Where Do I Even START?!?...

So much good news to share tonight - I don't even know where to start!!

How about with Miss Sara.  Today marked one whole year that she's been with our family.  Not to sound corny, but it really feels like she's been a part of our family from the start.  The year - which was FILLED with highs and lows and miracles and milestones - really flew by.  We love Sara, as you must know by now.  And we are so grateful she has been here (and stayed here!!) through the good and the bad!  Gavin and Brian LOVE Miss Sara.  When we talk about our family, Brian adds her like she's an official Leong!  And Gavin - I know for a fact that much of his progress this year is due to her.  She is so good with him - has been from the very first day.  We really won the lottery last year - and we know it.

To celebrate her one year anniversary - I bought her a couple presents and the boys made cards for her.

And then Sara presented US with an totally unexpected, completely outrageous and absolutely unnecessary gift.  "Twelve Months of Dates"

A box filled with gift cards for different restaurants and the movies - and free babysitting for every outing.  Even an overnighter!!

We were completely overwhelmed.

She brought Christmas presents for the boys as well - and even some from her wonderful parents!  Her parents gave the boys the most clever Crayola themed gift!  Four passes to the factory, spending money for the store (seriously - they are overwhelmingly generous), crayons and crayola magnets... it was such a fun gift!  

Granny was here, too, and opened our little presents.  She'll be spending Christmas with my sister and her family so we had her open her gift early.

  The last few days have been filled with all kinds of celebrations.  (Be sure to keep reading for the BIGGEST celebration of all!)

Yesterday, Brian had Pajama day at school.  

He wore his Christmas pj's and really got a kick out of seeing his teacher, Miss Laura, in her robe and slippers!  The whole class watched The Muppet Movie in the school auditorium and Brian said it was so much fun!  He loved giving his teachers and Miss Maggie their Christmas gifts, too.  

On the way out of school, you wouldn't believe who we saw coming in!  SANTA!!!  Brian froze at first - and then walked right up to say hi.  And then he turned around and said "eeeee" for a picture.  He is very well trained.  

Today was Gavin's holiday party and everyone was invited!  Daddy left work to make it... 

Granny came over to go with us... 

and Sara stayed late so she could come along, too!

Brian couldn't wait to play in Gavin's classroom - especially when he heard there would be snacks.  And I could tell that Gavin was SO excited that all of us were there.  He was quite the show off!!  

It was great to see Gavin's therapists and teacher and introduce them to Ed and my Mom.  I really love Gavin's team.  Miss Erika is his Occupational Therapist.  I'm sure you can tell by the photo that they have a mutual affection for each other.

Miss Whitney is his speech therapist!  She has so much energy and I'm so pleased with what she is getting out of Gavin in school!  She has the hard task of working on feeding - the biggest challenge of all.  

Whitney will take over some of Miss Maggie's case load (Maggie is Gavin's old speech therapist and Brian's current speech therapist - follow that?) when she goes on maternity leave.  There is a possibility that Whitney will get Brian for speech!  How cool would that be?

And of course there is Miss Megan - Gavin's wonderful teacher.  She is such a sweet and loving person - it's so obvious that she has found her calling in teaching.  The classroom is such a happy place and Gavin is doing so well.  We really are so grateful to have been assigned to Megan.  Her supervisor happened to pop in today - not knowing that there was a holiday party.  Boy, was I happy to give her an earful about how we felt about Gavin's classroom and his amazing teacher.  

Gavin has Sara as his personal classroom aide, but there are also two other aides in the room - Jen and Tracy.  (Dang it - I should have taken Gavin's picture with them too!)  They are so sweet with all the kids and went out of their way today with Brian, too!  There were play stations set up, including a Gingerbread Man station.  Jen made the Gingerbread Men and helped Brian decorate them with icing and marshmallows and gum drops.  And Tracy played in the pretend snow with Brian for quite some time.  Honestly, I couldn't ask for a nicer classroom for our sweet son.

The only person missing from the party was Miss Wendy, Gavin's physical therapist.  But she is 100% forgiven after I was given the best Christmas present ever this afternoon.  During her session with Gavin, she worked on his walking.  Gavin is obsessed with water - especially the sink in the classroom - so she used that as a motivator.  Sara said that he took a few steps on his own - holding onto nothing or no one - so she ran to get her phone to take a video.  And then...

This happened.

And then it happened over... and over... and over.

Unbelievable, right?

Great news like ALL of the above is usually balanced out with bad news in the Leong house.  It's what keeps us humble.  We ended today with an accident.  We were in the house all of five minutes - unpacking from Gavin's class party - when all of a sudden he was crying and clearly hurt.  I quickly figured out he had hurt his hand - and then figured out that his finger was swollen and floppy and red.  We think he pulled himself up to stand using the back of the kitchen chair which is all spindles.  When he went to get down to crawl away, his finger must have gotten caught in between the spindles and twisted.

So... on her one year anniversary, Sara looked at me and said "I can stay."  I packed Gavin up - left Sara and Brian and Ed, who was going to a work party - and headed to the emergency room.  As you can see, Gavin was no worse for wear...

We were fast tracked in and brought right to X-Ray and were home in time for dinner.  Turns out it's likely just a sprain and it didn't even need to be taped or splinted.  Thank God.  But just to keep me really humble, Brian broke out in a random case of hives at bedtime.

It's never dull around here!  Which is why I'm even MORE grateful (and sometimes surprised!) that Sara has stuck around this long!!

Thank you, as always, for loving our family like you do.  Gavin, especially.  With the amount of positive energy, prayers and encouragement you send his way - you can all take some credit for how well he's doing!

Giving...

If there's one quality I want to foster in Gavin and Brian, it's generosity.  I want them to be generous with their time, their love, their spirit and their good fortune.  Growing up, my parents encouraged giving to those less fortunate than us...and my Dad and I loved to do volunteer projects together.

Since the day Gavin was born, I feel like we've been on a constant receiving end of generosity.  When he was hospitalized, people brought us meals.  When I lost babies, people brought us meals.  (People have brought us a LOT of meals to the point that I started to think of things I could make up JUST to get these amazing meals)  Neighbors and friends have sent us hand me down clothes.  Other friends and neighbors have given us toys.  Blog readers have sent care packages and toys.  One especially generous blog reader, a retired school teacher who we lovingly refer to as Grandma Barb, supplied the boys with what seems like a lifetime worth of books!!  We have been so blessed by so many people.

So, it has felt really great over this past year or so to give and give and give.  But, more importantly, it has felt great to know that two little boys are watching.  Whether it's something small - like handing a dollar to Brian to put in a serviceman's can on Veteran's Day... or handing five bucks out the window to a Penn State student collecting money for their Childhood Cancer campaign - or something big like giving baby gear and clothes and toys to Gavin and Brian's speech therapist or packing up boxes for hurricane victims - they were watching.  And Brian always has tons of questions.  My answers always include a story about Pop who was truly the most generous person I've ever known.  He taught me that it doesn't matter how little you have - you can still manage to give something big and make a difference in someone's life.

Last week, I purchased a castle climber and slide with the intention of giving it to Gavin's classroom.  I bought it from a local Mom - she practically gave it away for $20.00! - and she was so happy to know it was going to help Gavin and his friends.  I thought it would be a great indoor activity and therapy tool during the cold winter months when they can't go outside.

It was at our house all weekend and I cleaned it up well so we could deliver it today.  Brian had a LOT of fun playing on it this weekend so I was a little bit fearful that he would have a tough time letting it go.  Okay, a lot a bit fearful.

But I was wrong.  I loaded it in the back of the van and Brian and I drove to Gavin's school to pick him up.  The whole way there he talked about how happy Gavin and his friends were going to be when they saw it.  I was so proud of him.  We carried it in and he demonstrated how to climb and slide and that was that!!

While we were there, I had a chance to chat with two of Gavin's therapists.  Whitney, on the left, is Gavin's Speech Therapist - and Erika is his Occupational Therapist.  They both are so great with Gavin and you can tell that he really adores them.  

Whitney told me that they were working hard on lip closure today.  Just like Maggie did, she adds crushed crackers or rice krispies on top of his puree and uses a flat spoon to encourage him to close his lips around it.  Generally, he scrapes everything with his teeth.  Lip closure is an important step in speech and language development.  She's been using massage around his mouth and bringing bubbles to his lips as well!

Erika worked with him on feeding as well.  She's trying to encourage him to feed himself.  He was doing well with that for a while...but, in Gavin style, went on strike for a bit.  To get him back in the groove, she used a technique called "chaining" where she'd leave the spoon in his mouth so he'd be forced to pull it out himself with his hand. Tricky, eh?  As a reward after therapy, she bounced him on the big therapy ball which I am SURE my little daredevil just loved.

Tomorrow is a big day!  It's Gavin's first school picture day!  I'm sending Sara to school with props to entertain and make him smile.  Her job is depending on how good these pictures turn out so... good luck with that, Miss Sara!  (don't worry, I'm just kidding.  or am I?)

Big Man on Campus...

I am so proud to tell you that Gavin is doing so well in school.  I am also proud to tell you that I am doing MUCH better with Gavin BEING at school - but who cares about that.  Let's talk about how awesome Gavin is doing.

Miss Megan, Gavin's teacher, takes photos of him occasionally and emails them to me.  I never expected that but, as you can imagine, I feel like I win the lottery every time I get a new one.  It's like a tiny glimpse into his day.  And the images are much better than the ones I get from my perch in the tree across the street.  I really need to ask Santa for a longer zoom lens.

Anywayyyy.....I got permission from Megan to share these photos on my blog!  Woo Hoo!

The first three photos were taken during the first couple weeks.

Gavin has been participating in circle time by pushing a button to say hello when asked...and also making choices to tell everyone what song he'd like to hear!  

They do lots of craft activities which is good for Gavin in so many ways.  It forces him to sit and participate...to use his hands with or without help...and to work with different textures.  So far they've done things like cutting with scissors, working with glue, using dot markers, finger painting and shaving cream play!  Everyone is trying to encourage Gavin to use this left hand, which you can usually find in his mouth.

There's really only been a small amount of times that Sara has told me he resisted doing the craft projects.  Typically when someone has to hold his hands on the dot marker or scissors or whatever to "force" him to do it.  But most of the time she reports that he is doing a great job and letting people help him!  Hooray!!  

As you can see - he seems pretty proud.

I brought in another car load of toys, puzzles, lacing beads, stacking blocks and more today - courtesy of my uber-generous neighbor, Patti.  The teacher and therapists were so grateful - it's always nice to have new things to work with!! 

They are also working hard on self feeding.  Gavin's occupational therapist, Erika, told me they started using the "Easie Eaters Spoon" with him, so I jumped on Amazon and bought it.  It's very cool and makes it much easier for him to get the food into his mouth.  Today they also worked on a craft project- making an apple tree with paint and dot markers.  He wasn't a willing participant, so I was told.  They laid him on his belly and tried to get him to use that left hand again with the dot markers and he fought them through the whole thing.  But there's no denying that the end result is beautiful.  Maybe he'll be a famous moody artist!!

Whitney, his speech therapist, has been working hard on communication.  She's trying to incorporate his iPad into as many classroom routines as possible (ie: circle time, greetings, taking turns, etc.)...encouraging him to communicate in any way when he wants her to continue an activity (ie: bouncing on the ball, singing, etc) by touching her or gazing at an object.  She's also working on lip closure, which is important for eating AND future speech.  Just like Miss Maggie did, she works with bubbles and has Gavin pucker when a bubble comes close to his lips.  And she also puts crushed Ritz crackers on top of his pureed food to encourage him to close his lips.

Megan works with him to match colors, stack, put objects in and out of containers, and so much more. Sara tells me she is a wonderful teacher and a lot like Miss Janna - who, as you know, Gavin just adored.  He really is so happy in her class!!  Today she celebrated his birthday by having everyone sing to him, presenting him with a certificate and taking his photo next to a big light up party hat!  How cool is that!!  Sara said he was all smiles - loved the attention.

Gavin's Physical Therapist, Miss Wendy, works with him in and out of the classroom in his walker.  He uses his open walker in the classroom to transition from one activity to another...and then they cruise up and down the hallways.  He is doing so well navigating himself without help!!!  Then, when they go outside, he uses the KidWalk or Sara holds his hands and has him walk.  Today, when they went out on the playground (which is mostly un-usable for the kids in his class - but more on that in a minute), Miss Megan helped Gavin climb up the ladder so he could go down the slide.  He LOVED going down the slide!  Sara told me that when he got up on his feet again at the bottom, he guided Megan back to the ladder!!  This is so exciting to me.

But the playground.  I have issues with the playground.  It's beautiful, don't get me wrong...but there's not a single swing that Gavin can use.  And all of the equipment is big and perfect for typically developing kids.  Brian would have a ball!  This school was not designed for this "special needs classroom" - Gavin's classroom is brand new and using space in the school.  I have personally called and written to just about every swingset company in our area -  begging them to donate a swing or two.  Or really to donate anything.  But no one seems interested, which is a bummer.  There has to be a way to make this happen for these kids and I'm determined to figure it out.

In other news...this Thursday I'll be keeping Gavin out of school.  He has his very first visit with a Developmental Pediatrician at DuPont.  This appointment was set up many, many, many months ago - it's not easy to get in!  I have no idea what to expect...and, to be honest, I'm nervous for some odd reason.  If you've been to a Developmental Pediatrician, I'd love for you to comment here on the blog with your experience...advice...tips...whatever you got, I'm all ears.  Thanks in advance!