventful. The baby's head is still very high as was the case with Jake & Sydney. What that means is that even though I am having contractions and the baby is looking likely to be big again, my body isn't really getting ready to deliver. Until the head puts pressure on my cervix, she's staying put. So, it looks likely I will carry her all the way to the due date or past. If history repeats itself, the Dr. will decide at one of my appointments that I am likely to respond to induction and he will tell me to be at the hospital the next morning. Assuming my appointments continue to be on Mondays, it means I am likely to have the baby on the 21st or 28th of October. If it happens just as it did with Jake & Sydney, the baby will be born on the 28th, so that's kind of the date I have in my mind, although I would love for it to be sooner. Regardless, Kiley will likely have many lively costume parties for her Birthday!
I was thinking about it tonight - with other things in life, even really big things or really bad things, you have moments in each day when you forget. Sometimes it's just those first few seconds after you awake in the morning before the gravity of life hits you, but still there are moments. For me, at the end of pregnancy, it kind of becomes all-consuming. There really aren't any waking moments when I'm not aware of being pregnant - it's not a bad thing, but it's kind of a constant distraction for me - sometimes welcome, other times not. So many weird things happen when you are pregnant. In the past week, I have been in pain because my ribs are out of place, I ran a fever one night of 100.5 - completely inexplicably and gone within hours, and one day I was completely depressed - feeling like a horrible mother because I have so little energy right now, but I was back to normal the next day. All in all, I'm excited and ready, having a hard time concentrating on work, and dreaming of getting my body back. We worked some this week on the nursery, went to Babies R Us and bought a few more necessities, and are just a few steps closer to being well-prepared.

LIVESTRONG challenge

Jake's best friend is named Spencer, and Spencer's Dad sent an email out today asking for votes in a pretty cool contest. If you have a couple of minutes, you can click the link in his email below to hear about their story of a 2-year battle with Leukemia and Spencer's remission - yeah!! I've included a picture from Jake's Birthday party a few weeks ago - Spencer is at the top-left of the photo.

Here is Rob's email: The LAF partnered with Demand Media in making the LIVESTRONG.com site. They have been running a promotional campaign with a series of videos responding to Lance's "dare." I submitted an entry and am one of the ten finalists, but I appear to be getting stomped. Desperate to get the word out, I am asking for your help. Can you visit the livestrong.com site and consider voting for my video?
http://www.livestrong.com/video/5027-dare-challenge-finalist-sartin/ Better still, vote every day through Sunday and tell all of your friends.
Regards,
Rob Sartin,
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Donate to fight cancer: http://austin08.livestrong.org/spencer
Follow our fundraising and bicycle training: http://spencerone.org/

Nothing Specific

Life here goes on without much new excitement - which is probaby a good thing when you're eight months pregnant! The kids are settling into their routines, doing a GREAT job of staying on top of homework and mostly getting into their activities. We have playdates after school, Sydney went to a slumber party this past weekend, and we've got some things going on with our volunteer work and church.

I am feeling a bit grumpy (ok, maybe more than a bit), in part because the baby seems to be displacing one of my ribs and it hurts a lot of the time. I'm not comfortable standing because my feet get tired carrying the extra weight and I'm not comfortable sitting because of the rib, so it kinda stinks. I may try to go back to the chiropractor this week. I'm tired of not being able to exercise, but even a walk around the block or going up the stairs at home triggers contractions which have gotten more painful as the weeks go on. Plus, I think hormones are kicking in and not helping matters. Martin, being the smart man he is, is focusing on helping around the house and keeping a low profile :). We're seeing the Dr. weekly now and go again tomorrow. I'll post if there's anything new but so far so good - the baby is still freakishly active, but everyone says that is just fine and means she's healthy. Supposedly as she starts to run out of room in the coming weeks she will move less but I'll believe it when it happens! She has a couple of funny habits or things she does. She gets the hiccups pretty much every day, and when I lie on my right side, she moves her feet up and down against the pillow or mattress. It's pretty funny and cute. Martin sometimes lies by my tummy or rests his hand on it when I'm sleeping and wonders how I can possibly sleep through all the activity going on in there.

My aunt was here from Corpus Christi this weekend - thankfully Ike missed Corpus and she headed home today, but it gave us a chance to celebrate a BIG birthday with her that we missed in August. I guess I can say it - she's about as likely to see anything online as I am to sprout a 3rd eye :) - she turned 80 in August! She's my Dad's only living relative except for maybe some distant cousins with whom neither she nor we have any contact. Anyway, it was nice to see her and get to celebrate with her.

I found a couple of random pictures that I thought were cute... one is our 'puppy' Brownie. I use the term loosely, as he is almost three years old, but full bred Lab and just about as cute and playful as they come. The other is Jake working on the legos he got for his birthday. They were really complex and he was so into building them. If only they held as much excitement once they were complete as they did when they were made up of thousands of loose pieces!