School Days

Cole's 1st day at school!

Brett & Shane

It seems so strange to be completely alone in the house to work. It is so bitter-sweet! I miss all three of my boys (I know, I'm crazy). I have gotten so accustom to blocking out the noises in the background that, now that it is so quiet, I have to have some kind of noise to be able to stay focused.

Brett and Shane started their first day in the public school system this year on August 20th. Brett is a Junior and yet it seems like just yesterday that I was shedding tears on his first day of kindergarten. When Shane started pre-K, I was able to contain my tears but still felt the strings tugging on my heart. I thought he would be my last baby to be sending off on his 'first day'. He is now in second grade. Both of the boys were so independent that they wanted to go into the school alone on their first day. Of course, I had to walk in with them.

Cole is a whole other story. With him being my third child it was a little easier letting go BUT because he is so dependent on me it was so much harder. Let's talk about bitter-sweet...I have had my focus solely on getting my last child into Special Care school so that he can get the care he needs. I know that this is exactly what he needs, exactly what the family needs, but I realized I am as dependent on him as he is on me. I have become so used to all the appointments and rearranging everyone's schedules that now I am feeling slightly lonely and not quit as needed. I'm sure I will get over that once I get into the routine of getting everyone out the door and getting straight to work. I might actually even get to enjoy some 'family time' in the evenings since I won't be working all night.

So, Cole's first week went great! He seems to not mind when I leave him in the mornings and the only time I have seen him crying was the very first day and that was his normal 'melt down' time of the day. They have been putting him in his stander, a gait trainer and he has been eating from their menu instead of only baby food. I am so proud of him! We have worked it out so he will have individual therapy every day still and his teachers have been working with him too. They are awesome!

It is a wonderful feeling to know we have a place to take Cole that can provide therapy and work with him to improve on his disability.

We are going to really miss our friend, Tiffany, that took such great care of him up until now. I am so thankful that she loved him and cared for him regardless of his CP. She was so sweet and offered to watch Cole any other time we might need her. Looks like now Joe will have no excuse for not taking me on a date!

Pics from Fuji fundraiser

I apologize for taking so long to get these pics posted. It has been crazy around here. Also, I only have a few pictures because it was hard to take too many in the restaurant with everyone eating and I am not posting any pics of anyone who asked me not to. I want to again say "Thank you" to Nova and her family for the generous donation, to Lindy for bringing us together and to everyone who came to eat to help support Cole.

Restaurant Results

I know, it has taken me a while to find some time to squeeze in an update on the Fuji Sushi Restaurant fund raiser....but here it is finally.

First, I want to start with just how wonderful Nova (the owner) and her family are! She is truly one of the most beautiful people I have ever met (inside and out).

Nova had a table set aside for my little group and in the same area there was a table for the friends that Lindy and Kim (from Sooner Start) brought. The only other table on our side of the building was set up for the friends that Nova invited to join us. I believe each of our tables had 10-12 people. Then, there were the normal patrons on the other side.

Nova was so kind and brought Cole the cutest toy dog that plays music, says the ABC's, names body parts (hand, foot, ear, etc). It is so cute and he loves it. She also brought him balloons (which I believe Shane has completely taken over by now - Cole doesn't mind since it makes him laugh when Shane hits the balloon).

Now, I know you are dying for me to just tell you how well we did! I will say I think we did great! We received enough to pay for a few weeks of school. I would love to give you the exact dollar amount but I am not sure if that would be proper.

We had a great time and loved meeting everyone! I want to thank everyone that was there to help Cole and enjoy the awesome food. If you are local and make it in there...even if you do not like sushi (because I don't-can't get past the smelly seaweed) you will have to try the 'Fuji' sushi roll. It was delicious!

I will post some pics soon of our friends that made it.

Thank you Nova!

First Haircut

This past Wednesday we finally took Cole in for his first official haircut. Yes, I had snipped his bangs just a little to keep it out of his eyes but it is now completely cut off. He sat in his X-Panda seat, we caped him and started cutting.

I will admit that I would have let it keep growing as he had the cutest curls but he was hurting himself. Cole would play with his curls and when he would get a little upset he would start pulling. This would make him more mad (you could see that he was thinking 'who's pulling my hair?') because due to the spasticity in his hands he could not let go of his hair. It was such a vicious cycle. Poor baby!

Dad was glad I finally agreed to get it cut. He said it was starting to look like a mullet (he pulled it off well...LOL) and several people would say "oh, she's so cute". Ok, does he look like a girl? I don't think so!

Well, now my baby looks like such a big boy!

Snip Snip (video) and Buzz Buzz (video)

Love these curls!

Oh no! There they go!

Handsome big boy!

Fuji Japanese Restaurant

I am truly amazed at the generousity of total strangers!

Cole's speech therapist, Lindy, has been so kind to help get the word out about Cole. Through this, her friend Nova, that owns Fuji Japanese Restaurant, has been wonderful enough to offer to donate 20% of all sales from this Monday, August 11th to Cole.

We will be using these donations to help pay for his school.

Nova has gone way 'above and beyond' and sent out this "Fund Raising Announcement". Didn't she do an awesome job? We will keep you posted on how it turns out!