Where have we been

Well, some of you may be wondering where we (I) have been. Life got a little out of control the past 2 months. Between preschool restarting, finishing up data collection on a few subjects, planning and hosting a birthday party and getting minimal sleep I haven't had a chance to update this blog! And yes I promise pictures to come soon.

So, first things first: The dissertation is getting there. I have had 3 subjects successfully complete the intervention portion of the study and all three are just waiting on their 1-month follow-up. I unfortunately had to let one subject end participation early due to lack of progress, but I did enroll another subject! My current subject who just enrolled is a joy (not that the others haven't been), but I get lots of hugs (unprompted and usually unexpected) and he's just FUN! The only drawback is that he lives about ~45minutes from my house, so lots of driving......... oh well!

Our little baby B has had 2 ear infections in the past 6-8 weeks, so on top of usual crankiness this is just making things worse. We are praying that she is not following in her big brother's footsteps in needing tubes, but if she gets another ear infection in the next month we will be going to the ENT. I do not want to risk her hearing or language development. On top of the ear issues, she's still not sleeping, we had one magical night a few weeks ago of 7 hours of sleep from her in her crib in her S's room, but nothing since then.....*sigh* We are working at trying to figure out what is going on with her sleep issues, but our own lack of sleep makes it difficult. I think we may begin tracking all of her sleep, eating, diapers, to try to find out what's going on...... I'm sure my sitter will love that.......

Speaking of big brother DJ turned 2! When I started this blog I had in mind that on each of my child's birthdays I would post something special about them. Well, I missed his, but I will try to get something up about him. He started at the preschool this fall and is generally loving it. It's a great opportunity for him to be separate from his siblings and find his own way.

So Al and S are now in the same preschool program (last year Al was in the Two's like DJ). We were really concerned about them, mostly about S bossing and directing Al around. I think this happened a bit in the beginning, but when I was there on Tuesday they were pretty well separate. It should be an interesting parent-teacher conference next week.

I love my children's preschool. They attend a co-operative preschool, where there is loads of opportunity for free play and parent involvement is mandatory. They have everything from dress-up to free-art, directed art to imaginary play, sensory activities and lots of time for gross motor play. One of my favorite things about our preschool is the gross motor time. They have a great outdoor space and they rarely let things like weather prevent them from going outside. I was looking at pictures the other day on their FB page and there were so many of them outside in their winter gear just playing. It is so important to me both as a parent and as a PT that kids get outside and move their bodies. This preschool is a great fit for us and personally I love the chance to come and work in the classrooms with my kids. If you ever have a choice between a co-operating preschool and a traditional one, my personal choice would be a co-operating one.

So I hope that answers where we (I) have been the past bit, and I will be making more updates now that I will not be gone 5/7 nights a week doing dissertation study visits.