Preston was released the Thursday before Memorial Day and I CAN NOT describe to you how happy we were to all be under the same roof again!! Steph and MiC got in town that evening for their first visit since Christmas and it was our first time to see her with her baby bump (which was really tiny at that point, but it was still really cute). We had a wonderful weekend with them and the fam. Lot's of swimming and just in generally trying to get a nice kick off to our summer and feel the blessing of being out of the hospital.
The biggest challenge once we got home, and sort if still is, is the preparation of Preston's pureed food. He eats 4 meals a day and despite his wonderful inpatient speech therapist Carols' best efforts we were only able to increase his volume and variety of pureed table foods. We are still taking baby steps with any type of crunchy or chewable foods. We do a home speech therapy session with him ourselves as much as possible and he goes to outpatient OT and speech/feeding therapy on Thursdays at OCH.
The outpatient has been slow which is basically what I expected, but it still frustrates me beyond belief. So I try to take deep breaths and pray for God to take away my anxiety about it. I just don't want Preston to be 3 and only be eating pureed food. So I have really started to take an initiative this week to help Preston eat some of his pureed foods on his own spoon feeding himself. He has made some great efforts, but gets frustrated so I am going to make it my mission to get him at least spoon feeding himself by his 3rd bday even if it is still puréed. I think that having someone feed you has to hold you back more than the advancement of the food your eating. I DO NOT want Preston to feel different someday because of the way he eats. So if that's another thing I can do right now to help him eat I will definitely do it.
That sort of brings me to our second big news.....................................we are MOVING!!!! This is another huge reason I am so behind on the blog. Between making Preston's food, feeding him and then looking, negotiating and now doing some remodeling on the new house I barely have time to check my email - oh and the boys new sleeping arrangements which I will probably fill you in on my next update have added a new level of fun to our life right now.
Right before Preston was admitted to OCH Randy and I had some long discussions, did lot's of praying and even consulted with Preston's current ECI therapist, his pediatrician and ECI therapists and early childhood diagnosticians in the mid-cities and we came to the conclusion that it would be best to move to Southlake Carroll ISD to be prepared for Preston to start in their PPCD program in January. For those that don't know what PPCD is, it is the way the state continues to provide therapy to children who may need it past their 3rd birthday. ECI (in home state therapy) provides therapy from birth to 3 and the day of their 3rd bday ECI stops and they start in the PPCD program (as long as they meet the requirements through developmental testing) in the local school district in which the child lives. This is basically more of a group type therapy in the form of preschool.
We currenlty live in DISD and always planned to either do private school or move out of DISD once the boys were ready for kindergarten, but that was OUR PLAN and I think God had a few others and as that saying goes he laughs at plans right???? So the reason we chose Carroll ISD is because they are the only district that starts inclusion at that level - the preschool level. Therefore Preston will be in a classroom of peers who may function near or beneath him, but he will also be with his peers that perform above him as well. Luke will also be able to go if we chose to send him there. For children who do not qualify for the PPCD, like Luke, we would have to pay for him to attend and it's an expensive preschool so we will probably stay at the new school we found for the boys to start at St. Timothy for now and possibly revisit next fall 2011. So they will hopefully just be in different schools for one semester, the spring semester.
So we are now very busy trying to keep up with boys, pack and do some remodeling at the new house. I have made a top five list of why we are happy we are moving and the top five why we are sad to be leaving the bussle of the big D.
HAPPY!!!!!
1) Preston will be in the best school we could find for HIM and that is worth it all!!!!!
2) I am very excited to be able to go to Super Target and Sams and not have to "watch my back" for homeless people or beggars. And yes, we have seen two different groups of beggars at two different places off/near Greenville at four different instances. It's ridiculous and makes my heart so hardened and cold to any stranger who tries to approach me now, but many times the babies were with us and we had our hands full and it scared the crap out of Randy and I - so I will not miss that and maybe my kind heart towards strangers can heal some!
3) We will live 15 min closer to my parents than we did before so that's awesome!!! My parent's help us sooo much and we are so appreciative for all they do for us. I know it will be easier on my Mom to come watch Luke when we go to Preston's Drs. appt since we will live closer to her and we won't have to take traffic into consideration anymore!! It also feels like I am moving home, which sounds silly, but it's a neat feeling I had the other night after we had been at the new house and were looking for a place to eat. I am back home!
4) This somewhat ties to 2) but I am so happy to move to just an all around safer place. We live in a very nice part of Dallas, but bad stuff still happens all around us so you just have to be more careful and on your guard. It will be refreshing to put the boys in the car and be able to run in the house to grab something and not freak out about locking the doors and be lighting fast to get back to the car. And so far this is the only summer in the last 3 that our car hasn't been vandalized, like extremely vandalized. Two summers ago some kids thought it would be fun to go up down our ally and pour paint on what they thought were nice cars. Well unfortunatley somehow our not new Escalade got picked and they broke in and poured paint all of the inside, even on the babies car seats, totalling our car. So I will DEFINATELY not miss that kind of meaness.
5) The top 5 reason I am soooo happy we are moving is for the boys. I am so excited for them to be in a school district they can go to from kindergarten to their senior year. I am so happy the boys will have a bigger yard to play in. Our new house is walking distance to Meadowmere Park which is on the Lake Grapevine. So Randy is already invisioning a lot of fun times teaching the boys how to fish!!!
SAD :-(
1) We will miss all our friends over here that we will now not be soo close to. But were are not that far so don't be too sad!! And trust me we have millions of drs appt, private therapy and I still have Junior League at Scottish Rite over here and shopping, oh and eating so trust me I might just be sleeping in Tarrant county and spending many days in Dallas. ;-)
2) We will sooo miss the boys school they have been going to - First Kids preschool at First Baptist Richardson and their ECI therapists. Ms. Ann, Ms. Dot and Ms. Cheryl have been a blessing in the boys life at school and I can't describe how much they made their first year of school so wonderful!!!! They are all 3 so extremely caring and loving and took such a genuine interest in the boys well being this year. They prayed for Preston during his surgeries this spring and during his inpatient stay and they loved on Luke when he had to finish the school year alone without Preston. I could not have asked for more from their teachers and I feel like God put this special ladies in the boys life this past year to help them love school and learning. The boys ECI therapists have become like friends to me. First was Rebecca Preston's PT before he was walking. We still stay in touch and she has twins that turn one in two weeks so we are going to their party!! And then there is Donna and Michelle. All three have been there to help Preston , listen to my fears, give me reassurance and give me the confidence to push our doctors to act instead of react. Thank yall all so much!!! The boys have been so lucky to have been impacted by all these wonderful ladies in their short time on the earth. We have been so blessed to have each and everyone of you!!
3) We will also miss Preston and Luke's babysitters at LifeTime at mockingbird stationand the club it self. This group of ladies that work at this Lifetime are awesome!!! The babysitters are a set of twins who are in there 20s and there mother along with another girl Crystal who is so wonderful as well. They know Preston and Luke when they walk in the door and they give them hugs and play and love on them while Randy and I go have a break, um I mean workout. ;-) After all the boys medical stuff I was concerned about taking them to the gym so we waited until they were 18months old. And I can tell you I wished I hadn't waited so long!! The Life Time at Mockingbird is considered a Premiere club and you have to pay out the waazoo, but it's so worth it. I've been to 2 other Lifetimes and they girls in the childrens center are not anywhere close to as nice. So I will miss the nice private yoga room they have there and the nicer cardio equipment, oh and seeing Mark Cuban play basketball or eat lunch. Tha's pretty funny!! Bye bye Lifetime Premiere club!
4) Two words................................. WHOLE FOODS. I love that place. I could run to it from our house and now the closest will be in Fort Worth or maybe back to my old one :-( This is a sad, sad thing so I guess I'll just have to make do with the Central Market in Southlake. They do have all the assortments of Preston's brown cow yogurt he loves, so that's good. But I will have to make Whole Foods runs weekly to stock up on Luke's stuff he likes and all my blending ingrediants for Presty's meals.
5) Randy and I are both a little sad about leaving our favorite restaurants behind, but trust me we will drive over because we love to eat. Here is a short list but trust me all these places are awesome so if you've never been you have to go!! Houston's if we were rich Randy would eat here everyday, I think we have had 2 different conversations about opening one in Southlake, Celebration Restaurant off Lover's super yummy stuff and they use as much local produce as possible, great place for lunch, Bread Winner's..if you haven't had brunch here you must not live in dallas, and if you do shame on you, enough said, Chuy's love the free queso on the nacho car at happy hour if we can get the boys outta their nap in time to make it ;-), Javier's we never go there as much as we would love to, but it's so so good, Prego they make the best red sauce in the world and we sometimes just buy it in qts and bring it home, and last but not least are two we only got to visit frequently when the boys where either in the NICU or at OCH and these are Scalini's off Gaston, they have the best chicken piccata and then Bangkok City Thai off Bryan st near Baylor, best thai I have ever had!!
6) I guess I have a 6th reason and I am trying to figure out how to explain this. All I can think of is they way our first church home in Dallas would put it - First Baptist Dallas downtown, their goal was to be a light in the dark. And they chose to stand firm and stay downtown to be a ministry in that area not matter come what may. I think Randy and I often felt like us staying in Dallas was keeping another good, strong family in a big metropolitan area to stand ground against the "meaness". I don't think the meanness won in our case, we just chose to go where our son would be in the best hands everday at school, but a small part of me is sad to take our what I presumptously call our "goodness" and move. I pray someone with strong values and a mind for giving back to our community takes our place and does an even better job of keeping the meanness away and letting the light shine.
I have more to update on about the last 6 weeks of so but I think I'll end here. Thank you all for praying for Preston and us and for patiently waiting for me to update. Your prayers have helped us in many, many ways. One quick thing Preston is slowly starting to talk a little more other than just repeating. I saw him point at a star on a video yesterday and say star, star. It makes me cry to hear his little voice and it's just so precious to see him so happy!! I know God is hearing our prayers!! Thank you all!
