Fall for Novi 2009/The Detroit Zoo

What a weekend WE had!

Saturday morning, I woke Jacob up and the first thing he said to me was "Are we going to see Chris now?"

We drove the 2-3 hours over to the Detroit area to attend the "Fall for Novi" event. Of course, they had an open house of their police and fire departments.

Here is Jacob with firefighter, Chris (not my nephew) using a real fire hose, attached to a real fire hydrant to put out a "fire". They had this little barn with "fire" on it. There are more pics on Flickr (which you can link to on the left).


They also used an extinguisher to put out a REAL fire. And that fire was H O T!



And he sat in "a wotta" firetrucks!


A "big guy wif a traywer"!

And this, this was the best part. That is my nephew's car. The one he drives when he is on duty. Jacob is sitting in the seat, and that's Chris in the blue shirt. I also have a nice picture of them both sitting in the back seat!

Jacob in the "jail for the naughty-naughties". He went into every holding cell and checked out every toilet!

His shirt says, "when I grow up, I want to be a police officer, just like my cousin!" He also has a Novi police sticker as well as a Novi Fire Department sticker, on his shirt. Last but not least, he is wearing his "police shoes" too.

Sunday, we woke up early, took a swim in the hotel pool, ate breakfast and headed to the Detroit Zoo. The Tauber Family Railroad took us to the back of the zoo and we walked to the front.

Jacob got a new "afari" hat and a rubber snake.

We saw two rhinoceroses (yes, I had to look that up!).

And some zebras.

And a 2 year old giraffe.

A hippopotamus with HORRIBLE breath!

A sleeping polar bear. Yes, his paws were right on the glass!

And another polar bear. "Take my picture wif that bear, mommy!"

The Rockham Fountain

Thank you, Chris, for opening your home and your home away from home to us. Thank you for being an excellent tour guide and showing us around your department. I couldn't be more proud of you or that Jacob has chosen you as one of his heroes. Be careful and stay safe!

Thank you Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike for helping us to put all of this together (you too, Chris) and to make another special memory with Jacob. We certainly appreciate all you did for us! We had a really great time!

Making Changes - Confessions for Week 3

1 FooFoo Coffee

My groceries - we lacked a little here. $157 (but there was a HUGE sale on pork!).

I have found that I do spend more if Jeremy shops with me vs. one of us going alone.

1 new set of sheets - I have one that needs to go!

1 lunch at work.

Jeremy and I went on a date which included, dinner, mini golf and a babysitter.

I ran out of cards (birthday, anniversary, and Halloween) and baby wrapping paper.

And we had 5 bags of recycling!

A LARGE improvement over last week.

Daddy, I want to see your.....

As I am getting out of the shower Jacob walks in.

"Daddy, I want to see your pee-pee."

I ask, "Why do you want to see my pee-pee?"

"Because you have to pee daddy. You pee like a cow."

Therapy = back in session - or maybe not

Jacob started back to therapy this morning. And will continue every Monday morning until school is out, or so we thought...

His OT - Mrs. Harris has remained with us this year. I'm glad. I'm not sure he would have handled that change very well.

We do have a new speech therapist though. Her name is Mrs. V. We met her this morning. Jacob did very well with her. He talked and he played. And she said THE best thing ever, "If I were evaluating him as a 3 year old, I would NOT recommend him for services." She said he has significantly improved over Mrs. Honche's reports from last year.

I knew Jacob's speech had improved over the summer. I was very curious if he'd need therapy this year. Mrs V. did say that he does still have trouble with the "L" but they don't work with that until 1st grade!

Over the next few weeks, Mrs V is going to reevaluate Jacob and see exactly where he does stand and possibly think about a preschool for him.

OT with Mrs. Harris went just as well. She says that typically speech therapy and OT go hand in hand - they don't typically do one without the other. She is also going to do some testing in the next few weeks but, it's likely Jacob will test out of OT as well!

The sensory processing disorder is still there. It has its peaks and valleys. Some days, we don't notice it. Some days it glares at you from every ounce of his 47 lbs.! We've noticed that it mostly appears when he's scared, nervous, or uncertain. I think Jeremy and I have really learned what triggers it, what will cause the issues, and how to deter or evade. As he's growing up, the severity is going down. THANK YOU, LORD!

They have to reevaluate to close his case however, we're confident that won't be a problem.

I can't even begin to tell you how proud/ecstatic/relieved I am. I went from having a child that was almost a year behind all of the other kids his age to normal - in FOUR months! I was concerned that he'd have to be in therapy all through school. I was worried for him. And now, it's just gone. It's all gone.

Visit to Uncle Gorilla's

A few months ago, Jacob and I were talking about brothers and sisters and family. I had said, "Chris, Hannah, Nick, and Nevaeh are your brothers and sisters. Aunt Cindy, Aunt Karen, Aunt Gloria and Uncle David are my sisters and brother."

Jacob says, "I wanna go see Uncle Rilla!" I'm not sure how David translates into Gorilla but, hey, he's 3!

Friday night, we went for a visit.

This is their dog, Daisy. She loves to play.

My sister-in-law (my brother's wife) had one huge rose in bloom. I couldn't resist!


"Come on, throw my ball!"

"Wait, Daisy. Wait!"

"Give!"

That's my brother, in the red and his daughter, Brooke (she's 13) in the blue.

And we walked down the road a little bit and saw some horses, a donkey, some fuzz footed chickens, a kitty, and these turkeys sitting on the fence.

Uncle David also gave Jacob a new hat - with a pumper truck on it!!

Thanks Uncle Dave, Aunt Jenny, Brooke and Daisy! We had a lot of fun!

Happy late Birthday, Random Thoughts

Wow, that snuck right up on me! Time flies! I was working on a series of future posts and I realized that my blog had a birthday!

When I started this blog, a little over 2 years ago (August 9, 2007), I never thought I'd make it this far!

I wondered:

Will I have enough to say?

Will anyone read?

Will I continue it?

Will I get more comfortable in my writing?

Will people be angry for what I write?

Will I be misunderstood?

My posts need titles? I hate titles!

My answer to most of those questions, was a resounding, yes. And the titles, I still struggle.

I also found a few things that I didn't expect.

New friends.

A new way to converse with an old friend.

More understanding than I ever imagined.

New insight/memories of my family. I love when my sister's tell me, "I read (something) on your blog and I had to tell you..."

A conversation starter.

Self confidence. Self assurance. Self reliance.

Empowerment.

I certainly see an improvement. I hope the next year, continues to get better. I hope to write more about Jacob as he grows and the adventure (aka - psychosis) that he brings to the game. I'm thankful to have you here with me (even those of you that only I know are here).

As a reminder - you can comment anonymously here and that can be done without another user name and password for you to remember. If you feel like it, you can also sign up to have us emailed to you when we do post.

Thanks for reading!

Allegan County Fair 2009

Jacob rode all by himself on a couple of rides this year. He's in the last truck on your left.

And the train - doesn't he just look like a natural? And the carnie's belly, well, that's just a plus for you!

He got to pet a baby bunny.

And "baaaa!" at some sheep. He was really excited to see a cow pee but, I didn't take any pictures. I seem to recall him saying, "That's alotta pee!".

And the tractor pulls - this guy wasn't the winner of the modified farm style but, his picture had the best smoke!

Jacob with his "ears on" eating popcorn.

'After Hours' - the winner of the truck pulls.

And the winner of the modified tractors. (Notice the white in the botton corner? Yeah, that old dude's head is in every. single. one. of my pictures!)

Of course, the Ferris wheel at night. We rode earlier. Jacob loved it - I thought I was gonna hurl. Have I mentioned - I HATE heights! And they stopped us at the TOP! Twice!

We didn't get our tradional picture with George on the Allegan Fire District truck - matter of fact we didn't see any of the 'fighter-fighters' until the tractor pulls and they were all in gear and on the track in case of an emergency. We did see plenty of Sheriff's reserves - Jacob got a sticker. We got a high-five from Mel and the Allegan City Police. Jacob got to sit in the police's golf cart AND he got to go in the ambulance. I had the camera and was waiting for them to come back from the bathroom so, I didn't get pictures of ANY of it! We also got to see the Sheriff's mounted patrol on our way home! Oooh! Their horses are beau-ti-ful!