Saturday, September 12, 2009

Re-Cap


I had to post this picture of Courtney in honor of my friend Lisa! She is working so hard to feed her children nothing but nutritious food. She posts excellent healthy recipes, and my kids stuff their faces with sugar loaded cupcakes! Needless to say, I have a lot to learn from her!

Things for the moment have slowed down so I thought I would post some pictures and do a re-cap on life at the Kohlers. After our trip to CA this summer we had to come home and decide where we were going to put Logan for pre-school. Bryan and I both felt that Logan needed something more than daycare and needed a true pre-school. Before we left I had discussed with the director of the Parent Infant Program at Sunshine Cottage, Logan enrolling there but there wasn't a spot. However, when we returned they had made a new class so there was a spot for him. We were thrilled. At the same time they mentioned there was still openings for 1st grade. I ended up going home with two enrollment packets and a lot to discuss with Bryan!

In the end we felt it was best to send the boys there. Courtney will start there next year and go there through 5th grade. It seemed a little crazy to have Logan at one place, Jeremy at one place and Courtney at another. If money grew on trees, we would be able pick everyone up when they got out of school if we paid for after school care. At an extra $200 and something PER child it just wasn't going to work to have them at 3 separate places. So, August 11th they started school.


They are loving it! Logan is in a class with 4 other children, Ms. Judy his teacher and Ms. Amanda the instructional assistant! So far they have baked cookies, made pizzas, done all kinds of craft projects and has named himself "Logan 3". The audiologist that works in his class is named Logan, but she is a girl. My Logan can't get over that a girl can be named Logan, too. His teachers enjoy him and some of the things he says. For example, he was laying down for nap and asked his teacher about the clock. She explained that it was a clock and that it tells time. He asked if it ever stops. She told him that time doesn't really ever stop and that the clock may stop if it needed new batteries. He chewed on that for a few minutes and then said, "Man, those two skinny dudes (the minute and hour hands) never stop."

Jeremy is doing great and loves his other 7 classmates, Ms. Browning his teacher, and Mrs. Rodriguez the instructional assistant. He seems to like all of the subjects and loves to read. He talks the most about science. They take a lot of field trips at Sunshine Cottage and he is really looking forward to those!!

Courtney still goes once per week and her annual evaluation showed that she is functioning in the 15-18 month range. However, she has mastered many of the skills in the 18-24 month range. According to all of the assessments we did, she knows over 200 words and can say around 50. Her latest audiogram shosw that she can hear at 30db across all frequencies and 20db for some speech sounds. The goal is to be between 25 and 35db so she is right where she needs to be for now. It is just so exciting to see her growth and development!

With all of that good there is a little craziness. Sunshine Cottage is 35 miles away from New Braunfels. Which doesn't sound too bad except we do the roundtrip twice per day for a grand total of 700 miles per week. The trip in the morning takes a minimum of an hour one way because we are heading into San Antonio. So, we have put our house on the market to see if we can sell it and move a little closer to San Antonio. We have shown our house a few times, but no bites yet. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

During the middle of it all, Courtney and I flew to Utah to visit my good friend Missy. She recently had a baby and I just had to meet him and her daughter, Ashlyn, who is a month younger than Courtney. We had a great time!

Aslyn and Courtney


Me and Missy


Parker, Courtny and Ashlyn

Thank you Mike and Missy! Hopefully we will all be out this winter!

Bryan celebrated his 31st birthday yesterday! We didn't do anything big, just had dinner at home and yummy cupcakes for dessert! The boys really wanted to get him a work watch, so we picked one out at Academy. They were too cute about it. We started a new family tradition, inspired by another Kohler family. It's called the Birthday Box. We cut out all kinds of shapes from construction paper. I asked the kids why they loved Daddy and put one reason on each piece of paper. I added mine as well and a few from Courtney. A few highlights were: Logan - "I love Daddy because he lets us pick out the carts." (the cool car cart at the grocery store that I never get because I can't maneuver it!) Jeremy - " I love Daddy because he loves us all." Courtney - "I love Daddy because he blow dries my hair." (Bryan really does this after he gives her a bath - I love it!)

All in all life is good at the Kohlers! Hopefully I will do better at updating rather than waiting 2 months!

5 comments:

tammy said...

So glad to hear from you all! Sounds like all is going just wonderful. If we were to move back to Texas I would want to move close to SA too, so Aiden could attend Sunshine Cottage. Our first AVT in FW was their director at one point, and we still follow their "goals" with our new avt here in MD. I love their program and think it's so cool your boys can attend there as well! What a great opportunity!!

Melissa said...

about time... you update the blog. haooy b-day to brian. and that is a cute idea about the b-day box. i might have to steal that idea. speaking of stealing ideas... how is the sleeping fairies? is it still working???? im so glad that courtney is right where she needs to be at this point of time. it wont be before long until she is talking your ears off. she is such a doll and i am so glad that you made the trip. now i just need you to send me some of the pics from your trip (of us!!!) good luck with the home for sale. is the home you loved still avail in Converse? keep me and all of us posted. i hope to see you soon..again.

Renae said...

It's great to hear from you! It's funny how so many of us have never met but we rely on these blog posts to communicate and get updates. :)

Melanie said...

Glad to read this update. Sounds like Courtney is doing amazing.

Lisa said...

Love the update and the special picture just for us. :) You look fabulous, BTW! I can't wait until there is a pic of all of our kids together to post too. The birthday box idea is one I'm going to have to steal and Jeff and I just started reading Positive Discipline yesterday. If you can teach me to parent and I kick a few recipes your way, I think I'm still getting the better deal!