December 5, 2010

'Tis the season. We're going to see Santa today, and it'll be interesting to see what Grace tells Santa she wants for Christmas. Grace's Christmas concert is tomorrow night at East High. She's been singing a lot of the songs at home, and we're excited to see her up on stage.

We just got back from Sunday school, which Grace really likes going to. She's learned quite a few prayers already, and she was pretty proud when she knew the "Hail Mary" today.

November 26, 2010

The day after Thanksgiving. We went to Marcus yesterday and spent time with my extended family. Michelle is taking the girls to Carroll today to spend the weekend with her family (while I'm away with our basketball team).

Grace is doing well. She has a Christmas concert coming up next week. She's reading and writing more words all the time--right now she's sitting next to me writing the word "tangled" next to a drawing. Not sure why, but I'm sure there is a reason.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 20, 2010

Saturday morning in the Nelson house. Claire is running all over the house leaving a wake of destruction in her path. Grace is sitting here at the kitchen table with me making crafts. She has been really into drawing and making crafts these past few months. Currently she's making a "Touch-Read System" which I think is a toy she saw on TV and in a store. All I know is that the scissors and many pieces of tape are involved.

Grace is wearing her new glasses this morning. They're purple with butterflies on the sides of the rims. We got them to protect her eyes, which she had severely poked three times since school started. We'll try them for a while, so far she doesn't seem to mind them. They definitely make her look very mature.

Grace has a Christmas concert coming up at school in a few weeks. Sounds as though they'll be doing a number of the classics as well as some new ones, such as "Polar Puppy". At least that's the one Grace has been singing around the house a lot lately.

Grace's Christmas wish list grows with each new day and more importantly each commercial on the Disney Channel. Advertising really does work.

November 5, 2011

Friday, and Grace has the day off from school because of parent teacher conferences. We had her conference on Tuesday, and it went very well. Her teacher told us that she's the best reader in the class, and she's doing very well socially. She is very good at listening to directions, but if there is one thing she needs to work on, it's that she sometimes talks too much. We weren't surprised by that.

We are looking into getting eyeglasses for Grace. She has gotten poked in the eye three times in the last couple months, and each time it's been awful for the next few days. So the glasses will be for protective purposes. We'll see how that goes.

October 31, 2010

It's Halloween Sunday, and trick-or-treating will be tonight. Grace has officially settled on being Cinderella, and she's already worn the costume one time at her kindergarten Halloween party. Hopefully the rain stays away tonigh for our outing. We're also bringing Claire, though we don't know her costume yet.

School continues to go well for Grace. She was the "Beary Special Person" in her classroom last week which meant that she shared things about herself and got to do some fun things. She definitely loves going to school.

Grace spends a lot of times these days drawing pictures. She's really taken to it, and she's pretty good. Although last night she drew a scarecrow in which one hand was about 20 times bigger than the other. Pretty funny.

October 17, 2010

Grace and Michelle are at Sunday school right now. Grace started that this year, and she's really enjoyed it so far. We've also started teaching her some new prayers at home, and she's amazingly good at learning them.

Grace has spent a lot of time playing outside lately, mostly because the weather has been beautiful for a few weeks now. We got some new neighbors a couple months ago, and they have four girls--one of whom goes to Kindergarten with Grace. So that's been a great thing, as the kids are constantly playing outside between the two yards.

Grace and Michelle are planning on putting the finishing touches on Grace's Halloween costume today. The problem is that a final decision on the costume hasn't been made. It was Cinderella for a long time, then about a month ago it switched to Jesse the cowgirl from Toy Story. Suddenly this morning it switched back to the possibility of Cinderella. Stay tuned.

October 9, 2010

We're heading to Omaha today to a pumpkin patch that we've heard is a great time for kids. Grace had her appointments with her Iowa City specialist last week, and everything checked out 0-kay. We'll head back to Iowa City in March unless something comes up in the meantime. Grace has joined the Girls Scouts; Michelle went to the first parent meeting the other night.

September 25, 2010

It's been a pretty busy September. We spent last weekend in Des Moines and participated in the Beaverdash, which is a 5K run that is the annual fundraiser for the Iowa Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Despite the cold and rain we had a good time, and it was great to see all the other Iowa families, if only for a short time. They have a wheelchair race for the SMA kids after the 5K, and Grace got 2nd place! She actually referred to herself as second winner, which sounded good to us.

Kindergarten continues to go very well for Grace. Friday morning she was telling me all the things she loves about school, and it was a long list. We need to give a special shoutout to "Mr. Troy the Janitor" who replaced a screw in the part that holds her battery on her Standing Dani. In the process of playing tag at recess Grace had run over a big stick that somehow loosened the screw and caused the battery to fall off.

Grace has her annual appointment with the Iowa City people in Sioux City on Monday. They come to town once a year, then we go there once a year. Hopefully everything will check out o-kay, she's been doing very well health-wise.

September 6, 2010

We've had a good Labor Day weekend. Grace went to her best friend Madalyn's house on Saturday for most of the afternoon. Grace and Madalyn spent a year together in preschool and have everything in common, and this summer they started having regular play-dates at each other's house. They're going to different schools now for Kindergarten, but hopefully they'll continue to stay friends.

Sunday we went to Breda for the baptism of Grace's cousin Sophia, then we headed up to Okoboji to go boating with her Grandpa and Grandma Nelson. We lucked out with the weather and had a great time--and both Grace and Claire had their first experiences at the Barefoot Bar. We stayed in a hotel up their last night and just got back to town a little while ago.

Kindergarten continues to go really well for Grace. She loves every part of it and talks about a number of friends.

Can't remember if I put this in our last post, but Grace got to meet Kirk Hinrich last Monday. She didn't think it was a big deal until she got to the event and saw all the people and cameras, then I think she felt pretty special. He autographed a T-shirt for her, but the funny thing is that at this point in her life an autograph from a Briar Cliff basketball player would probably mean more to her.

August 29, 2010

Grace has had seven days of kindergarten, and she loves it. She really likes her teacher, and it sounds like she's made some good friends in her class. Nodland is a small school that is only K-2, and we like that. They moved all her equipment from preschool, so she pretty much already had everything she needed at the start of the year (classroom chair, lunch chair, etc.).

This weekend Grace is battling Strep Throat, which is no fun. She started not feeling well Friday night, and Michelle took her in on Saturday morning. She's had a full day of medicine now, and as of Sunday afternoon she's feeling a ton better--pretty much back to normal.

Tomorrow Grace gets to go to a photo shoot at Kirk Hinrich's annual golf benefit in town. She got invited by the people at Camp High Hopes, which is the main benefactor of Kirk's event. Camp High Hopes will serve children with disabilities, and it's supposed to be open within the next year. There is nothing like it all anywhere close to Sioux City, so it should be a really positive thing for the region.

The Beaverdash in Des Moines is about three weeks away, and we're looking forward to being there this year. It's the main fundraiser for the Iowa SMA, and a lot of the Iowa families turn out for it. We missed it last year because Michelle was about due with Claire, so it'll be great to get back.

August 18, 2010

We're close to a milestone in the Nelson house: Grace starts kindergarten tomorrow. We had back to school night last night, and that just increased Grace's excitement level. We're happy because she can't wait for school to start, and she's never expressed any fear or concern about her new school. Her teacher Mrs. Hunter seems very nice, and she'll have the same classroom aide she's had the past two years in her preschool.

Michelle and Grace starting school means the summer is coming to an end. All in all we've had a great summer, starting with our Make-a-Wish trip to Orlando and Disney World in June. We had a positive trip to Iowa City for Grace's annual appointments there in early July, and in late July we had our most successful Race 4 Grace ever. On that note, we're getting ready to send out T-shirts to those who don't have them yet and thank you's to everybody who participated.

August 1, 2010

RAGBRAI is over, and it was a great year for our annual Race 4 Grace event. We had a booth in both Sioux City and Kingsley during the first and second days, and our riding team went three days. We had quite a few people who participated in RAGBRAI for the first time, and we've had a ton of people participate in Race 4 Grace for the first time through their donations. We have so many people to thank, and we'll get to all that. We also have a lot of pictures from RAGBRAI which we'll get on the site eventually. We are still taking donations, and we are pretty much assured of having our best fundraising year since our inaguaral event in 2007. We've also gotten a lot of great publicity, getting articles in the Des Moines Register, the Sioux City Journal, and even in the Sioux City Diocese Catholic Globe newspaper. More to come!

July 19, 2010

Six days to RAGBRAI. The Sioux City Journal did a story on Race 4 Grace for Sunday's edition, and they put a video on their website. For some reason I can't figure out how to copy the video into this post, so if you're curious, go to www.siouxcityjoural.com and find the video link. They did a good job.

This week will be the usual last week stuff of finding out who's riding, who needs bikes, who's driving, how we're getting people home, etc. Should be a blast!

July 8, 2010

We got back from Iowa City this week from Grace's annual appointments there. We saw a number of the doctors who've worked with her since her diagnosis, and as usual it was a busy day there. All in all it was a good trip, and we don't have anything new to report. She's doing extremely well, and we're very happy about that. We'll see her main doctor from Iowa City again when she comes to Sioux City in September.

Grace is really into Toy Story right now. Michelle and her went to Toy Story 3 in 3D last week, and so of course she's consumed with it. I think it was Grace's first movie in a theater, and she enjoyed all that as well.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Beginning of the 4th of July weekend. We're heading up to Emmetsburg tomorrow to spend the day with my extended family, then early next week we're heading to Iowa City for Grace's annual appointments there. We don't have anything specific that we're going for this summer, mostly just to see all Grace's doctors there.

Grace's summer is going well. She's been pretty busy with swimming, little league, play dates, etc. She's going to start a ballet class in July, and that could be a little bit of an adventure. The class's teacher is going to make some accommodations, and Michelle and Grace have been to watch one of the classes. We'll see.

RAGBRAI is now only three weeks away. Preparations are coming together. If you're reading this and want to be involved somehow, get a hold of us asap.

Make-a-Wish Trip

So here's a brief rundown of Grace's Make-a-Wish trip. Make-a-Wish is phenomenal, they pretty much take care of every detail for you. We stayed at a great place called Give Kids the World, which is basically a resort that caters to Wish families. We stayed in our own villa, which was a two bedroom, two bathroom condo. The Give Kids the World Village had three different places to eat, a great pool, and numerous activities for Grace. We could've had a great week at the village without ever leaving, but we had too much to do! Here's the rundown:

Sunday, June 6
We flew out of Sioux City, had a layover in Minneapolis, and arrived in Orlando mid-afternoon. First time flying for both girls, and the power wheelchair in the airport was a little adventure.
After we checked in we settled in, then Grace went to play life-sized Candyland in their boundless playground (she could take her wheelchair everywhere in the playground). We finished the night by having ice cream--the village had a place you could get free ice cream any time of day.

Monday, June 7
Grace met Goofy, Mickey Mouse, and Minnie right after breakfast in the village. Then we headed for the place Grace wanted to go all along--Magic Kingdom. Grace got to meet Belle, Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Ariel, and Eric--these meetings were definite highlights for Grace. Her favorite rides at Magic Kingdom were the Snow White ride and Goofy's coaster. We also went to a Beauty and the Beast show at the park, as well as going through Cinderella's castle. All in all a very full day for all four of us!

Tuesday, June 8
Grace met Spongebob after breakfast, then we went swimming. The pool had a great splash area and had some manual wheelchairs made out of PVC pipe--we'd never seen these before but they were perfect for the splash area. Then we went to Hollywood Studios for the day. We went to a number of shows, including the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Muppets 3D, and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Grace got to meet Woody and Buzz Lightyear again, and her favorite ride at Hollywood Studios was the Buzz Lightyear ride. We went swimming again that night.

Wednesday, June 9
Both Grace and Claire got to ride horses after breakfast Wednesday morning. We then headed for Sea World, where we fed dolphins, watched Shamu's show, and rode on another good roller coaster. That night Grace spent some time in the Castle of Miracles back at Give Kids the World. The Castle of Miracles was one of the major activity places at the Village. There she got to interact with the star fairy, make her own pillows, and spend some time in the La Ti Da Spa. At the spa she got a hand massage, a tatoo, a manicure, and a makeup job. Right up Grace's alley. Then later that night we had one of the highlights of the trip. They had a Village Idol contest, in which the kids could actually be contestants in an American Idol like contest. I was surprised, but Grace entered and did a great job. She drove her wheelchair up on stage in front of everybody and sang two songs. Definitely brought tears to her parents' eyes. She got a big ovation, and we've watched the video almost daily since then. Hopefully we can figure out how to get the video on the site.

Thursday, June 10
My parents arrived in the middle of the night to spend the rest of the trip with us, mainly to help take care of Claire. That day we took Grace to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure parks. Some of Grace's favorite rides were the Woody Woodpecker coaster, and Jaws. The Twister ride terrified her (what were we thinking?). We also watched Shrek 4D, and she met Dora the Explorer. At Islands of Adventure she rode the Pteradon Flyers, the Dr. Suess train, and we went through the new Harry Potter part of the park. Later that night we swam even more (theme of the trip, Grace loved the pool).

Friday, June 11
We went back to Magic Kingdom again. We went to the Mickey Philharmonic show, rode the train, and did some more of Grace's favorite rides. That night they had a Pirates and Princesses activity for the kids back at the Village, so Grace got turned into a princess. Right up her alley. Then we swam some more.

Saturday, June 12
We had to be up early to catch our flights. Everything went smoothly on the way home, and we were in Sioux City by 5:00 pm. An absolute whirlwind of a trip, and definitely an awesome one!

I didn't proofread this, so sorry for any errors.

June 20, 2010

We've been back from Grace's Make-a-Wish trip for a week now, and we're still trying to get caught up with everything. And that is my feeble excuse for not writing until now. We will post a full rundown (hopefully with pictures) of our trip sometime this week.

It was a great trip. Make-a-Wish does a great job, and Grace had many, many memorable experiences. Highlights included Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, meeting a number of the Disney princesses, many rides, swimming, and much more. Grace also competed in something called "Village Idol", which was an American Idol-style competition for kids at the place we were staying. She brought her parents to tears during that, and we've got the video if we can figure out how to get that on-line. Much, much more later.

Also, RAGBRAI is little more than a month away!

May 29, 2010

School's out for summer. Yesterday was the last day of the school year for both Michelle and Grace, and both will be at new schools next year. Michelle has been transferred to Washington Elementary School, where she will teach 2nd grade. The best thing about the transfer is that Washington is less than a four minute drive from our house, whereas Riverside Elementary where she's been is almost a twenty minute drive from our house.

Grace will go to Kindergarten at Nodland Elementary next year, after being at Leeds Elementary the past two years. Her preschool experience was outstanding, thanks largely to the teachers she had. She will have the same teacher's aide next year, which will be really nice for her.

The summer will be a good one for the girls, starting with our Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World in a week. The Make-a-Wish people came over Thursday night and brought us our "trip packet" with basically everything we need for the trip. It will be a great time, and we'll be sure to write plenty about it when we get back.

Also, Claire had her first crawl this morning. We predict she'll be all over the house by the end of the weekend.

May 18, 2010

Birthday week. Grace will turn 5 on Thursday. She'll bring treats to school that day, and on Saturday she's having a birthday party with the girls in her preschool class. She's got a few close friends in that class who are all coming, so it'll be a great day for her. We're so thankful for Grace's good health over the past year, and we hope and pray it continues in the coming year. She's a pretty special 5 year old, but maybe we're a little biased.

Grace was featured in a news story on one of the tv stations here in town last night. It was a story on the little league baseball league she's playing in. The league is for kids with physical and mental disabilities, and this is her first year playing. Below is the link to the video, I'm not sure if it'll work on this blog or not. If it doesn't work you can go to ktiv.com and search under sports. It was pretty cool for Grace to be interviewed, and she did well.

http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12496156

May 1, 2010

Today is the first of May, and Grace is keenly aware that this is her birthday month. Hard for us to believe that she'll be five in a few weeks.

Tomorrow is Grace's first night of Challenger baseball. They have a really good little league program here in Sioux City for kids with disabilities, so tomorrow Grace makes her first foray into competitive sports. I'm guessing she will not be a gamer. She'll be more concerned about how she looks and what her team name is. In fact she wasn't happy the other day when she found out her team name was American Postal, and not the Ballerinas as she'd been hoping for. We're excited for it, though, because it'll be a new and different experience for her.

Grace will have a pretty busy summer. We're also looking at having her take a ballet class. She really wants to, and we've had some contact with some of the studios here in the city about working with someone in a wheelchair. So far we've gotten a good response. Grace told me the other day that she wants to make sure she takes an "arm ballet" class so she can participate, so she's obviously been thinking about how she can participate. She's come to grips with her limitations and is remarkably positive about them.

April 22, 2010

We are now three months from RAGBRAI and Race 4 Grace 2010. More details to come as we get them in place.

Not too much else is new in Grace's world these days. She has made her dad proud by taking a liking to baseball. She's actually good at making contact with the ball, and she has a good grasp of running (or driving in her case) the bases. She will cheat to suit her purposes, but who doesn't do that? Our front yard is perfect for baseball, and lately we've been doing that just about every night. We also got a little basketball hoop for the driveway, but at this point she hasn't played with that as much. Maybe Claire will be the one who takes to hoops. Given Grace's penchant for dolls, dress-up, princesses, and all other things girl, I'm just happy she's willing to play any kind of sport.

April 11, 2011

Good weekend at the Nelson house. Grace had a playdate on Saturday at her friend Madalyn's house. They are best friends at preschool, and Madalyn wanted to have Grace over for her birthday. We didn't bring in Grace's wheelchair or Dani because the house wasn't made for it (split-level), but both Madalyn's parents were around to help haul Grace around the house as need be. Grace has made some really good friends at preschool this year, which given her social nature, isn't too surprising.

Today Grace and I played baseball outside. We just got her a new bomb bat with some big whiffle balls. She's actually really good at making contact with the ball when I pitch to her. We've just started working on some of the other basic concepts, such as tagging the baserunner and running the bases in correct order. Grace has the order down, she just does't always feel the need to run over the bases in her wheelchair.

We're now less than two months away from Grace's Make-a-Wish trip to Disney World, and we're getting excited about that. It'll be the first time we fly with Grace's equipment, so that part of it could be an adventure. Plus it'll be Claire's first time flying. Man I feel sorry for the other people on that flight!

March 27, 2010

Right now in the Nelson house we are playing "Princess", which is make-believe play that can take many forms. 90% of the free time in our house is spent playing Princess. Today's version has Michelle as the evil stepmother who has given Princess Grace numerous chores to do around the house. Right now the Princess is dusting the furniture with a rag. Come to think of it, maybe Michelle has a plan behind today's activities. I am the nice stepfather who provides support to Princess Grace. Claire is Dopey Dwarf, either because she's currently wearing purple or because she can't talk.

Grace had Kindergarten roundup this past week, and that went really well. She got to meet all the teachers and the principal at the school, which is called Nodland Elementary. It's a K-2 building that will be perfect for Grace. She was really excited about it and couldn't wait to tell all her preschool classmates about it. Also got 20 right out of 2o on a little reading assessment they had all the kids do. I don't mind saying that she dominated it.

March 21, 2010

The end of a long weekend of watching basketball. Grace told me today that she only liked watching basketball when it's "real", meaning Briar Cliff games. Not that she actually watches those, but at least those games have a concessions stand and real life cheerleaders.

Grace and Michelle spent much of the weekend out of town for a baby shower for Michelle's younger sister. Grace had fun and was excited that she met a new friend. Grace is unbelievable at making new friends. I personally watched her make two "friends" within the span of a few hours last weekend. First in church she befriended the girl in the pew in front of us, mostly because Grace's princess dollies caught the girl's eye. After a few minutes of quiet play Grace whispered to the girl, "Do you want to be my friend?" And they were friends for the rest of the service. Then that night Grace went with me to watch the Briar Cliff women in the NAIA national tournament, and there the exact same thing occurred. By the second half some girl was sitting by us, the two were playing, and Grace had invited her over to our house to play sometime. We'll never see the girl again, but for that night it was all good. Shyness is definitely not a trait possessed by Grace.

March 6, 2010

It's our first non-basketball weekend in five months, and we hardly know what to do with ourselves. As much as I hate it when basketball is over, I'm happy to see the girls and help out more at home. Grace has a play date this afternoon with one of her friends from preschool. What's interesting is that the friend is a boy named Walker. Grace normally loves playing girl stuff, but her and Walker have been good friends at school all year. Grace was concerned at first about Walker and his two little brothers not having any girls toys, but apparently they've worked it out. Their plans are to play detective and zoo. Grace is at the age where, rather than necessarily playing with toys, what she loves most is playing scenarios (house, school, mermaid, detective, hospital, zoo, etc.) Grace doesn't go to others' houses much largely because of her wheelchair and all that entails, but we're gonna make it work today.

There was an article in the paper today asking for ideas for Sioux City's RAGBRAI slogan. Maybe they should name it Sioux City: Home of Race 4 Grace 2010.

February 28, 2010

Sunday afternoon, the last day of February. Michelle is at Target, Claire is taking a nap, and Grace is resting on the couch while watching one of her favorite cartoons, Angelina Ballerina. Grace has talked a lot recently about wanting to take a ballet class sometime, and we do intent on looking into some adaptive dance opportunities for her. Not sure if she'd take dance with regular kids and just do what she can in her wheelchair or if there are actually adaptive dance classes.

We got a big packet in the mail yesterday for Grace's kindergarden registration, and that's both scary and exciting. More scary for us probably, because Grace will no doubt excel.

If you're reading this hopefully you've been on the website and seen the new layout, courtesy of Michelle's brother Austin (our resident web designer). We'll certainly get more details about RAGBRAI up as we get closer to the event.

Finally, I apologize if I've already written this in another entry, but we found out this winter that Grace had a wish granted from the Make-a-Wish foundation. So this summer we get to spend a whole week at Disney World's "Give Kids the World" resort, which immerses you fully into the world of Disney. Needless to say it'll be perfect for Grace.

February 18, 2010

Mid-February in the Nelson house, and all four of us are ready for spring. Claire has had both RSV and an ear infection in the last week, so we've been pretty careful with both girls. Michelle is probably ready for basketball season to be over soon, because this winter has been pretty hectic for her.

We survived Valentine's Day, a holiday that is right up Grace's alley. She made princess valentine's for all her classmates, and we were pretty proud because she was able to write all her classmates names. She's really catching on to reading and likes it, which is great. She came home from preschool with a huge pile of candy, most of which her dad has eaten.

Grace is really growing up, looking and acting more and more like her mom every day. Most of the time that's a great thing! But it does mean that I now have two people to correct all my mistakes, and they both do a great job of it.

February 5, 2010

Just another snowy weekend coming up in Sioux City. Grace has started to complain quite a bit lately about the cold and snow, I think she's as ready for spring as her dad is. She's also been talking lately about her dad building her a clubhouse this spring and summer. She is still young enough to think that her dad can do anything in the world. Someday she'll realize that her dad can't build things, and that day will be a sad one.

Scary to think that we have kindergarten round-up to schedule and attend in the next month or so. It should be a pretty smooth transition because she's already been in the school district for the past two years as part of its preschool. Because of that they already know about Grace's equipment needs and the necessary accomodations. Plus the aide that Grace has had the past two years may continue with her next year as well, which would be comforting for Grace.

January 31, 2010

They announced the RAGBRAI overnight towns last night, and this year it will start in Sioux City! Needless to say, hopefully we can make this year's Race 4 Grace the best yet. Stay tuned for more details as we get closer--but for now clear Saturday, July 24 on your summer calendar.

January 26, 2010

A busy winter continues at our house. Nothing new, but here are some updates on Grace over the past few weeks:

She's been obsessed with her teeth ever since a dentist visited her classroom last week. She's been to the actual dentist quite a few times, but apparently this dentist scared them with tales of cavities and other horrors. Thus we no longer have force Grace to brush her teeth, and she's probably brush them hourly if we let her. This morning at breakfast she asked me to re-explain to her what plaque is.

Also at breakfast this morning Grace explained to me that "It's a big responsibility to have a baby sister." Apparently she feels burdened by Claire, even though I'm not sure what Grace's actual responsibilities are (other than not running her over in her wheelchair). The fact that Grace can stop on a dime in her wheelchaire still doesn't make us feel any better when she veers dangerously close to Claire lying on her activity mat. Grace has also discovered that she gets some enjoyment out of grabbing the ropes on Claire's "Johnny Jumper" and pulling them as she backs away in her wheelchaire--sort of a swing concept. I'm not sure that's a good thing, but Claire hasn't complained too much. On the other hand Claire can't talk, and she does have a look of terror in her eyes when Grace grabs the ropes.

January 16, 2010

We're heading to Carroll later tonight (after our home basketball game) for the family Christmas on Michelle's side. We never got over there around Christmas because of the weather, so we're doing it this weekend. More presents for Grace and Claire--they're going to get an unrealistic picture of that Christmas is!

Both girls have been pretty healthy lately. We just registered Grace for Kindergarten round-up this week, which is pretty scary. We have a lot of things to do for this that "normal" families wouldn't have to do, such as finding handicap accessible classrooms, getting Grace an aid, figuring out transportation, etc. I'm definitely not complaining, becuase it's more than worth it to get Grace the best situation possible. And if Kindergarten goes half as well as preschool has, we'll be pretty lucky.

Had a funny scene at our house this morning. Grace has two toy cell phones, and she was holding up one to Claire's ear so that the two could have a pretend phone conversation. It was pretty funny.

January 7, 2010

Grace is home sick with the stomach flu today. She got it overnight and had a long night of throwing up quite a bit. Michelle had it a few days ago, so we assume that's where it came from. I'm home with her this morning, and it seems like she's already feeling a little better. I know this because she's asking if she can get down and play. As of now I'm saying no.

We had a good albeit snowy Christmas. Santa was very good to Grace, even though her parents didn't really think she needed anything new. We spend a little longer at my parents in Le Mars than we had planned because of the Christmas blizzard, and that also prevented us from getting to Michelle's side of the family in Carroll. We're now planning on heading there next weekend for that Christmas. And in case you're wondering, Grace has already started accumulating ideas for what she wants for next Christmas.