I just can't seem to keep up, but I'll continue to try! Here's a look at September...
Camping:
We had our annual camping trip with friends. As usual, it's filled with lots of fun and great memories!
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| Catching crawdads |
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| Hannah even got to do some walking in her Upsee. |
Home School:
For the month of September (and the few weeks we had school in August), we did apple experiments in Science and studied Johnny Appleseed in Social Studies (along with math, reading, phonics, and handwriting).
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| Jenna working on her sight words for the week |
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| I probably could have started him in Kindergarten this year, but decided not to rush it. I'm okay with things being easy for him this year as long as he enjoys it and isn't bored. So far, he loves it! |
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| Adding our finished letters to the coconut tree. |
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| We used Bailey and Hannah to make the letter E during E week. |
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| Jenna working on her math paper. She's picking up on it really well. |
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| Doing some apple math experiments - finding out how many bear manipulatives it takes to equal an apple. |
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| Then they had to measure the circumference of their apple. |
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| We hypothesized whether their apples would sink or float... |
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| So then we of course had to bob for apples. |
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| Working on phonics and beginning sounds. |
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| Another apple experiment - which ingredient would keep an apple from browning the longest - lemon juice, pop, milk, or water. They each made their hypothesis and then checked on the apples throughout the afternoon. I believe Grant guessed correctly with the lemon juice, and I think Jenna said water. |
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| We also made homemade applesauce in the crockpot. The kids liked it! |
Horse Therapy:
We started Hannah on horse therapy per the recommendation of Hannah's therapist. There seem to be so many benefits to it, and since it can't hurt her, we definitely wanted to give it a try! The natural movement of a horse is said to help increase balance, torso strength, and improve walking. Hannah loved being on the horse, and on a few occasions would cry when we took her off.
Misc:
Here are some random pictures from the month...
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| We participated in our church's annual 5K run. My mom watched Hannah, while Drew, the kids,and I all ran. Drew was actually trying to get a good time, so he ran on ahead. Jenna walk/ran with her Aunt Kelley, while I stayed with Grant. |
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| It was a LONG run for the kids, but I was so proud of them for completing the whole thing and finishing strong! |
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| All 3 of my cuties! |
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| I love this picture of Hannah in the Upsee. She has been very curious about our front door and just likes to put her hands on it and examine it. |
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| Then as we started walking, Jenna held Hannah's hand. |
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| Cousin time |
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| My gift to Drew for our 10-year anniversary was a year of pre-planned dates. They're sealed in envelopes and each month we open the following months date. Septembers date was a game of tennis followed by brunch at Bob Evans. It was SO much fun!! Neither of us are amazing tennis players, so we just laughed the whole time. |
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| Jenna's first manicure. :) |
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| She chose a blue polish. |
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| Then we followed the nail painting up with a dinner date to Friendly's where they were serving these blue drinks with gummy sharks. A treat for sure! |
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| Playtime! |
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| She loves her peas...and open-mouth smiles! |
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| She's growing up way too fast! |
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| Her new favorite activity is tracing images from the previous page in her gigantic princess coloring books. |
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| Hannah had a regular checkup with the neurologist last month, and while there, the doctor saw Hannah jerk and was a little concerned about it, so she ordered an ambulatory EEG (24 hour EEG). They put all the wires all around her head and then wrapped her up good. |
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| On top of her head was a big battery pack (or something like that), which was quite heavy. She had a difficult time keeping her head upright. |
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| A unit was connected to the top of her head with a wire so that we could click a button if we saw anything that was concerning to us. So since we were supposed to closely monitor her overnight, we decided to have her sleep in bed with us. The results of the EEG showed no signs of seizures (which we expected - we haven't seen anything that's really concerning to us); however, the "background noise" was abnormal, which is expected since she has CP, but there were also "sparks." I guess these "sparks" mean that Hannah is at a higher risk for having seizures, so that's just something we'll have to watch for and be aware of. So far, no seizures though (thank goodness!) |
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| Jenna loved giving Hannah her bedtime bottle. She sure loves her sister! |
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| Bedtime stories |
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| Poor thing was worn out!! |
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| Sisterly love! |
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| Cousin time |
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| Hannah's therapist brought these elastic rubbery anklets with beads on them for Hannah to wear while she walked. They bounce around and make noise, which Faye thought might encourage Hannah to want to walk. |
