Easter

One of the most difficult things about living in California is being away from family. I love getting together with all of the extended family having meals, playing games, and eating some more! My kids don't like all of the typical holiday foods so I didn't bother making all of the fixings for just us. Kind of sad, I think I might just do it next year anyway, just for traditions sake. We thought it was going to rain on Easter so we did our main Easter egg hunt on Saturday. All 3 kids did great! I loved watching them all participate. Cooper of course had his basket loaded and the babies had a select few, so he had to re hide them for the little 2 to find. They loved it. Cohen stopped and opened his eggs every time he found one and ate the candy out, then left the egg where he found it. :) The Easter Bunny showed up Sunday morning with lots of goodies and the kids loved that. Cooper was shocked that the Easter bunny didn't bring much candy, mainly toys. Hmmm...that smart bunny! We went to the Easter service and I loved it when we were on the way home and Cooper told the Easter story to us, very nicely. He had many more details in there than I had explained to him. We did color eggs and make Easter cupcakes. Fun times and Great memories being made!

St. Patrick's Day Party

Cooper's K-5 Class loves to party and celebrate every occasion! I haven't done a great job of posting pictures of each one, (I know I should). They even celebrated Chinese New Year! I try to make it to all of the parties, I love to see them sing songs, and what hat they have made for each party! The kids all had a Treasure hunt for St. Patrick's day and searched for Gold. So, Cooper is really into "treasure" now. They had a green milkshake, some cool jello treats and cookies for their party!

What Cohen Wishes We Knew

I am reading a back About 10 Things Your Autistic Child Wishes you Knew. Very interesting stuff. I have a link with the 10 points listed out with a brief summary. http://www.ellennotbohm.com/article-archive/ten-things-every-child-with-autism-wishes-you-knew/ I thought this would be good for some of my friends and family that want to better understand Cohen or any kids with Autism. I didn't know much about Autism before Cohen was diagnosed and I still have a LOT to learn. I think it's good to be informed about these things, you never know when you will come across a situation where you "wish" you had a better understanding. I have several people that have said to me that Cohen doesn't "look" like he has Autism. Hmmm... Well, I would be more offended if I thought they were trying to offend me. Cohen is a little boy, and there is not a certain look he has to have to have struggles. Just some thoughts!! :)

Cohen...

Ok so I promise we have been doing plenty around here, I have just been a major slacker with the blogging. Life has been super busy, but in good ways! My baby boy, Cohen is just progressing by leaps and bounds. We are amazed everyday by the progress we are seeing with him. The phrases are increasing. They are short and sweet but he is able to communicate with us. Some things that I have seen this past month that have progressed are him taking off clothes (by himself) and attempting to dress himself. Some of the outfits are pretty funny. He always chooses shorts and tries them on upside down, but atleast he tries :). Clay and I thought for a while now that Cohen has had an obsession with Apples. He does love to eat them, but he is always saying "My Apple, My Apple." So, we give him an apple of course. Break through...I now know he is talking about the I-pad because there is an apple on it. :) No wonder he looked at us like we were crazy always feeding him apples. Help has arrived and we are ever so thankful. My schedule has filled up so much, it's a little over whelming. Oh well for the Bible study group I wanted to join..mornings are filling Super Fast. Cohen will be starting school next week across town. He will go 5 days a week for 2 1/2 hours a day. I met his teacher last week and saw his classroom. It is Amazing. Lots of centers, scheduled very well, music, and even therapies. He will love it I am sure. We will still have his Occupational and Speech therapies 2 days a week in the mornings. And now we will be starting in home help with the Easter Seals. They will be coming to help me with teaching and working with Cohen 6 hours a week. We are so blessed and feel so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives!

Update

I have not made the time for blogs lately, so I am just going to do an update on our Family! This is my one consolidated catch-up and I will try to do better. :) My Mom came recently to stay with us to celebrate Christmas. We were not able to travel this year, I just don't know how we will do that again for a while. :( We planned to take Mom to do several new things but of course this is CA rainy season so we didn't have a lot of nice days. We did go to a Winery, which was nice, see some Redwoods and go to the Children's Museum. Christmas was nice and somewhat relaxed. It was nice to kind of create some of our traditions. Clay and I have been trying to do some updates on the house during the not so sunny days. It's feeling so much more like home with our personal touch's. The house isn't huge but the layout is Great and is just perfect for us! We are planning on painting the kitchen cabinets and my armoire in the Great Room...I will post pictures when there is some progress. The kids are all happy and healthy! Yay!!! Cooper was out of school for 2 weeks and just went back today. He was ready and I think we were all ready for a schedule again. We worked on his reading some over the break so I am hoping things will progress for him in this next half of the year. He is so so Close!! Favorite things are video games, super heros and any type of ball sport! Also, he just loves to help me bake! Cohen is back in his routine with 2 therapies a week and improving daily!! I just love all his sweet words, and the fact that he is understanding more and more of what we are saying to him. We find out on the 18th what his evaluation results are and what program they will put him in for preschool. I think he will LOVE school. Favorite things for him to do at home are legos, trains (of course), and puzzles. Cenley Grace is 2 going on 6. She thinks she is a Big girl! Cenley has been in a big girl bed since 17 months (mainly because of our moving), refused to even sit in a booster seat now for 6 months, has her 3 year molars. Cenley is fun loving, sassy, tomboy that loves to do what Cooper is doing. Throwing rocks, playing in the dirt while wearing a princess dress. But, she also likes to follow me around and do what I do. She likes to clean, wear cute clothes, and carry a "bop bop." Clay is loving his job more than ever, enjoying to run and bike! Even talking about doing a triathalon. I am keeping him busy with projects around the house but he spends lots of time with the kiddos..especially with the X box Kinect! :) I am busy! :) I didn't think I would be happy in CA but I am. Now that we are out of San Jose and into more of a rural area I love it. I am happy that my family is happy. I do miss Alabama though, and hope to go back eventually. There are so many adventures to be made here and I am up for it. Especially with Cohen thriving with all the help he is getting.

Cohen Update

Well..since Cohen was diagnosed with Autism not so long ago we have had a lot going on in regards to getting help. So much paper work and testing is involved in everything we do but the Help is beginning to arrive and we are thrilled. I have actually seen a lot of progress with Cohen already. For one we (Clay and I) are seeing things differently and learning how to parent Cohen with different expectations. We got Cohen and I-pad because we learned how great they are for Autistic kids for educational purposes. I didn't think it would hurt to give it a try. Before we bought the ipad Cohen would not use his hands to push buttons, he would just take our hands to do things he wanted done. Now, he takes the ipad turns it on, goes to the ap he wants and plays the games, listens to books, or watches Netflix. I am amazed at how much progress he has made with just that. There is one Ap that is called Emoticons and it helps Cohen express how he is feeling..such I am Happy, I am Sad, I am Angry..and many more. Cohen was sitting at the table the other day and said, "I am Happy." What? ...That is the ONLY time he has ever expressed himself, it felt so good to hear that. There are more examples, but that is my favorite. Also, Cohen is now in speech therapy one day a week, he LOVES it. They are not only helping Cohen they are helping ME. I am learning new strategies in helping Cohen with speech and transitions. We are about to start occupational therapy, which I think will also be one day a week. We are working on the paper work and Cohen will begin a preschool her in Gilroy! We are thrilled with all the love and support we are getting for him! Thank you all, friends and family, for loving us and our Cohen and for your continued prayers.

Birthday Girl

We recently celebrated Cenley's 2nd birthday! I really wanted to make it Super Special for her but also low key and just our little family. Something about family being together and celebrating each other, I just LOVE it! :) We decided to go to Build a Bear for Cenley's big day. The boys had done a bear before but Cenley had not. So the boys brought their bears and were going to get a new outfit for them, and Cenley got to pick a bear and get an outfit. They all had a Blast! Cenley got a tie die bear and to Clay's dismay not a princess dress but a John Deere T-shirt! :) Cohen didn't want an outfit for his bear, but it did have a bath and he did choose a new puppy. Cooper of course came home with a clean, stitched up brown bear with a Spiderman Costume. We went home and had a Princess Party...of course. Cake and ice cream and presents. So much fun!! She felt really special and we wore her out enough to throw a 2 year old tantrum to top it off!