A good weekend

I think we just had the most peaceful weekend we've ever had since Payton was born. She was such an angel!!! It really pays off for her to stay in her routine and keep things simple. I realize there are times when life just happens and we can't do that - but when there are times we can make choices of what is best for her, it really pays off for the entire family. I am beginning to hear Payton say things that seem so typical of the ws personality (for the longest time I've wondered if Payton would have the 'cocktail party personality' they speak of. She just really seemed too anxious and nervous to enjoy much....but this weekend she was just exploding with friendliness. We had worked outside all weekend on the yard and Bob had called one of the neighbors to see if he could bring his tractor up to help with some of the trees and limbs from the ice storm. The neighbors stopped by and Payton was outside riding her bike. She was all the way at the end of the driveway, got off her bike and came running up to us. She asked the neighbor "What's your name?". She said "My name's Janet". Payton said "Hi Janet!" and off she ran back to her bike. The whole purpose behind this was that Payton needed a push to get her bike going again, so when Payton got back on her bike she turned around and yelled "Janet!!". Janet ofcourse loved it and went to the end of the driveway to give her a push. Then, last night we had ordered pizza for everyone that had helped us on the yard (they made so much headway on the damage from the icestorm!). Payton was sitting in the high chair and out of no where she says "Thank you mommy for feeding me pizza". Wow. My heart melted. Bob looked at me and said "Did you hear her?" Neither of us could believe it....she is talking so well now. I still find myself thinking "did she just say that?" because I just can't believe how well she is talking. I love it!

I got a call from the special ed coop this morning. We are in the process of getting Payton signed up for preschool and we were trying to set up appointments to go over her recent evaluations. It was kind of a rough morning because they told me they thought it would be best if Payton was in the class with the three and four year olds instead of the five year olds. Now, I'm sure it seems strange that it was kind of a kick in the stomach because I know Payton is delayed. I think it just seems more real the closer I get to school. Her therapists just feel that she is delayed enough that by putting her in with five year olds she would completely take herself out of the situation (she spaces off and goes into her own world), she would act out, and she would be completely exhausted. She'll still go to kindergarten the following year, but they'll do modifications for her. I think normally this would've just brought me to tears but because of the fantastic weekend we had with her - and her personality showing through - everything seems okay.
On to my next news, much to our suprise Bob and I are going to have another baby. After we had Koen we felt our family was complete but obviously it wasn't! I am finally out of the first trimester and am feeling so much better. I think my days of being dizzy, draping over the toilet, and needing fluids are in the past. I'm so thankful I'm not sick the entire pregnancy. I feel sorry for the women who go thru it for that long. I think Bob is happy to have his wife back - helping with the laundry, helping clean house, able to help more with the kids, etc. He could tell a major difference in me this weekend and I am so happy to be feeling back to myself again :) It took a while for it to sink in for us, but once we started telling people everyone seemed so excited. The comment most often said was "That's so great.....it'll be wonderful for Koen to have help taking care of Payton when you and Bob are gone". It meant so much to me that people we barely even know cared that much about Payton and Koen both. So, with the added addition to our family we decided it'd probably be a good idea to sell our house. The house we live in is pretty good sized, along with a swimming pool, and about 3 acres. I found it difficult to keep up with everything last summer with the age our children are....adding one more child to it I'm not sure we'll be able to keep up with it at all. I realize in the future when our children are older we would love having all of this space - and if we don't get the house sold, then it's ok....we'll end up enjoying it. When they are older, we'll eat it up! But for now, we're going to try and sell it. Payton doesn't like the pool at all (she can't keep her body temperature up) and Koen would prefer to just be in bathtub or a baby pool. We'll see what happens, but for now it looks like there may be quite a few changes ahead. Just another baby to love!