Friday, October 30, 2009

Great Outcome!

We had a meeting this morning at Emma's school. We wanted to discuss Emma's diagnosis of Autism with her teachers and make sure that Emma is receiving ALL of the assistance that she needs. Her teachers do a GREAT job already as do the paras-we know that we are lucky.

We talked a little bit about her Kindergarten IEP (Individualized Education Plan) that will be coming up after the holidays. We mostly discussed what else can be done for Emma right now. The bottom line is that we appear to be on the same page. PHEW. Starting on MONDAY Emma will be attending the MORNING CLASS vs the afternoon class. The class is a tiny bit bigger, BUT she will be with the same teachers and paras AND she will get Integration Time with typical peers just like last year! With Autism this is VERY important, Emma needs peer role models to learn from. (It is a long story as to why this was not available with her afternoon class). So, while the princess will likely not be thrilled to rise early every morning the pros outweigh the cons. I think that this will be very good for Emma and worth a few groggy protests. Plus, I may be able to attend a little playgroup with Sophie while Emma is in class some days as these groups are offered mostly in the mornings.

Baaaaaad Mommy!!! : o

DUH-DUH-DUH!!! Yesterday was Emma's Halloween Party at school. Perfect photo-op, right?! Well, guess which Mommy forgot to bring her camera with? The party and parade were very cute and Emma helped lead the parade because of course she WAS Thomas the Train. :) Sophie was not sure what to make of the entire event. She wore her pumpkin costume and was fine with it as long as I did not put her hood up. The hood makes her cry-sheesh. :) Emma brought home a huge load of candy and has been very good about sharing it with Sophie. I will take pictures of the girls tomorrow before they head out Trick or Treating. For now I will leave you with random pictures taken this week...I am just going to lump them into one post. :)



The girls showing off their candy from the school party/parade, Sophie's faces are cracking me up!!



Just call these Megan's Bento Boxes. The girls had breakfast for dinner last night & they were pleasantly surprised with the presentation:


This is NOT a Pineapple, okay? It is called a "Pie-Apple". The girls are addicted to them. :)
Lao Lao mailed the girls another Pre-Halloween treat of Raisinettes and Goldfish. The girls gave their seal of approval with the thumbs up sign. :)

Emma was just looking soooo cute the other day, I had to take her picture. :)

Monday, October 26, 2009

~ Carving Pumpkins ~

Yesterday we decided to carve pumpkins. I was envisioning it as a FAMILY event...you know, kind of like a Hallmark movie. I was excited for Sophie being her first Halloween and her love of "punks". Things did not go exactly as planned. Greg stayed downstairs to watch football. As I was prepping our pumpkin work area I realized that Sophie REALLY, really needed a nap. I figured that carving 4 pumpkins was going to take awhile anyway, so there was time for a 45 minute nap with out her missing much. Emma was happy to help me....for about 10 minutes. She did a GREAT job and gutted a big pumpkin by herself. She loved pulling out the "goo" as she called it. Then I found myself ALONE carving all four pumpkins...UH, how did THAT happen?! Emma and Sophie WERE excited about the finished product though and I took a few cute pictures.....




The girls posing with our Halloween pumpkins: A family picture carving pumpkins. Oh wait, I forgot that I was the only one there at that point!


Sophie woke up refreshed from her nap and did an obligatory pose for me.
Did I mention that Emma did a GREAT job gutting the pumpkin?! Really, she did.




Friday Craft Time

The girls and I went to The Dollar Store on Friday morning to stock up on some craft supplies. They both have an emerging interest in drawing and participating in (quick) little projects which makes me SO happy. Sophie is drawing lovely circles and Emma is writing a variety of letters now. We decided to make pumpkins with Halloween around the corner.....


*They were SO proud of their finished work!!!*

*Emma's pumpkin HAD to have hands and feet. Why? I am not sure...that is JUST EMMA! :)*
*I told Sophie where to draw her eyes-nose-mouth!*

Cooking With Daddy

Emma stirring eggs for Daddy's Saturday Morning omelet. She & Sophie hate eggs and wanted pancakes. ; ) Ground Pepper...
Sophie did not want to cook. She just wanted to EAT. :D
Adding Cheese...

Emma's Self Help Skills have been emerging a lot lately. : ) She has been asking to do more things by herself and often shoos me away if I try to step in. It can get a bit messy, but it so neat to see her maturing.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Thursday, October 22, 2009

"Better Than Take Out Noodles" (NOT).

I have been wanting to cook Asian food more often. Partly for Emma and Sophie, & partly because we just like good Asian food! (Which is not easy to come by where we live). I ran across a recipe for "Better Than Take Out Noodles" in the Sunday paper last week, we had 90% of the ingredients needed in the pantry already so I decided to give it a try. I made them for dinner for Greg and I last night. They were DISGUSTING. REALLY BAD. The peanut butter was SO HEAVY and thick, we were gagging. We had A TON left over so I served some to Emma and Sophie for lunch today.............


(1) "Oh Mommy, I am not so sure about this. I want Mac & Cheese". (2). "I'll give you a fake smile. When you are not looking the dogs will get this".
(3). "Wait! These are not bad at all. I like peanutbutter and I like noodles, what a good combo".
(4). "Want MORE"!
Emma and Sophie BOTH liked the receipe. They *did* drink a lot of water with lunch though. ;)

"Halloween Doo" & "Poochie"

I gave Emma a creative little hairstyle for school today. ;) She IS opionated about how she wants her hair done, but she still lets me have my way...... sometimes.


Emma has become very interested in all of MY old toys. In the first picture she is holding "Lady" from Lady & the Tramp. I got this toy when I was 7 so that makes it 28 years old...*yikes*....but Emma LOVES it as much as if it were brand new.


In the 2ND picture Emma is holding "Poochie" that I received sometime around the age of 7-10, I think? DO NOT be fooled though; Emma is VERY MUCH looking forward to Christmas this year. She has figured out that this Santa guy brings toys and that you can make a list. :)



1:1

Sophie enjoyed some one to one time with Daddy before bed last night. :-) It lasted for about 5 minutes and she was out!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

One More Picture!

I thought that I uploaded this picture with the others from "Auntie Molly's Visit". I liked this picture of Emma with chopsticks! :)

Auntie Molly's Visit!!!

My sister Molly came to visit us over the weekend and we had a GREAT time!!!! Both of the girls (& the dogs, too) ADORE their Auntie Molly! Emma wanted to hold her hand and sit on her lap every second. Sophie was content to stare at her and smile. :) For some reason we did not take a lot of pictures so this is all that I had to upload.....

*Auntie Molly making salsa for us with the produce from the "Apple Orchard".* *We thought that it'd be fun to go to a real orchard and pick apples. I'd heard of this place from another local Mom and the website was cute so we decided to venture out and try it. Unfortunately we found out that we were NOT ALLOWED to pick apples....what?! Yes, due to insurance reasons people can no longer pick their own apples. *Sigh*. The owner was VERY nice though and we did not want to look like snobs so we stayed. We walked a grasshopper infested $6 pp maze that was created with crime scene tape and bought over priced fruit & veggies.* ;)
Sophie and Emma enjoyed their baby pumpkins and coloring books from the "orchard"!

The girls were both bundled up and ready to pick apples. Aren't they too cute?!

Sophie enjoying some potential cavity-causing fruit snacks. :)
Emma INSISTED on sitting here. She really was HAPPY about it contrary to her face!
Emma is wearing new feet PJ's that Auntie Molly bought for her!
We went out for sushi Molly's second night here. The following are pictures from her camera...

Catching Up with Random Pictures

Emma has been practicing writing the letters of her name! Our next step is to write them in sequence.
Emma has also been styling her doll's and stuffed animal's hair & fur. Doesn't Dora look great? ;)
What do you do if it is POURING out and you don't own a rain coat or rain boots?
It was a VERY lame Moonfestival celebration this year. It kind of snuck up on us for the first time. I did not want it to pass without allowing Emma to at least celebrate it a school as I have for the past 2 years. So I created a coloring page. Next we bought fortune cookies WHICH IS NOT EVEN A CHINESE THING & rounded out the nutritional value with bananas. Both Emma and Sophie are from southern China and their county of Yangdong is known for growing bananas. (THAT IS RIGHT; IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW...BOTH OF THE GIRLS ARE FROM THE SAME COUNTY! BUT, OF COURSE DIFFERENT SWI'S 60 MILES APART). :)
Emma brought in some Chinese culture to share with her teachers and classmates. I tossed things in a bag the morning of school. :)
I love this picture of Sophie taking a nap. She still looks like such a BABY! :) This was my first true attempt at french braiding Emma's hair. It did not turn out so great. Luckily Emma did not care. ;)
I used a blow drier & round brush to style Sophie's hair. I thought that it turned out VERY cute! I think that Sophie was pleased with the results as well.... A sneak peak of what Emma's school picture will look like this year.
I still just LOVE seeing BOTH of my daughters TOGETHER! They are TRUE sisters in ever sense of the word. :)
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