Cute things they do

I captured another "nice" moment between Julianna and Blake. Julianna called to me from the living room yesterday, "Mommy, Blake is laying on me." And I come in to see this:


Now normally Julianna wouldn't go for something like this, but after I said, "Julianna, that's so nice of Blake. He loves you," Julianna then gave him a nice hug and said, "You're my best friend. Are you my best friend, Blake?" She says that a lot to him lately. It's really cute. And Blake responded, "Yeah." If you know Blake, the response was in a low raspy voice. It's things like this that make me happy to be a mom!

I love vision therapy!

This past Wednesday I finally took Julianna to her first vision therapy appointment. Her VT (vision therapist), Sue, was so great. She showed me each of the five exercises to do with Julianna at home, and as I learned each one, I felt like this really could be exactly what Julianna needs to improve in many areas! I just had a really good feeling about this therapy. Most therapies I've done with her, I think they're okay, but this time I really know this is what she has been missing. The main reason why is because she did NOT want to do any of them! The VT tried to do some with her, and she lasted for all of 15 seconds on each one (they're supposed to be 5 minutes each). Some of them she wouldn't even try! And I know it's because they are too challenging for her! It's kind of like the gym, when I try a new class, and I just want to give up, because it's too hard, but then I realize, no, I need this because I must be missing something in my workouts. So Julianna has no motivation right now because of the difficulty, and wants to give up. But I'm not going to give up on her! I'm going to keep working with her and eventually get up to a full five minutes. I have a sticker chart and she gets a candy each day for doing all five exercises. I've never been more motivated to do therapy with her, mostly because I know this will help her so much! Wish me luck on this new adventure!

Here's some pictures from yesterday--we went to the SD Temple for my cousin Kyle's wedding.

Julianna Graduates from Preschool!

Her diploma (close-up of picture below).

Julianna holding her diploma.

Her two buddies from her class (and church), Drennen and Deegan. We actually got a good shot!

Her great teacher, Rachael (one of her many great teachers, I should say.)

A close-up of all the graduates.

Preschool, Class of 2009 (She'll be class of 2021 for high school. AHH!)

A video of her walking into the room and standing with her teacher. Each graduate got their name called and then a nickname. For her they said, "Julianna Washburn, Loves Happy People." And it's true! They wore little cardboard caps and t-shirts with their handprints and "VIP TOTS". They performed two songs for everyone, which were really cute. I was teary-eyed the whole time! Next step--kindergarten! She's so excited!

And a big event for Joel--he's moving on up in the high school. No more portable classroom! He gets a main room on campus next year. We spent all of Friday after graduation helping him clean his room out. Yeah for Joel!

A fun visit

Charlotte-Ann

Good friends!

Cassie and Beth

Having fun at the park

My good friend and old roommate from BYU, Cassie, was in California so we got to have a fun day together. Her sister, Beth, just finished serving in the Carlsbad CA mission so she was back to visit people from her mission, and I'm so glad they took a day to spend with me and the kids. It was just like old times! I loved meeting her baby girl, Charlotte-Ann. I'll miss you guys!

Scary and TRUE story

Well, I didn't plan on posting twice today, but after what happened an hour ago, I just had to inform you all...if you're in the mood for a scary story, read on...

I bought grapes at Stater Bros. yesterday. This afternoon, I saw them in the fridge and was excited because I forgot I bought them so they would make for a tasty afternoon treat. So I took out a bundle of grapes from the bag, washed them, broke them off into two bowls for Julianna and Blake, and then took the other bundle for me to eat. As we enjoyed the grapes, I was grading papers for Joel, Joel was grading upstairs, the kids were watching Spongebob, life was good. So I'm just plucking the grapes off the vine, and I notice a spider hiding in the cluster. I look closer and see it has long black legs, but it doesn't move much. Being mildy arachnaphobic, I call Joel downstairs to the rescue. He shakes the spider out of the grape cluster and a black spider with a big abdomen (is that right?) starts to crawl on the carpet, very slowly (probably because it's been in the fridge for 24 hours). So Joel lets it crawl onto my flip flop and takes it outside. It falls on its back and we see the red hourglass....that's right! A BLACK WIDOW! I was eating grapes with a black widow hiding inside! Can you believe it? So scary! For some reason I decided not to pluck the grapes off--what if I did? I could have grabbed the black widow! Or what if I took that cluster first and found it as I was getting it ready for the kids? EWW!! And freaky. So Joel and I googled "black widows and grapes." Turns out it's happened to many people before. Mostly with California grapes. Here's a link if you want to read a news story/watch a video clip: www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_111808WAB_costco_grapes_KC.1c81afeab.html

So I still have another bag of grapes--do I dare eat them? (By the way, I've just read some more news stories on this and it happens to be a rare thing--wow, I must be lucky! Maybe I'll be on the news now! Haha).

They do love each other

These pictures prove that my kids do love each other. With no help from me, they decided to take turns giving each other rides in the Tonka dump truck, and they were laughing and having fun. I try to capture these rare moments because they really are rare--these two seem to fight constantly (any ideas on how to stop that?) Anyway, enjoy the pictures (yes, Blake has his shirt off. I know--some of his mastocytosis spots are revealed. And Joel thinks he's funny by putting that Guns & Roses thing on the blog. Haha. It won't last very long. I better go--they're fighting as I type this.)

Vision therapy begins soon...

Julianna had her appointment yesterday with the Developmental Optometrist. I told the DO all my concerns, then he did some tests with her and determined that she will definitely benefit from vision therapy but doesn't need glasses. She has problems with tracking, fixation, and parts of visual memory and visual discrimination. It wasn't the big moment I was hoping for--I kind of wanted him to shout from the rooftops, "YES! Julianna's vision is holding her back in all areas! This therapy will help her overcome many difficulties she is having! What a great mom you are for bringing her here and discovering exactly what she needs to improve." I mean, I kind of built up the exam so it would end that way--my description of Julianna to him lead up to something like, "And that's why I'm really excited to be here to find out if vision really is her main issue and causing her difficulties in so many areas." All he said was, "Okay, let's begin the exam." And I didn't even know when it was over! I almost had to ask him what he found out, and then he said, "Oh, yes, Julianna will benefit from vision therapy." Anyway, what I've really learned is, any type of help I decide to get for Julianna will not bring instant results--it's a process. I'm never going to be given a magic wand to cure her. So here I go, on a new journey with her through vision therapy. The cool thing about it is I only have to go once a month, and in between visits, I get to work with her one on one for 1/2 hour a day. The optometrist also follows her progress very closely, every other month, to determine what she needs. I have a good feeling about it, but PATIENCE is the key...it will certainly help her in school more than anything. That's my story!