Happy Halloween!

It's a rainy Halloween day, but these two are still excited for the big day!

     

     

Those smiles...better than any jack-o-lantern!

 Both Little Sweetie and Little Buddy had fun days at school today for the holiday.  

     

Little Sweetie had Pumpkin Day at school...lots of fun games and activities.  Then we got to go have a special lunch together afterwards since it was too rainy for our normal park and picnic routine.

     

Little Buddy found himself awestruck by Darth Vader at his school!

Sadly, the rain really started to come down just in time to make Trick-or-Treating difficult.  The kids got their costumes on but we scaled back on our trick-or-treating expectations.  Or at least Little Buddy did.  We took him to just one neighbor's house and he was good.  Little Sweetie, however, was bound and determined to go.  She got her umbrella and off we went.  We hit around 10 houses but, because so few trick-or-treaters were out, the candy givers were very generous and her bucket got pretty full pretty quickly.

Our Owlette and Stormtrooper!

Umbrella up, candy ho!

Sorting her spoils!

Candy time!  She got to have one piece of candy before bed.  Funnily enough, it was too sweet for her, so I think Daddy will be taking a lot of this left over candy into work!

Definitely the wettest Halloween in memory, but they had a good day, so we'll take it!

Happy Haunting, 

LBM

Little Buddy's Momma

Zoo Boo 2017

In our perpetuate quest to make it feel like "fall" in Houston, we partook of one of our favorite annual traditions, Zoo Boo!  We always try to to with Little Sweetie and the P family so we can have some quality time together with our godson, L.  And this time Little Buddy had school off, so he got to join in too.  

     

Checking out the elephant ears at the recently expanded elephant exhibit!

Little Buddy's having a good time!

     

Oh these two!

     

     

Love our special time with L!

Enjoying a few early birthday treats!

Beautiful day with these three kiddos!

Good night, 

LBM

Little Buddy's Momma

October 11

Our baby boy is back to about 95% of his normal self since the terrible withdrawal he went through at the end of the clinical trial.  We are so thankful for every single day with him after experiencing the fear we did of losing him last month.  This month was lots of smiles as we got back to our day-to-day life.  

     

Lots of smiles, but you have to be quick to catch them!

School is back in full swing and he is doing well!  They had their first dress up spirit week for Friendship Week and we had fun picking out his outfits!

Nerd Day!  It's smart to be a good friend!

Jersey Day, because we're all on the same team!

Twin Day with his friend, N!

     

I think Pajama Day was definitely his favorite, as he dreamed of being a good friend!

     

They also had their annual Dad and Donuts Day.  These handsome guys were excited to attend!

Besides school, horse therapy is back up and running too!  So glad to see him riding again and to know how much it is helping him.

Look at Little Buddy trot!

A new addition to our routine is Little Buddy's faith formation and sacramental prep.  Our Church has been very supportive as we work to prepare him for this important year in his faith and we are blessed to be able to do this together as a family.

Working on our sacraments!

Height and Weight

And the growing has continued!  He is now 69.2 pounds and 52 and 5/8 inches tall.  

Personality

Still our happy and excitable boy.  Praying his joyful personality keeps shining for a long time!  

Developmental Changes

He's been getting stronger every day!  Overall, he's back up to where he was prior to the end of the trial.  We do notice that his toe walking has increased and his fork usage has decreased, but we are working with his occupational therapists diligently to help retain his skills.  He has been talking more though and making his speech therapist happy!

Fun Tidbits

It's fall!  So many of Little Buddy's things happen in October.  

Pumpkin pie time!  Happy to keep up his pie obsession with a family favorite fall treat!

     

Halloween decorations means the return of Mr. Bones!  The good news is that Little Buddy still loves him.  The bad news is that he no longer wants to get on the bus in the morning because it means leaving Mr. Bones!

And Halloween means it's time to go costume shopping!  This was the first year that Little Buddy couldn’t vocalize his costume choice to us. In previous years, we could just ask him what he wanted to be for Halloween and he could tell us, even if it was only a one or two word answer. This year, while he still has some verbal ability, he will not always answer direct questions, so we had to get creative! We took him to 3 different costume stores and at each one he pulled down the stormtrooper costume. I’m taking that as his pick! However, he refuses to wear a mask or anything that covers his face. Thankfully, we found this stormtrooper ball cap which he is willing wear, thus completing his outfit. We’ve also been able to get him to say, “Trooper!” when asked what his costume is. But you know what he doesn’t need any help saying? “Trick or treat!” This kid is ready for some candy!

     

"I a Trooper!"

Now to see what the rest of the fall season brings!  

Until next month, 

LBM

Little Buddy's Momma

A Spooktacular Time in San Antonio

Five years ago this weekend, we took Little Buddy to San Antonio to do the River Walk and the Spooktacular Sea World.  He loved it and Little Sweetie has seen pictures of our trip and started asking (cough, demanding) to go try it herself.  Since we won Sea World tickets at a recent silent auction, we decided to go for it.  It was going to be a very quick trip but we know that any time we can carve together as a family to make memories is worth it.  So off we went!

First up, River Walk!

Mexican and mariachi music!  Little Sweetie was shy but she loved it when they played the Chicken Dance for her!

     

Dipping her feet in the River Walk!

Love these two!

Skeleton pajama party in the hotel!

The next day, we headed to Sea World's Spooktacular.  The kids were excited for the trick or treating, the Halloween-themed activities and decorations, and to wear their costumes.  Momma and Daddy were not excited about how hot it was!  Thankfully, everyone had a good day, which made up for the crazy heat.

Little Buddy found his Sesame Street friends!  These shows are always his favorite part of Sea World.

Look at this joy!  Sesame Street for the win!

Hi Elmo!

Next up, it was time for some rides!

The Stormtrooper rode the carousel but he wasn't happy about it.  He wanted the Sesame Street people back!

Little Sweetie rode her first roller coaster!  Despite what this picture displays, she loved it and insisted on riding the front car the next time!  Little Buddy loved his ride on it too.

     

Owlette and Momma on the kiddie ferris wheel!

Little Buddy and Daddy rode it too!

Train ride!

We did see the animal exhibits but were too busy keeping Little Buddy out of trouble to take many pictures!  They enjoyed feeding the Sea Lions and also seeing the penguins.

And then we drove home!  Only a 36 hour trip but a good one.  Sometimes it is just nice to get out of our routine and do something fun together.  Hoping for more fun weekend trips this fall and winter!

Good night,

LBM

Little Buddy's Momma