Last year, I started looking for a way to get Emmie moving and active. She’s shown very minor delays in gross motor skills mainly because of the halo. Then with the diagnosis of scoliosis, I knew some kind of activity was needed to keep her active and moving. Gymnastics is out. Having rods and screws in a toddlers necks and encouraging her to bend on it…too much stress for me and daddy. So, I looked at ballet and was so excited to stumble across Steps of Grace. A special ballet class for super awesome kiddos. The ballet instructor is an occupational therapist AND (which is cool for us) a scoliosis warrior. She has special helpers all of whom are in school for occupational therapy. Win-win for us. We signed her up as soon as it was offered in August.
As you can tell, she was only a little excited about this class.
She absolutely loves it. Her teachers are wonderful and she is usually the first to run into class and greet everyone. She is a social butterfly and dancing and interacting with others has been perfect for her. We look forward to seeing her grow and blossom through all of this!
We did food prep.
We tied for last but we finished. Honestly, it wasn’t my pregnancy that gave me issue..it’s turning around! I can never get the turns.
Pretending to paddleboat. The only way it’s really fun!
Family Olympics is always a big hit.
Archery tag was a new and fun activity! Seriously, who doesn’t enjoy pelting their siblings with rubber arrows?!
Another fun feat…I hiked up the Little Stone Mountain Mill Trail.
We started way down where that little road is.
And Emmie?! She also hiked the whole way up. Mark and I were in tears. We didn’t go up the first year. Last year, Mark carried her the whole way. And this year…she walked all on her own.
She also is very loyal at guarding the bathroom. Seriously…not hands…a tail.
Our kids passed around a fun virus in July through August. It included a day or two of fever and then feeling fine for a day or two. Then, the fever would come back. Usually, this lasted a week. A couple of the kids kept having the fever but several doctor visits later and a few blood tests yielded nothing more than a virus. Thankfully, everyone was better before we left for the beach.
Aunt B and I have had some pregnancy brain issues which meant a few kids lucked out and got to extend their birthday celebrations into August. As you can see, they were totally (not) disappointed.
This was the look of a puppy who needed mama time so bad she fell asleep on my computer chair.
Silas decided to make a paper crown for Emmie and the result was pure happiness.
After over a month of being timid of Mark, Lulu finally decided he was okay and climbed over me to cuddle with him.
My belly is still a great prop for her though.
Zoe working on getting her id for SAT.
As soon as the kids woke up, swimsuits went on and didn’t come off until we were back in for supper.
Sand castles were built.
Races to the ocean were had.
We ventured out one evening and got some family pictures. Since it was August, it was still very crowded and so we got some other friends in our pictures…oh well.
Beautiful sky!
Quick maternity pictures which I’ll do on another blog post.
And Mark and I managed to get pictures with each of the kids. I love each of their silly personalities shining through.
