Where have we been?

Busy, overwhelmed with life. I we have some major life decisions to make in the next few months and I'm feeling a lot of pressure to take the correct path. The problem is, I'm not sure that either path is ideal....such is life.

We've also been dealing with a lot of issues with C. as well which has been stressful. There have been concerns about C's development since he was an infant. Many of the concerns we had then have resolved, but several new ones have emerged. He has some definite sensory integration issues which are impacting his everyday life in a negative way. It makes the simplest daily event very tough for him at times. He's been working with an occupational therapist for a few months now and we've seen some improvement by incorporating a few simple ideas from OT into his daily routine. He has some speech difficulties as well that we are hoping to address soon, currently he is on a wait list for an evaluation. He's almost 4 1/2 and we still have some difficulty at times understanding him, and those that don't live with him find it very difficult to converse with him. We're also seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist, which was a really difficult step for us to take. They believe that there is something going on the needs to be worked on. It could be that he's experiencing mental health difficulties due to his sensory and speech issues, but it's more likely that there is something chemical or a misfire in his brain....not what we wanted to hear. I know that it would upset him greatly if I went into great detail what he is experiencing here for anyone to read, so I won't. I'll just say that everyday life is very difficult for him, much more difficult that it should ever be for a child, or far that matter an adult. As a parent, it's heartbreaking at times watching him struggle to get though each and every day, and his struggles effect everyone in the family. Right now we're just muddling through; I'm hoping that we'll all have some positive experiences soon.

I'm an Aunt!

I know, two posts in one day....amazing! My sister had a baby on September 6th. I was able to attend the birth which was an amazing gift!


Me and baby, not quite 1 day old


E, so excited to finally have a cousin!

Ketchikan, Alaska

Long time no update....we're going through a lot of stuff with C lately, it's been time consuming and stressful. Perhaps I'll talk more about it sometime soon.


Anyway....after a day and a half on the boat we arrived in Ketchikan early in the morning it was sunny and in the low to mid 60's. We woke the boys and ate a quick breakfast so that we could get off the boat ASAP. When we were planning the trip we looked for excursions that all the boys would enjoy and planned on being off the boat as much as possible. We had no interest in "cruising". That morning we attended a Lumberjack show; if you've seen the Lumberjack competitions on ESPN you saw some of the same men that participated in the show. Their strength and balance was impressive, the boys were excited to cheer on the competitors with hoots and hollers, yelling and clapping.







Once the lumberjack show was over we had a bit of time before we met my parents for our next excursion...I'm pretty sure they were still sleeping while we were at the show. There wasn't much to explore in town, it's mostly stores designed to cater to cruisers; lots of jewelry stores. We walked around down by the port looking at all the boats, far more exciting to the boys than shopping.


We met up with my parents and took a bus out to the Ketchikan Rainforest...yes, a rainforest in Alaska. Our guide was a lifelong resident of Ketchikan who had spent many years exploring the rainforest so he had many stories to share. We went on a two mile hike through the rainforest.
The boys had a good time, C took over the camera so we have many pictures of the folks we took the tour with and several pictures of their shoes. I'll spare you the shoe pics; here are some of our rainforest pictures. We did see a bear, which really excited the boys, but also made me realize that we need a better camera!


Our next destination was Juneau, hopefully I'll post about that soon!

Alaska- part 1

So, we've been back from our trip for almost a month now and I've posted.....nothing. It took C two weeks to get back on Wisconsin time, and aside from that life has been insanely busy; but I'm going to try to bang out a few posts in the next few days before I forget everything we did. Alaska is amazing! We did the cruise thing, it was alright but we are not cruise people and I don't think that we'll go on a cruise again. Getting off the boat and exploring Alaska (the small amount that we were privy to anyway) was so much fun and truly breathtaking. We loved it so much in fact that we're doing a bit of investigating to see if a move to Alaska could be in our future; if it's not another vacation there is certain to happen.

It rained while we were in Vancouver, but our entire time in Alaska was dry, and quite nice. Here are a few pictures from the boat as we leave Vancouver...I'll return soon with a post about the first port city, Ketchikan.

Ugh, why won't blogger let me title my posts any longer???

Check out Adventures in Babywearing you can win a Podonbutai! What the heck is that you ask? It's a podeagi, onbuhimo, and a mei tai all in one carrier...incredible! It's being given away by All Natural Mommies and looks beautiful!

Some recent craftiness.....

I've actually been able to spend some time the last few months doing a bit of crafting! For years I've been able to set up H or E with a project or activity knowing that I'd be given at least 30 minutes to work on a project of my own...and many times I get over an hour of time from them. That has never worked with C; just about any time I would sit down he took that as a sign that it was time to breastfeed. And if it wasn't breastfeeding, there would be some emergency situation that required my immediate assistance every few minutes and it just wasn't worth the effort to take out the sewing machine and get everything set up.

This summer though we were able to come up with a plan that has worked wonderfully. I set up everything I need at the dining room table and C brings in one of our giant containers of legos and sets himself up on the floor next to me. He's close enough that he feels comfortable and safe, has ready access to help when he needs it, and I actually get projects completed! I still have to stop frequently to help with lego construction...always spaceships...but since he's right next to me it takes minimal time away form my work. As the dining room table is the table that we eat at I have to put the sewing machine away before dinner nightly, but I won't complain about that as long as I'm able to have some finished projects we can enjoy!

First up was a colored pencil roll for the boys. This was my first one, I'm in the middle of completing two more so they each have one for our upcoming trip. I'm pretty happy with it; I didn't have a pattern to work with and there are a few spots that look a bit rough, but as a whole I think they look great and the boys agree.

I also just completed a drawstring bag; also for our trip. The plan is for each of the boys to have their own bag for the airplane that can be filled with activities and snacks (so that I don't have to carry everything!). I did follow a pattern for this one, you can find it here Instructables Drawstring Bag H picked out this fabric for his...

I love the fabric he picked! I used canvas for the lining to strenghten the bag a bit as the outside fabric is a thin cotton



I think it looks great and the pattern was really easy to follow. Hopefully it will perform just as well on the trip!

We leave in 15 days! That should give me enough time to finish two pencil rolls and two bags; right?

More Lake Geneva pics.....

Typical tourist pic at the fountain in front of Riviera Pier


Checking out all the coins in the fountain


At the beach watching the mail boat docking


The Riviera Pier


Enjoying some superman ice cream :)