School Halloween Party

Pope's school had their Halloween party last night. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out for him to be with all of the kids (his school is Pre-K through 5th grade) in the school gym, but I guess having his big sister there gave him some added confidence because he did pretty well!


Pope's dragon costume won the pre-k "scariest" costume catagory! (The PTA gave the winners a tiny plastic trophy and a marshmallow ghost. It was so cute!)

Pope in the gym with some of his pre-k classmates. The music in the gym was really loud.

My princess and my dragon. Such an adorable pair!

Fish Oil

I read somewhere that fish oil supplements can help kids with speech delays. I figured it was worth a try, so I've been giving JP 1000mg of fish oil in the morning with his breakfast. I don't want him to choke on the huge pill, so I prick it with a pin and squeeze the contents into a spoon. It must not taste too bad because he gulps it down with ease although it is a little smelly!

It seems to be working. He's been on the oil for the last 3 weeks or so and we've noticed a marked improvement in his speech! His words are becoming clearer, although not perfect, definitely better. He is also beginning to string words together. A couple days ago he said "I want that!" and yesterday he said "Whoa horsey!"

I also noticed that he has already met most of the goals in his IEP... his goals for the YEAR. I'd say he's completed 75-80% of what's written and it's only the end of October. So we'll have to schedule another IEP meeting for January. I want to keep him challenge.

Prize-winning pie!

I really don't bake much. In fact, normally if it can't be cooked on the grill or in the microwave, I don't cook it. Seriously... I purchase pre-made mashed potatoes.

But, my work group decided to have a baking contest and subsequent bake sale as a fundraiser this year, so I thought, why not? I called my mom to get her world famous pumpkin pie recipe. It's actually a pretty easy recipe and I made 2 pies. One pie actually made it in to work today. The really amazing part of the story? They judged on appearance, taste and creativity. I won... first prize, against about 40 other traditional and nontraditional desserts of all shapes and sizes. I'm sure the extra bits of crust on the top sealed the deal, at least for creativity! Yep, I'm pretty darn proud of this pie. And the Princess will be too... she helped make it. And my mom as well... her phenomenal recipe.

Halloween Pre-Boo!

The Princess and her Dragon!

BAM

October is Blindness Awareness Month. To kick off this year's awareness month, we all decided to do a "Walk for BAM". It was a really fun day. The Princess came in 3rd place in the 2 mile event! She ran the entire race! We were so amazed! Great job Princess! The Pope enjoyed the 2 mile ride in a stroller. A lot of the course was bumpy trails through the woods... right up Pope's ally!