Last week, Lewis had a field trip to Jackson's Orchard and a Halloween party at school. Thanks to some helpers watching Owen, I was able to go to both! We have been to the "pumpkin patch" multiple times in the last month, but it was fun seeing Lewis with his peers and he always loves it.
This was a class photo.
At the Halloween party, there were stations set up for the kids to visit. Lewis, dressed as Curious George, was not excited about any of the stations, but we went to several and Lewis was willing to participate. First, we went to the tattoo station. Lewis squirmed while we gave him his chosen Buzz Lightyear tattoo. He jerked away just after the tattoo had successfully transferred to his arm, and he was pretty happy about it.
We decorated a cookie with icing and sprinkles and then headed to the pumpkin decorating table. The kids got to decorate the pumpkins they got at the orchard the day before. Lewis enjoyed putting some puffy stickers on his pumpkin.
Finally, with some prodding, Lewis held still to get his face painted. We skipped a couple of the other stations, but he ate a plate full of BBQ chips during snacktime, so all in all, it was a successful time.
A couple weeks ago, my friend Natasha flew into Nashville from Minsk, Belarus. She stayed in Nashville the first week and our other friend, Tasha flew in from North Carolina for a little reunion at Heather Morozov's place. It was great to be together, even briefly. L to R: Annabella Morozov, Natasha, Shelley, Tasha & Heather.
We tried to take a picture of the kids (Val, Owen, Lewis & Annabella).
All of us girls got to go see Sixpence None the Richer in Nashville on 9/30. It was a blast! If you know me at all, you know they are pretty much my most favorite band. They haven't played together often in the last several years, but are coming out with a new album and did this free show with Jars of Clay in anticipation of its release early next year. It was a nice girls night out.
Natasha got to spend some time with us in Bowling Green after that, and we wish she lived closer so we could see her more often. The boys really loved having her here. She taught them to count in Russian too, which we will post video of soon. It is so nice seeing these close friends when it happens!
At the end of September, my sisters and I took the boys to Dinosaur World in Cave City, Ky. They offer a discount day for surrounding counties once a year, and we took advantage again this year. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, with light traffic we assume due to so many church folk in this area. One of the benefits of going to church in the evening is being able to get out to places early, so we took advantage and it was really fun! It has been Ellen's dream to go for some time, so we were glad to make that dream come true.
Owen went last year, but was too little to really appreciate the dinosaurs.
Ellen and Owen checking out the Wooly Mammoths.
We walked out to the big dinosaur by that you can see from I-65. That one is huge!
We took some group pictures on the tail of the dinosaur, but it was hard to get everyone looking at once.
Lewis and me. Aunt Ellen & Lewis.
After we looked at all the dinosaurs, the boys got to play at the playground.
Then they hit the boneyard. They love to dig in the sand.
Lewis even posed in the funny dinosaur mouth. It was a great day!!
Sweet Owen has been going through an emotional stage. He's super happy at home and around the people he is most comfortable, but he has been more attached and clingy of late.
To back up, in July we took Owen for an evaluation as part of the sibling study we are part of at Vanderbilt's Kennedy Center. At that time, he was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (pervasive development disorder, not otherwise specified). You can google it, but basically it means that he is registering on the spectrum at this point, but not enough to warrant any particular ASD diagnosis such as autism or asperger's syndrome. He is showing deficits in communication, social interaction, and has peculiar and obsessive interests (such as counting repeatedly). He talks constantly, and can say just about anything, but often echoes and repeats things over and over.
Despite that, he is making progress and is so far above and beyond where Lewis was at his age, that it gives us a lot of hope for him. Still, the report we got from the psychologist recommends 20-25 hours a week of intervention, which is rather overwhelming. He would have lost his First Steps services without the diagnosis (because of their testing standards), so we are grateful to still have that. And we were grateful he got into Big Red School this fall, and has been going one morning a week.
Poor kid though, he cried off and on the whole first day at school. This week they said it was more like 30 minutes. We have been singing the songs a lot and trying to keep him excited about it. Next week is fall break so he will have 2 weeks to work up his fear again. Hopefully he'll be ready to go back. We are also in the process of getting the same Medicaid waiver for him that Lewis has so that we can get a better home program in place. Owen responds great to any ABA type training we have tried, and seems to really enjoy it. If you clap for him, and say "Yay, Owen!" he'll happily do almost anything.
It has taken us a couple of months to wrap our brains around this diagnosis. He is so different from Lewis that we were just hoping he was a bit quirky. When we see him around typical kids though, there is definitely a difference, so we are grateful to know so early so that we can help him. While he doesn't tantrum or get super picky about his routine, he does struggle with new places and new people and especially those two things at once. All of that to say, we appreciate your prayers for Owen and for his progress and emotional state.
A couple of random Owen facts: His new favorite foods are dried cranberries and special cheese (cottage cheese). He loves to help me pick red tomatoes out of the garden and to count to ten in Spanish. He easily memorizes books that he loves and will "read" them to himself or to us over and over. He also is singing a ton lately, and has finally learned that his brother's name is Lewis, not Reeses. He still calls him Reeses sometimes, but is getting it right more often than not.
A couple of weeks ago, we got invited to a birthday party for our friend, Cyrus, at Jackson's Orchard. It was a blast. We had been to the orchard plenty of times, but going for a birthday party is a lot of fun. Cyrus turned three, and had a really cool fire engine cake and hats for the kids to wear.
The boys got to play on the playground equipment.
We got to take a hayride and picked out a pumpkin.
Lewis loves the pumpkin patch.
He was very adamant about his pumpkin choice.
This was the best picture we got of the three of us on the hayride back to the party area. Thanks to Aaron, Miranda and Cyrus for a fun day!
On September 12th, we got up early and went to see the balloons fly in as part of the Balloons, Tunes & BBQ event here in Bowling Green. Lewis loved it last year, and we were spoiled because the balloons actually flew right past us. This year, the wind was blowing in a different direction and the balloons were further away, but it was still fun!
Aunt Beth and Owen got to come with us this year.
Owen liked the big balloons.
After that we headed to Louisville to celebrate my dad's (Grandpa's) birthday. We had fun and got to see my step-sister, Leah and her husband and kids too. This is a picture of dad & Martha and the collective grandkids, including Will and Mallory. It was nice to seem them!
We have been a bit out of sync in the Shepherd household recently. Please forgive our long silence from blog updates. It has been a crazy few weeks with school getting underway, and the big Lil Angels Attic sale last week. I actually consigned this time, so it was a bit more of a time investment than previous years. It went well, but I'm glad it's over!
So, Lewis has been getting back into the routine of school, and I am getting back in the routine of taking him. As a precursor, I should note that Lewis has representatives of many people in his life in the form of "Little People." Below you will find our Fisher Price family portrait: L to R--Daddy, Owen, Lewis & Mama. Lewis has glasses, but we are not sure why. And I get to be a blonde! Justin makes sense because he is carrying two cups of coffee. Owen will forever be a baby.
Anyway, when school started, Lewis' aide from last year, Mr. Patrick, did not return. He took a position at the high school instead. We tried to prepare Lewis that Mr. Patrick would not be around, but it was tough for him to understand. School started, and things were going well. He is working with another aide, Miss Brittani, and likes her just fine. But he came home from school and started re-living some of his time with Mr. Patrick with his little people. Below you can see Lewis and Mr. Patrick working at the table.
It's been four weeks, and Lewis still engages with Mr. Patrick in his pretend world, but not as often. He also has characters for his teacher and some of the other aides. It's a bit of a window into what he is doing at school.
In other news, we are trying to teach him how to swing the right way. Aunt Beth gets to deal with the brunt of this, but we have tried to get him to pump his legs and actually participate in swinging. He's still not there yet, but he is a much more willing participant than he used to be. Owen loves crawling through tunnels. He has also learned to jump since our last post. Justin has a funny video of him learning that we hope to post.
And Lewis has been riding his tricycle again. Now that the weather is bearable, it has been great to get out and play. Owen loves chasing Lewis up and down our alley. Lewis likes to pretend he is Lightning McQueen and go real fast.
It's nice there is something they like to do together!! Notice they are both smiling!
Lewis and I recently went on our first ever "Doughnut Date." Some friends gave us a cd that a girl they knew recorded and the boys both absolutely love it. One song is about going on a doughnut date with a friend and getting a "frosted with sprinkles" doughnut. Lewis is an extremely picky eater, but since he sings about doughnuts all the time, it seemed like he might be open to eating one. Sure enough, he picked one that was frosted with pink sprinkles (he could've gotten green, or mixed...but he chose PINK!) and he ate every bite! I had to hand him each bite, he wasn't willing to eat it on his own, but he didn't fight with me about it either.
To make the time even more fun, we played a Blue's Clues version of "Memory." Owen and I had stopped at a local thrift store and found it for $1 that morning. Lewis was thrilled about that too. We had a good time, and Lewis even said "hi" to quite a few others visiting the Great American Donut Shop that day.
We actually stopped by the mall before that and Lewis got to ride the carousel. We tried riding a couple other times recently in Chattanooga, and in Bowling Green when the carousel was not operating. This time worked out, and then he got to ride Nessie, a dragon that goes up and down. We also stopped in at Macy's and rode the escalator a few times, which he also really loved. I guess you could say Lewis is a cheap date.
Lewis started back to preschool on Monday. It has been a busy week! But, to catch you up, one of his latest obsessions is with arrows, and particularly one way signs. He notices arrows everywhere (you should look around the next time you are out at all the arrows pointing all over!). I found him doing this one day with his leap frog letters.
The boys have been watching a video called "Watch Me Learn" that models play for kids with autism. It is funny to see them mimicking what they see. Lewis got home from his first day of school and immediately made a train with Owen to go down the slide. It has become a daily ritual for them. They both really enjoy it and it is great exercise.
Here's a video of a day recently:
As for school, Lewis had a super aide who worked with him last year, but recently took a new job and is not working at his school anymore. Poor Lewis has asked for him repeatedly, but seems to be enjoying school despite his absence. He is adjusting better than we thought, which will really help next year when he will change schools completely.
Since it cooled off this week, Owen and I headed to the park for a few minutes of fun. He liked riding this horse and met a little girl who he said "hi" to repeatedly.
Last week, Lewis had a field trip to Jackson's 
This was a class photo.
At the Halloween party, there were stations set up for the kids to visit. Lewis, dressed as Curious George, was not excited about any of the stations, but we went to several and Lewis was willing to participate. First, we went to the tattoo station. Lewis squirmed while we gave him his chosen Buzz Lightyear tattoo. He jerked away just after the tattoo had successfully transferred to his arm, and he was pretty happy about it.
We decorated a cookie with icing and sprinkles and then headed to the pumpkin decorating table. The kids got to decorate the pumpkins they got at the 
Finally, with some prodding, Lewis held still to get his face painted. We skipped a couple of the other stations, but he ate a plate full of BBQ chips during snacktime, so all in all, it was a successful time.
