Life with Aidan Kai: Last day of First Grade

Well, it finally struck me..... The urge to blog again! Ha! Let me begin by playing catch up. :) I had surgery October 28 2013 and things went better than expected. I still have to see my oncologist every 6 months for the next 3 years but I am CLEAR and there was no follow up radiation or chemo. required.

We spent Christmas at my moms house in Tn. The holidays seemed better than usual! It was cold and we got just a sprinkle of snow.

We went to Australia with Clinton in March/April. While he worked Aidan and I rented a car and drove around Victoria visiting his family. I had my first experience driving on the opposite side of the road in the opposite side of the car and I have to say I was quite impressed with myself. :) It was great seeing family and friends. The last week we flew to Sydney for a family vacation. I can't really tell you the last time we went on a family vacation ( maybe Disneyworld when Aidan was 2) it was waaay overdue. Aidan did great on the trip. Coming home is always more difficult than flying there mainly because flying there is always at night.

We are just busy with end of the school year activities. I once again planned the staff appreciation luncheon for Aidan's school and it was a great success! I just love all the teachers and staff at his school. You can tell each and every one of them TRULY care about the kids and love their job. We camped as a family last weekend with Aidan's Cub scout pack. It was Aidan's first time. I have been camping a handful of times but it has been at least 10 years since we last camped. I wasn't feeling the greatest but it was still fun. The camp ground was only about 20 minutes from our house and we loved it. Clinton and I talked about going back as a family.

Today Aidan finished up 1st grade. I know it is so cliché but I really can't believe how big he is getting! According to his fitness info he has grown 3 inches this school year and gained 2 pounds! He is reading chapter books, doing multiplication and just started division, and loves social studies and science! He still really struggles with hand writing and doesn't enjoy it AT ALL and sometimes has a really difficult time focusing in class. He loves being part of the chess club.

This summer Aidan and I are focusing on building our brain highways! When we have underdeveloped lower portions of the brain we have difficulty with many things- focusing, sensory, behavior, etc... You can see more information at www.brainhighways.com. what it generally consists of is going back and doing things to build and connect highways that were not connected during the first year of life. So Aidan and I both spend time every day patterning and creeping. Let me tell you- It is NOT easy! creeping is hard work and my entire body is sore! We are an age of convenience , even for our babies. This means we have a lot of "contraptions" we put them in like car seats, baby swings, etc.... It turns out the only way we can complete our brain development is by spending time of the FLOOR from the time we are newborns. Babies are spending less and less time on the floor these days because parents want to be able to put them in something so they can be hands free to work, do house work, etc.... This is makes total sense but is not good for our children.

Clinton and I are still toying with the idea of becoming foster parents! We have actually completed all of the course work they require and our house has passed inspection. It is a long process and we have only jumped through the first set of hoops. We have many more sets of hoops to jump through before we are given a placement. More about that later.

Here are some pics to catch up on the past 8 months....

Mom and I at Thanksgiving. She stayed with me for a good 6 weeks when I got sick. Love my mama.