Christmas 2012

In the weeks leading up to Christmas this year, Natalie and I read a lot of books about Christmas and we talked some about Santa visiting and leaving some presents for her to open.  She definitely seemed more excited about Christmas this year than ever before and she was much quicker to tear open her presents (and toss aside those that did not interest her which included most everything but her beloved books!).  We had a great time celebrating with family and friends over several days.  I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked but here are a few highlights: 

 

 

The Grubb "kids"

I think we can still be considered kids since we are all still under 40!

 

My mom, Howard, and the grandkids

(kids L to R: Natalie, Kiernan, Carter, Lucy, Molly, Jack, Ronan)

 

Uncle Jason and Natalie watching Curious George on Christmas Eve

 

Natalie hugging her new dog Bouncy

 

Reading her new Olivia book (I think this may have been her favorite gift from Santa)

 

Ronan and Uncle Jason playing dress up!

More walking..

All of the independent walking that Natalie has been working on in PT has really paid off. Most noticeable to me is the steady improvement in her balance.  For those who have known Natalie a long time, it's hard to believe that she used to have trouble just keeping her balance sitting up, let alone standing and walking!  She generally likes to walk holding someone's hand.  This is the first time that I've seen her get up and walk on her own without being prompted to do so by someone else.  She was a little distracted by watching Curious George on the ipod but still did a great job.  And when did she get so tall?!

After School

I was off work on Monday for Columbus Day.  After an early morning meeting with Natalie's teachers (more on that soon), I got to spend a peaceful day home alone!  After an exciting day of   mowing the grass, doing laundry, and even lounging on the couch, I got to do something I haven't been able to do yet this school year - get Natalie off the bus at the end of the school day!  When the bus door first opened she looked less than excited but when she saw me she got so excited and gave me a big smile like this..

 

Since Kindergarten makes you very hungry, Natalie went straight to the pantry for a snack

 

And of course, a big glass of milk

 

Then we settled on the couch to read some books

 

Can't wait until Veteran's Day so we can do it all again! 

 

 

SIX!

 

 

Six years ago today Andrew and Natalie were born.  It was definitely the scariest day of my life.  So much has changed since September 2, 2006, but today I am happy to celebrate Natalie's 6th birthday with her.  She has beaten the odds in so many ways and I can't even put into words how proud I am of her.  She's a perfect combination of sweet, stubborn, and smart --a perfect six year old!

 

 

 

First Day of Kindergarten

Natalie went off on the bus this morning for her first day of Kindergarten.  She just got her wheelchair last week and will be using it on the bus and for field trips or traveling longer distances in school or in the community.  My plan is to have her in this chair AS LITTLE as possible since she has been making great progress with walking.  She's such a big girl. 

N-A-T-A-L-I-E

As you can see, Natalie knows how to spell her name (I had to shorten the video to send it so the N at the beginning got cut off).  She did it right before this perfectly but of course I did not get that on video.  In order to get this video I had to bribe her with chocolate chips. 

Walking Progress

Natalie's been practicing walking without her walker in therapy. She's doing an awesome job. I love the way she's chatting away while she walks. Not sure what she's saying but I think she's proud of herself and so am I!

Pool day

We spent a fun afternoon at the pool this week with Heidi and her kids (minus Josiah who was off at camp).  Natalie had sooo much fun.  It was great to hang out with friends and splash around in the water. 

Learning

Both Natalie are doing some learning this summer. She's learning more sight words and I am learning how to be more patient with her and myself. Also, today I decided that I may try cooking more. Spur of the moment tonight I decided to try a new recipe for dinner and to my surprise it was easy and turned out great! Look at that Anna-I know that you're impressed!

The Cutest

My grandma recently told me that she definitely has the most beautiful great grandchildren ever. Oh, and according to her she's not biased at all. Clearly, she's not wrong. Just look at these three cuties...

Bookworm

Golden Nugget

On Sunday morning Natalie and I met our friends Annie, Aron, Ella, and Luke for breakfast at the Golden Nugget.  Natalie and Aron had a great time being silly together.  For the whole series of pictures see Anna's blog. 

Natalie and her Bop

Natalie and Bop spent some time together on Saturday reading the new Froggy book that Natalie got from Cook.  Don't they look cute together? 

Reunited with Shorty

Summer session of Hippotherapy started tonight. Natalie and her favorite horse Shorty B get to spend time together every Thursday night for the next 2 months. It's going to be cool to see Natalie use her Talker in this setting.  More updates on this in the coming weeks. 

Happy Camper

Natalie spent last week at Camp Emanuel and had a blast!  Camp Emanuel is a day camp for children with speech/language impairments and/or hearing impairments.  I was very impressed with the staff and the great stuff that the kids got to do including swimming, going to the Columbus zoo, bowling, and to the movies.  Natalie had a buddy named Sue who helped her each day and they really bonded.  I'm not positive but I think that Natalie was the youngest kid there (ages are 5-14) and the other kids seemed to be interested in helping her out (and checking out her cool Talker).   Natalie will definitely return next summer. 

Preschool Graduation Day

After 3 years of preschool Natalie has graduated!  I think she's ready to move on to bigger and better things in Kindergarten!  She was lucky to have her mommy, Cook, Howard, Mamaw, Aunt Tammy, and Sammy there at the ceremony today to cheer her on.  It was "A Day at The Beach" theme so there were lots of cute fish songs and some refreshments afterward.  Natalie had little enthusism onstage but once she was offstage and with family, she started dancing and talking! 

Dancing!

Snuggling with Aunt Tammy and Sammy

Getting her dipolma from her teacher

Singing songs onstage with her classmates

With Mommy and Mamaw

Silly giggles

Natalie loves being rough with her cousins.  Here's a little video of Nat and Ronan playing with Cook after Sunday dinner.

This video speaks for itself

Mmmm, milk!

Natalie has been practicing drinking from an open cup recently and is doing really well(normally she uses a cup with a lid and straw)

At the Circus

On Friday night we were lucky enough to have front row seats at the Circus (thanks Howard)!  Here's a pic of Natalie with her Uncle David posing during intermission.  Natalie really paid attention during the first half and got so excited, especially over the animals! It was so much fun that she threw up all over herself and her new booster seat on the car ride home (yes, that was a lot of fun to clean up). 

Carter and Ronan - goofballs!

Natalie enjoying her new toy. 

I don't think any of us got a picture of all the kids together.  You can see Kiernan in this one though.  

The Amazing Cook

I hope my mom doesn't mind this post. When we were over for dinner tonight I decided to give Natalie her bath over there so she could go straight to bed when we got home. Just before I snapped this pic Cook was also eating an ice cream bar while drying Natalie's hair (and wearing those cute bunny ears). What talent!

Vantage Lite progress

Natalie has made amazing progress in the 2 months that she's had her communication device (we refer to it as her "talker").  She is getting good at putting together full sentences with some prompting as she goes.  Without prompting she can ask for an item she wants by saying it's name and then please (it took only a week or so of prompting the "please" before she got to use it consistently).  It is amazing how quickly she's picking it up!  She can now say hello and goodbye, tell jokes, read stories stored on the device, ask for what she wants to eat, and tell you what TV show she wants to watch and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.  Her speech therapist said last week that she knew that she was smart and would do well with it but she is still amazed by how quickly she is learning to use it.  In a few weeks I will be attending a training session that the company that makes her device (Prentke Romich) is having to learn more about how to program and use it.  I will try to update about her progress regularly.  It's so exciting to see her learning and communicating with words.
***By the way, in the video she just meant to say "I want cookie please".  She accidentally hit an area on the device after cookie that said "dough".  This is part of the device's word prediction feature which will be helpful as she learns to make more complex sentences. 

Easter excitement

The Easter Bunny brought Natalie some candy (mostly dark choc m&ms) and a Barbie convertible.  I thought she would be really excited about the car but I was wrong.  She was pushing it aside before I could even open the box in favor of more M&Ms.  Can't say I blame her - chocolate is better than a car, right?

Sunday reading

My little workout partner

Natalie loves to work out with me. She knows that the red weights are hers and she even grunts appropriately when lifting them!

Smarty Pants

Natalie knows quite a few sight words now. The hard part is getting her to cooperate to show what she knows. She has an obsession with holding all of the cards in her hands at once so it's hard to pry them away to put them out like they are in this video. Anyway, check out my little smarty pants!

Pinkalicious and KEG

We spent some time with Kiernan and Lucy tonight at Cook and Howard's house while Carter and Lauren went to cheer on the Flyers. Natalie tried on her new Pinkalicious dress and used her Talker to tell us what she wanted to eat and drink. It was a fun night!

Mardi Gras cookies!

Finally -- her own Vantage Lite!

After a year and a half of waiting, Medicaid finally approved Natalie's AAC, the Vantage Lite, and she received it last week.  There will be many more videos to come showing how well she is already using it, but for now, here is one that Cook took last week of Natalie enjoying her new Talker. 

Fall pictures

These are just a few of the amazing pictures that Mandy of Legacy Pics took of Natalie back in October.  She also got some great pictures of my sister's family and some of the 3 kids together.