Busy Week

Whew, this has been a busy week.  I am glad it's over and we have another day off tomorrow.

On Monday I was running a Valentine's bake sale fundraiser at Rex's school.  We had about twelve different treats, anything from homemade bread to puppy chow to chocolate hearts, prepared by parents and therapists.  Even though we only ran the sale for a few hours, we made over $140 which will be used to buy classroom supplies and equipment.  I made peach cobblers and nutter butter balls.

Nutter Butter Balls cooling

On Tuesday night we had an all parent meeting at Rex's school. It was important to attend as a lot of information about summer camp was shared.  I had been waiting for these details to make plans for Rex.  It looks like Rex will go to summer camp for about seven weeks and receive some OT, ABA and hopefully speech therapy there though it will be less than what is offered during the school year.  The kids will swim twice a day, go on nature walks, visit the playgrounds on the premises, have a daily circle/story time and a daily craft/sensory activity.

I think Wednesday was a normal day.  Emilia had speech therapy in the morning and then I made some Valentine's for Rex's friends and therapists in the afternoon.

Heart-shaped GFDF jelly beans

On Thursday Emilia had a check-up at cardiology.  Her vitals, including the EKG, look very good and she is cleared for another six months with no meds and no restrictions.  She topped the scale at 25.3 pounds, up over two pounds from August.  She is almost in the 5th percentile.  Emilia will have another echo in the fall.  Her VSD is so small that the doctors believe she could live with it into old age.  However, it is its position within the heart that sometimes causes problems for the surrounding structures, like the aorta, so that's what they want to keep a close eye on.  It's possible that Emilia may never need surgery or not for a long time, but no guarantees.  I am thankful for another six months reprieve which was great news for my own heart on Valentine's Day.

On Friday Craig had the day off, so we ran a bunch of errands in the morning.  We hit Whole Foods, Lowes, Sams Club, the car wash, Hobby Lobby, and Once Upon A Child in about four hours.  We were home in time for lunch and while Emilia napped, Craig and I gathered tax documents and organized paperwork that had accumulated over the last year or so.  I am so relieved that this job is done.  Now, on to filing our taxes.

On Saturday we made our weekly grocery run, took the kids to their Special Olympics gym group (I have a separate post about that coming up), and then worked on some tasks around the house.  I don't know how it happens, but the state of the downstairs goes from reasonable to a tornado hit in a matter of hours sometimes.

Our living room on Saturday evening.
Can you handle the truth?

Today, I spent the morning cleaning, cooking, and baking.  I started off with a little experiment: Would the kids eat quinoa flakes cooked in water and topped with a little buttery spread and brown sugar?  The answer is yes, so I am happy to have a protein-rich GFDF oatmeal alternative now to serve for breakfast.  Since Rex's birthday is coming up, I have been experimenting with GFDF desserts and this morning I made a flourless chocolate cake which is definitely a winner (oh yes, we already tasted it).  Paired with some fresh berries, I now know what I will send into school for Rex's birthday party.  Then I cooked up some GFDF meatballs (no soy sauce this time) to go with our spaghetti dinner this evening and made some GFDF banana chocolate chip pancakes for brunch.  So yummy - fellow moms of Armenian children, wish you could have been here to share this meal.  After our naps, we took the kids to a local bounce place for a few hours just to give them a nice work-out.  It was a lot of fun for everyone.

Both kids could go up (see them?) ...

... and down this slide unassisted.

And now two of the four of us are ready for bed... I won't disclose which two.