I'm Baaaack! Here's the scoop!

Dear Blog,
I've been ignoring you and I feel bad. But I'm here now! :)
Love, Holly


Hello Everyone!!!

It's been a while. Life just sort of gets busy. But I really want to update everyone on what is going on. You can rest assured that in my case, no news is usually good news!

A couple of weeks ago, we did have our pediatric neurologist appt. for Aiden. We have officially stumped the most well respected pediatric neurologist in the state of FL! All of Aiden's tests have come back normal and despite the initial prediction that the neurologist had, he now acknowledges that Aiden is getting better. In fact, he performed the assessment on Aiden that he did with him just a few short months ago. It was really emotional for Will and I to watch our son answer questions and do as he asked like a trooper this time --- this was completely OPPOSITE to what he was like when we first went for help. The doctor basically admitted to us that he has never seen this pattern. We all agreed that it's a blessing and while we don't have "answers", we are all thrilled that Aiden is getting better. We are scheduled to monitor and return back in 6 months... but the best we can do for Aiden at this point is what we are doing - special school and speech therapy! He's rockin in speech therapy and LOVES his speech therapist "Miss Jane".

Aiden did receive a progress report at school this week. We were thrilled when we read it.
"Aiden is adjusting well to his new classroom and is starting to interact with his peers on a more frequent basis. Aiden has been using his words more when communicating expressively and answer questions receptively. Being around peers that talk frequently seems to increase Aiden's occurrence of verbal behavior. Aiden enjoys music and story time and loves pretend play. With continued hard work, Aiden should be able to meet his goals."

Halleluah!!!!!!!

While on the subject of progress reports, Anna also received her report card (3rd quarter). This is MY blog, so I'm going to brag!!!! Anna received all "S" which is satisfactory (the highest she can get) and had the following comments:
"Anna currently knows 100% of her high frequency words and is currently reading 154 words per minute. Anna continues to excel is all subject areas and is actively participating in classroom discussions. Keep up the great work!"

As a point of reference, children in her grade are expected to read 55 words per minute by the end of the school year. What a bookworm!!!!!

Things have been going very well the last month or so. I sort of made it my mission to exercise more. I've been faithfully going to the gym for over a year, but felt I needed to do more, so I've been running also. I'm up to 3.2 miles.. also doing pilates and other things to keep it interesting. I'm feeling good and it's nice to focus on me for a while each day before focusing on the hustle and bustle of pick up lines, grocery shopping, lesson planning, teaching, cooking. :) Bathing suit season, here I come!

We had a nice Passover this year. It was my first year cooking and hosting our family seder. Dori and crew were on a cruise that week, so it was my mom and Jerry, Cousin Meg, us, and our friends the Joachims. Here's few pics:

Here's a picture of the table before the seder, including the seder plate I painted

















Anna and Amy reading the 4 questions together

















Here I am reading the story of passover in the style of "the rugrats". :)
















Last weekend we decided to take the kids to Seaworld. They now have an easy pay plan, and so we now have a family pass for the next 2 years. I'm guessing there will be a lot of Seaworld pictures posted to the blog in the future. Here's a start!

Me and my girl

















My men
















The manatee exhibit was a hit with both kids. Here is Aiden cracking up at the manatees. He couldn't stop laughing.






















and here is Anna proudly posing with her manatee webkinz in front of the manatee trees.
















We are heading down to plantation to visit Will's parents this weekend. I'm sure some pictures will be taken.

I can't believe we are nearing the end of the school year. I have 3 weeks left of my Spring Kindermusik session, which then leads me into a month or so break. ahhh... I will be going on my annual Mom's weekend in May. Yay!! We are going to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is Hollywood, FL. I will be running a whirlwind of Kindermusik summer camp and then after that we plan to go up North for a family vacation to Philly, NYC, and the mountains (Bellasylva). For everyone reading from up there, we'll be there the first week in August!!! At least 10 days worth! :)

Alright, heading to bed.

Oh, one last thing - major congrats to two of my best friends who both had babies over the 10 days! Carrie and Elisa (and their hubbies of course) - I love you both so much and can't wait to meet your precious sons!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now I'm going.
Love to all ---
Holly