Busy Times...

We've had a really busy week and weekend! Yesterday was filled with chores, errands, a quick run by the pediatrician's office to check on a possible ear infection for Morgan (negative on that), and a night out for Mommy & Daddy. I for one was particularly glad the world didn't end yesterday for many reasons, one of which was that we had Morgan's preschool teacher watch the boys so Justin and I could go see U2 in concert at Invesco field. It was awesome! This is the second time we've seen them and they put on the best show. The Fray (from Denver) opened and then U2 played for over an hour plus 3 encores. We were with 70,000+ fans and it was a beautiful evening (thankfully our torrential rains stopped just in time). It was great, and U2 always adds a humanitarian aspect to their concerts so last night they featured their work with Amnesty International in Burma and had a message from the Burmese democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi play before the first encore.

I was in San Francisco earlier in the week for our spring board meeting. We had 75 participants, which is the largest of our meetings that I know of. I think it was partly our agenda (focusing on the for-profit sector of higher education and regulation issues) and partly the location of the meeting. Holding it in a big city brought a whole host of challenges and a few logistical hiccups, but I think they were most apparent to me and less so for our guests (hopefully, we'll see what the evaluations say!). It was by far the best hotel and hotel staff I have ever worked with. I wanted to take each of them home with me and have them travel to all of my meetings! (: The staff were extremely attentive, professional, and so friendly. My favorite Hispanic wait server continually called me "Madame" in a fabulous accent, brought me lattes, opened my yogurt, pulled my chair out for me...he was wonderful and I was so grateful to work with these lovely people for a few days.

The boys managed just fine without me. They were busy at school and stuck inside most of this week because of non-stop rain. Jacoby had another great OT session and is already starting to show signs of greater strength in his hands. We had a physical therapy evaluation on Thursday. Our home activities for this are going to focus on building strength, muscle tone (which he lacks greatly on most of his lanky body), and balance (he can only stand on 1 foot for 1 - 3 secs). We're going back this week for him to be fitted with special orthodic inserts for his feet to hopefully straigten out the inward twist his feet have. Jacoby really enjoys visiting the therapy center because of their cool rooms and activities. I'm proud of how well he's been doing for them.

Today we met up with our friends for a picnic, playtime at the park, and rock throwing at Waneka Lake. It was good to see them and spend some time outside. I'm hoping to get the rest of my garden planted this week and also tackle the jungle of weeds that have cropped up thanks to our very wet, soggy weather. Justin is deep into study mode for his 3rd exam on June 1. We don't see much of him and are looking forward to trekking through the next week and half so we can get him all finished up with this part of his PhD. I can't believe our anniversary trip is in two weeks--yay, can't wait!

Have a great week everyone!

Momo reading books on the bench

A. and Morgan throwing rocks

M. and Jacoby playing

A few pics of the concert I took with my phone

I thought these two videos from the concert would be fun to share. The first is the opening and the second is just a favorite (not from my phone):

Just a quick note to say hello. We've had a great week. It's been very rainy and chilly, but the boys have kept busy with indoor activities and their imaginations. Jacoby had a great OT session this week. It involved using a trapeze bar and swinging himself into a barrel. He was thrilled when he mastered this activity and then proceeded to do it over and over and over and over again. He's developing a really good relationship with his therapist, so he's very cooperative and focused when she's working with him. They're focusing his therapy on overall body strength and awareness, along with some development in his hand coordination. Jacoby has a PT evaluation on Thursday next week to check out his pigeon-toes and balance issues. We met with his new preschool teacher this week who we really like and feel is doing a great job with the class. I can already tell that Jacoby is developing a good relationship with her.

I leave for San Francisco this afternoon. I'm looking forward to getting the meeting underway--I think it's going to go well and I always enjoy seeing our board members.

We hope you all have a good weekend!

Playing with beads

Working on some hand coordination activities

What happens when Morgan is turned loose with the hose...

Our very own T-Rex

He has a very fierce growl!

What I Love...

…About Being a Mom

1. Being Mommy and being called Mommy

2. Hearing the laughter and giggles of my boys

3. Reading about dinosaurs with Jacoby

4. Having Morgan as my shadow, "helping" me with everything

5. Hearing people praise my kids

6. Watching my boys blow on their pretend cups while saying they’re drinking coffee (at least it’s not wine or margaritas!)

7. Hearing “Mommy, I need you!” and “No, I want Mommy do it.” and “Mommy, why aren’t you sitting on the couch beside me right now?!”

8. Celebrating birthdays, Christmas, or any other special occasion that sparks their excitement, imagination, and joy

9. Watching Jacoby and Morgan succeed in a task that has been difficult or challenging

10. Seeing the growing relationships they have with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins…there are so many people who love them!

11. Receiving any kind of artwork created by my boys…and proud descriptions of what they’ve done like “Look, Mommy! I drew you a T-Rex!”

12. Getting spontaneous hugs and “I love you”s

13. Holding hands when we walk together

14. Watching Morgan and Jacoby play together and love each other

15. Spending time together as a family…these are my very favorite people!


Here are some pictures of our Mother's Day outing to Golden Gate Canyon State Park today:

Happy Saturday

I should be taking a nap right now, but somehow I've idled away the afternoon and the boys will be getting up soon (insert caffeine here!). Our weekend is off to a good start. The boys were up really early this morning, so despite some crankiness they've been busy and happy. Morgan appeared in our doorway at 6 am looking cheerful and proud that he'd come out of his room. I told him he had to go back to bed until his night light became a sunshine, which he did but that was the end of our sleep so I got up and went out for a run. They made muffins with Justin this morning and then we went to the library for some new books and videos. Our weather is warm so they're getting used to t-shirts and sandals again.

Justin's final comprehensive exam is just about fully confirmed for June 1 now. He heard back from the second reader, so now all he has to do is schedule with the office I think. I spent most of last weekend preparing myself for him having to read and study during our anniversary trip, but it looks like things might work out ok for him to get this part of the PhD finished before we go.

The boys had a good week at school. Jacoby got to spend one day with the Pre-K class and he really seemed to enjoy being in that room with the older kids. I met with Morgan's teachers on Friday for our quarterly meeting, and they were very gracious with their praise for Morgan and how well he's doing. They predict he'll be the first one potty-trained in the class (sweet!), and they're quite amazed at his language development and how smart he is, especially with counting and sorting. I give all of the credit to Jacoby for this! We meet with Jacoby's new teacher this coming week, and this will mostly be to fill her in on some of the medical stuff and also work to get all of us on the same page for some behavior things. He was evaluated more thoroughly at OT this week, and by the end our therapist seemed to think that his fine motor coordination was probably just fine but there may be room for improvement with gross motor coordination. This was kind of an interesting development, but then I happened to have a conversation at work with a colleague whose son is also in OT and they also moved their attention to gross motor issues after starting off with fine motor concerns. So, we'll see how it all goes.

I think I've conquered most of the craziness with my upcoming meeting. We have 73 people attending which is a very large group for us, and thankfully, they all have a place to stay. A lot of things came together by Friday, so I'm not having to work this weekend which is nice. I am definitely looking forward to being finished!

We got word that MyPhotoAlbum is closing and will be deleting our pictures at the end of this month. All of our pictures are on our computer and external hard drive, but I am sad that I'll lose the organization and captions. I'm trying out Picasa and Picasa Web Albums (see side bar) for posting our monthly pictures. We'll see how this goes, and I'll be working over the summer to get pics on our computer better organized with descriptions so I'll know what things are in 20 years!

We hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day!

We hope your week is off to a good start. We spent a quiet weekend at home. Our weather is still really chilly, so the boys got outside only during brief periods of sunshine and for some rock-throwing at the lake. Morgan decided he needed to accompany me to the grocery store on Saturday, so he was my little helper as we walked the aisles and crossed things off our list. He's talking in complete sentences all the time now, and it's amazing sometimes what he's able to come up with when he talks with us. He's also a happy boy full of energy, which is only hazardous to his health when he's racing through the kitchen and his mom happens to open a drawer at the exact moment he's passing by so that his forehead smacks right into the timely drawer...sigh (not one of Mommy's best mommy moments). He and Jacoby remain good buddies and spend most of their days at home playing with each other. Jacoby is doing really well in school. I think the new combination of teachers really suits him. He's good friends with a new little girl in his class, and he's one of their stars when it's time to clean up. We're putting him on a nearly dairy-free diet to see if that makes a difference for him in how he is feeling. He's become extremely picky about what he eats and complains that most things hurt his tummy. So, we're going to see if going dairy-free will help any of that. We're also trying out hemp milk as a cow's milk alternative for him. It's surprisingly tasty, so we're hoping he'll take interest so we can incorporate this into his diet. Tomorrow is his second OT appointment at Children's.

Justin was down at DU today and managed to corner his adviser. There's still no news about the results of his second exam, but they tentatively set up a meeting for Wednesday to discuss the third exam. Hopefully, he'll get results back and will be well on his way for the last of these exams.

Work is super busy for me with only two weeks until our board meeting in San Francisco. I have nearly 70 people coming, which is a large group for this meeting. And that, combined with a huge race in San Francisco, meant that our hotel ran out of rooms for us. After several sleepless nights and an exhaustive search (most of the city was sold out in January) by my wonderful site selection lady, we located a hotel for our overflow that's just a short cable car ride away. Whew! I've decided that 70 people is way too many people for me to keep track of, but I'm hoping all will go well once I get all of the details into place.

Hope you all have a great week!

Working on a spring flower project from Grandmanette. Any project involving glue sticks is a hit with these two!

Busy gluing his flowers together

Very serious business...and watching Jacoby to see if he's doing it right

Our very pretty finished products

So far our seeds are doing great! The boys enjoy checking on these and spraying them with water.

Jacoby keeping a healthy distance from Morgan and the hose.