Winter 2021-2022

As we have had a few warmer days around here it seems that spring is coming and we are in the last quarter of school.  I cannot believe that the school year is so close to being done.

For Thanksgiving we actually got to get together with family!  It had been too long since we had been able to get together with Aaron and Tiffany so having them here for the holiday, as well as Grandma Cheryl, sure was fun.  We ate, played games, and just hung around together for the day.

Thanksgiving party in 1st grade:

Making cookies:

We were asked to do the Advent reading at church one Sunday.  Corban got really excited at the idea of doing the reading part, but before we went up there he got really nervous and was saying that he couldn't do it (Gabriel kept offering to jump in and do it).  Corban pushed himself and did it and when we sat back down he kept saying "I did it! I did it!".  Gabriel got to light the candle so getting to handle the fire was pretty exciting to him too.

We went to the Christmas parade in Blacksburg one weekend and the one in Christiansburg another weekend.  The Blacksburg weekend had a "S'mores and hot chocolate" event at the church of a classmate beforehand so the boys enjoyed playing with and watching the parade with some kids from school.

Third grade Christmas party:

First grade and a pinata

We took the boys ice skating for the first time at the hockey rink in Roanoke.  We weren't sure what they would think of it but they loved it and did a lot better then I would have at their age.  They were really brave and ok with falling.  I thought that we'd stay for a bit and then they would get tired of it but we stayed the whole time it was open.  They kept asking to go again but unfortunately it's only open on select days and we couldn't make another one work this year.

Corban saw this sweater and Wal-Mart and asked me to get it for him.  Gabriel said "Mom, look at that cat.  You know that you have to buy that for him."

We also got to go to "Caturday" at the library.  You sign up for times to read to shelter cats (you can also adopt them while you are there).  Corban took his job of reading to the cat very seriously.

Lights and snowflakes to decorate their room

Gabriel was very brave and played the last hymn at the Christmas Eve service with the pianist at church.  He did such a great job even though he was nervous

We stayed home for Christmas and just had a quiet day at home.  Taylor preached the day after and then we headed down to Georgia to see family.  On the actual day we opened presents, played, ate Waffle House, and had the Cary family over to watch Nativity Story.  I nice simple day together.

Our trip to Georgia did not go as expected.  We arrived on Sunday evening and the boys enjoyed playing with Drew and all sleeping in the same room.  On Monday morning Drew woke up sick and tested positive for Covid.  That essentially cancelled the rest of our trip.  We were thinking about staying with a visiting Grandma Cheryl for a couple days if people felt well later in the week, but on the morning that we woke up to head to her house Gabriel was sick to his stomach and Corban had a fever.   We stopped for a little bit to drop off presents at her house and then headed home.  We took the boys to the doctor the next day and they both had Covid as well.  They were only sick for about 24 hours and their symptoms were mild, but it still was sad to not be able to see the rest of our family and friends.

It was a long drive home with the boys not feeling great.  At least Corban had his new Harry Potter wand to hold while he watched movies.

On the topic of sickness, we've had plenty.  After covid they both had colds.  Corban had two separate stomach bugs a week apart and Gabriel and Taylor caught one of them.  Currently Corban is at school today with two other kids in his class.  The other five at out with what is probably the flu.  All of his teachers children are currently home with it as well.  People didn't get sick much for a couple years, we took off our masks, and here come the germs.  That being said though, it is so nice that we started having home group actually in our house again, as well as taking off masks at church and school.  I think our immune systems are just really confused right now.

Late "Birthday" presents from Taylor's Aunt Sally.  Harry Potter books and Legos!

Corban had his first piano recital.  He was nervous but so brave and he did a great job.  When it was over he was insistent that we take a picture with his teacher, who he adores (and she has cats that sometimes are in the room for his lessons, so that's a win too)

New PJs from Gammer (the PJ giving master)

The boys both played basketball for the first time this year, and I don't know how I didn't take more pictures.  They did miss some due to sickness and travel, but they both had fun and learned so much.  The coaches were so encouraging.

Third grade Valentines Party

Science Museum in Roanoke (we had to eat Jimmy Johns for lunch since they went there with me.  If they had gone with Taylor they would have wanted the Roanoke Weiner Stand)

Went to see "The Birdhouse Factory" which is a Cirque type show for kids.  So fun.

The school tried twice to do their Christmas program and it didn't happen.  The first time was right before Christmas and Corban's class was out with Covid so they delayed it until January.  In January there were so many kids/classes out with Covid that they cancelled again.  They finally decided to record it and send it out to everyone.  So we had some Christmas songs in February instead.

For the 100th day of school the first graders were told to dress up like "101 Dalmations".  Corban took the costume very seriously.  He had a lot of great ideas that were too difficult to implement, but he worked hard and was happy with the result.  One thing that we didn't think of until we had done his face was that his mask would mess that up a bit, for which he wasn't happy, but overall I think he was pleased with what he created.

We had multiple snow days in January (between that and all the sickness it felt like we were staying home more then going anywhere).  We had a couple that were really good for playing and building and pieces of the snow fort they made were still out in the yard for a couple weeks afterwards.  It has been a cold winter.

Corban insistent on snorkeling in the bathtub

Making "potion" out of expired spices.  Some of them gave off quite the odd odor.

Daddy made English Muffins, so that called for tea with them (which they weren't crazy about, but were willing to try)

One of stomach bugs.  When Gabriel had it I knew he felt horrible when at 11am he said, "can we turn off the TV?  I want to take a bath and then go to sleep"

Reading with Grandma Cheryl during a recent visit

Just being silly at Barnes and Noble, one of his favorite places to wander

The boys both think that "family style" dining is great fun, so one Saturday before Taylor and I were out in the kitchen they made a family style breakfast with multiple kinds of cereal.

Planting seeds inside.  His teacher is brave

Youth group hike to the Cascades

We thought we were done with the cold and then it snowed again on Saturday, but today the sun is out, the birds are singing, and they only needed sweatshirts for school.  The boys are starting baseball this week too.  Come on spring!

Gabriel's 9th Birthday

So this "no longer little boy" turned 9.  I have realized so much lately that he is no longer a little kid.  I don't know if it should have taken until now for me to know this, but it did.  This school year so far seems to have been a big turning point for him.  His school work is more intense and challenging compared to last year, he is much more independent, and he is developing closer friendships

Just playing some Green Ember.  Rabbits with swords.
I sent this picture to the author and he wrote Gabriel
back a message, which he thought was pretty cool

Just getting dirty at the park

Gabriel has had a lot of changes in the past year.  We had talked with the pediatrician toward the beginning of the year about how the occupational therapy seemed to have taught us what it could and we were wondering if there were some other resources for his quick moving mind, energy,  and emotional regulation. We decided to put him on a list at Virginia Tech for a Child Development Study.  We were told that they were booked until at least the fall of 2021.  We got a call at the end of March that they had a cancellation and asked if we could do it the next week.  This worked out perfectly since that next week was spring break.  All of the session were conducted over zoom, some with me and some with Gabriel.  They were all done by a grad student named Delshad that we instantly loved and she really connected with Gabriel.  The next week they called and asked for a follow up session.  We were told that if they could not adequately do the evaluation over zoom that we could come into the office, but the zoom option actually really worked. Gabriel really enjoyed the challenging math and logic puzzles, which Delshad really liked because she said usually kids don't like them and it's hard to get them to participate.  Gabriel actually told her how much fun it was and she said that was very helpful to her to have a child that enjoyed himself.

Waiting at the pediatricians office, stuffed Stitch and a book in hand

It took several weeks for VT to get back with us with their final report.  It was very long and detailed and we had another session after that to ask questions and talk about results.  The diagnosis is what we had anticipated.  Moderate ADHD with some sensory processing struggles, but high intelligence and processing speed.  Hearing Delshad explain all of this helped us to start understanding the unique and awesome way that Gabriel's mind works and processes.

Delshad recommended a course of family therapy, which involves sessions with just Gabriel and sessions just for the parents talking about strategies.  I called VT and put him on the wait list for this, which they said could take up to 6-8 months. Delshad called us in June and said that she can pull people off of the list if she feels that it is necessary and that she thought she would be a good fit to work with them.  She wanted to know if we'd like to start going through the program with her.  Of course!  So we started in the summer and actually have our last meeting next week.  We have all learned for much from her.  She helped us make a 504 plan for Gabriel at school, has guided us in making some changes in how we structure things at home, and has given us a lot of insight into how to move forward.

Some days I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing trying to help Gabriel learn and grow, but in the past several months I have seen so much maturity from him.  He still has hard days, like all of us do, but I see him trying, using coping skills that he has practiced, and responding in very calm and mature ways.

Enough of that part.  This is about him and his birthday.  Gabriel is a fun loving kid.  He likes to create and make up stories, make comic books, listen to audio books, read, play the violin, play with Legos, play board games, talk about anything and everything, motivate and encourage others to a task, and is overall a kind, warm, and friendly guy.  His class is much larger at school this year and he was enjoyed all of his new friends.  The boys are all about talking about Nintendo and Minecraft so we got out our device that lets you play old Nintendo games and he has had fun with that.  His biggest wish for his birthday was Minecraft, but I don't that that he actually thought that he would get it.

He has had many different kids that he plays with this year but one in particular is his friend Aiden.  They just connected right from the start of the year and they call each other their best friend.  Aiden came home from school with us one day and they were talking in the back seat.  Aiden said something about having ADHD and being on the spectrum.  Gabriel immediately got excited and they started talking about therapy they have done and medications, etc.  Gabriel's teacher and Aiden's dad have commented to me how remarkable their friendship is.  They both have very outgoing and determined personalities which makes them the ones that usually make up the rules and ideas of what is being played, but they actually have a system where they take turns making decisions and it works well for them.  Their teacher had lunch with the two of them one day to explain to them that sometimes their systems are too complicated for their classmates to understand, but they seem to speak the same language and agree about a lot of things.  After Gabriel's friend Grant moved over the summer I was hoping that he would find another good friend and he certainly did.

Field trip and chatting with Aiden

Trick of treating downtown with Aiden

Watching the World Series

Last soccer game and some Waffle House

At church.  He does such a good job of sitting in the service and paying attention.  Pastor Chris even said to him one day that he could really tell that he was listening to the sermon.  On Sundays that I work and Taylor is preaching Corban goes to children's worship and Gabriel sits in the service with no issues.  He is playing his violin with the pianist for Joy to the World during the Lessons and Carols service this Sunday.  He had a communicants class with one of the elders a couple months ago and then met with the Session about taking the Lord's Supper.  So many big things for him.

Alexa call with his cousin Drew.  They were discussing Minecraft

For his birthday this year he really wanted a party with friends.  We have done things with family the past couple of years so it seemed like a good idea to us too since he has so many new friends this year.  He originally only wanted to invite the boys but a couple of the girls in his class didn't like that idea.  I looked into the local pools but they were booked and there aren't a ton of options for cold weather parties.  We decided to go withe the trampoline park and they had so much fun.  Only two kids in his class couldn't make it.  They jumped, at pizza and cupcakes, and played arcade games

The kids in Gabriel's class knew that Minecraft (and Harry Potter) are current things that he is into.  He got 4 of the same set of Minecraft Legos.  The boys were all saying "just give us each one!"  The girl who gave it to him started crying because other people gave him the same thing so I told her we'd keep the one she gave and return the others.  She asked how I'd know which was hers and told her it was on the bottom of the pile since she gave him her gift first.  Gabriel returned the other Lego sets and got a remote control car that he's really enjoying

His actually birthday day was the day off of school before Thanksgiving day.  Grandma Cheryl was here.  We asked him what he would like to do and he wanted to go bowling and eat at Outback.  So that's what we did.  He built Legos in the morning, bowling before lunch, some chill time to play, and then dinner

His friend Aiden got him this since he himself has the same
set and he said that they could play with them together

Blanket with a map of Middle Earth

She got a strike!

At Outback.  He loved his bloomin onion, steak, and loaded potato

At dinner we gave him one last present, which was a birthday card with a Minecraft code inside.  He was stunned for a second and then kept saying that we were the best parents ever.  When we got home it took some time and computer updating to get it to work and it was looking like he might not get to play before bed.  Showing great patience he said, "well, if I can't play tonight Dad will have it working by tomorrow and I can just play then."  Thankfully Taylor did get it working and he got to stay up and play for a while

So that was this funny, sweet, creative, energetic kids birthday.  Taylor pointed out that he is halfway to adulthood.  No ok with me :)