Mandy moved!

Ok, so this is mostly just a link to my friend, Mandy's, blog, about her recent to move to Houston. She does a great job of summing up her experience with us over the past 2 1/2 years of working with Lewis. By the end, she was working with Lewis and Owen and was at our house (or in and out) chunks of just about every day. Needless to say, the past couple of weeks have been an adjustment. She knew the boys really well and easily worked with them, helping to teach them all kinds of things. She is pursuing Applied Behavior Analysis (the type of therapy we use at home) as a career now, which excites me because it is a field that is so needed when the rates of Autism have sky-rocketed and it is the one most proven method that works to change behaviors of kids with the disorder. Unfortunately, it is not commonly used in this area.....and when it is used, it is often not as accurate as it should be because there are so few board certified behavior analysts training others to do it. So, we wish Mandy the best of luck and beyond that--pray that God will use her to help so many families like ours to help our kids reach their full potential.

These pictures are not the best, but it is hard to take pictures of squirmy boys on an iPhone.

random pics

So...we are kind of behind. These are random pics. Phoebe, above, had her first play time at Hopscotch. The boys got to play and she got to relax.


Owen left Big Red School demanding to wear his backpack one day a few weeks ago. He has never wanted to wear it so I took several pictures of him holding his butterfly painting. So funny. He got pretty upset when he had to take it off to wear it in the car though.

We have also been spending quite a bit of time at the "water park" downtown. The boys are enjoying the fountains with the hot weather we've had.

Lewis strutting his stuff.

Owen taking a break on the side.

This is Lewis with one of his "M & M" friends. He loves going to Kroger to see these guys.

Lewis also has been loving to hang out in Phoebe's pink box. She has a little bird that plays music and he has been learning to play the songs on the piano.

We got to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks this year. We went to a party at our friends' house (Jim & Susan Nelson). There were a lot of bigger fireworks there since Kentucky's laws got a bit looser this year. The boys LOVED it!


Phoebe and Aunt Ellen enjoyed the party before it got dark. Since the boys liked it so much we went to Alvaton's fireworks show and it was pretty big and loud. Once again, they loved it, but Phoebe did not like how loud the fireworks were at this bigger event. Next year should be better!

Owen and the monkey during their nap.

A cute pic of Phoebe in her cute dress from the Shephard cousins!

birthday highlights, Part 2

Big smile before he blew out the #5 candle.

The next weekend, Justin's side of the family came for a visit and showered the boys with gifts. We had the Shepherds, Shephards (from Nashville) and Uncle Lee and Aunt Imogene Simmons (also from Nashville). It was lots of fun!

Lewis opening a gift with encouragement from Grandma Linda (aka Ninna).


Owen trying out the pirate costume from a dress up set.

Baby Phoebe looking on with Aunt Monica.

Yet another cake.


Aunt Jeanne takes a turn with Phoebe. It was such a fun day, and we had a great time with everyone.

birthday highlights, Part 1

Because the boys' birthdays are so close together, it makes more sense to celebrate them together. However, to keep it from being totally overwhelming, historically we have had separate parties with each side of the family. This year, we opted to throw in a "Tattoo Party" so some other kids could come. The above photo is the only picture I had from the party. Justin has many more and we will try to post them soon. You can see our friends, Tom and Jack Sternberg, talking with Mandy Guss while others are getting tattooed out of view of the camera.

The next day, we celebrated with the Reitmeyer side. The boys each had some candles to blow out.

Phoebe and Grandma Martha.

Lewis got a tee ball set. Owen and Grandpa enjoyed it most!

Grandpa and baby Phoebe.

We did some work outside after the celebrating. Beth and dad posed for a shot.

firework

In honor of Independence Day, Lewis performs Katy Perry's "Firework."

Lewis turns 5!

This is Lewis smiling as we sang "Happy Birthday" to him after dinner tonight. He kept counting down the days to his birthday and he would say, "I won't have to sing!" But it seems like he meant that everyone else would sing for HIM. And sure enough, he got a cheesy grin when we sang.

Lewis has been having a busy summer, but it's actually pretty laid back compared to life when school is in session. He's been eating a lot of new foods, which is huge for him. He's added corn, pizza and cereal bar to his diet in the last two weeks. He seems to be getting over the fact that he has to eat new foods. He still resists and talks about "deleting" them, but then gives in and eats. We use an iPad or iPhone to reward him (depending on who is around....our BCBA has been helping with this and she has an iPad, thankfully!), and then fade it out as he eats the food multiple times.

He is reading books, and everything he sees. Here is a video of him reading some of our "Baby Jesus" book with Owen and Phoebe the other night. It is one of his current favorites.



Here is Lewis playing some songs from his Miss Lynn cd. He loves her music and loves playing the songs on the piano when he gets a chance. They are longer videos, so be warned!

phoebe's two month stats

We made it to the doctor the other day, and can report Phoebe's official stats:

Weight: 11 lbs. 4.5 oz.
Length: 22.5"

She's in the 50th percentile for weight, and the doctor was super pleased with her growth. She seems to be doing great! We skipped shots for now. I'm trying to figure out what shots and when we want to allow her to have. Otherwise, it was a lovely visit.

Here's Phoebe after her bath the other day. She's a pink monkey! And here's a video of her smiling at about 5-6 weeks.

Owen turns 3!

Today, Owen became a big three year old. Turning 3 has brought about some changes. First, he has moved into a big boy bed. We made the transition about 10 days ago. He was actually very sad to leave his crib, and still asks to sleep there regularly. The first night he cried quite a bit, but now gets into bed just fine.To prepare him that first night, we kept talking about it, and had him write "BED" on his magnadoodle. He is all about writing these days, and spends hours a week writing and spelling on the magnadoodle or outside with chalk.


Here he is in the bed before nap. I tried to get a picture of him that first night, but he was too sad! The funny thing is that when he goes to bed, he is so used to being in a crib, that he stays there without question. He waits for us to come get him after nap and in the morning. We keep expecting him to figure it out, but so far, so good!

This one is to illustrate how active he is. It was hard getting him to cooperate so we could take a picture of ...

his stegosaurus tattoo! Justin got a new tattoo recently, and the boys have been obsessed ever since.

Here's Lewis' first tattoo. Our friend and therapist, Mandy Guss, bought and applied these to the kids and they are both super proud of their body art.

Also with turning three, Owen graduated from First Steps, Kentucky's Early Intervention program. He will head to preschool in August (more on that later), but he will surely miss his speech therapist, Kim Smith. She did a great job with him, and he really loved seeing her each week. His DI, Krista Posey, is kind of a fixture in our home, and also made a huge impact on Owen. Both boys love Krista. She makes learning so much fun. We hope to still see her regularly, but I should still get a new picture! :)

Today Owen had a big time (despite a torrential rain that poured for hours). He started out at Big Red School, then got some frozen yogurt and a visit at the Barnes & Noble train table with Mandy.

After nap, he played some with Lewis and then we had dinner. He chose to eat Mac and Cheese (one of his current faves) and applesauce. After which we had cupcakes and ice cream.

Blowing out his candles.

Finally, he got to open a few gifts. We have more parties coming up with family and friends. Tonight he got a couple of I Spy books, some underwear (which he did not seem at all excited about) to encourage him toward potty training, a car from Aunt Beth, and this tool set. The drill actually works! He seemed to like it, but was hyper due to so much sugar today. We took a walk after dinner to use up some energy before bed.

It was a fun day. Now we get to prepare for Lewis to turn 5 next week!

2 months old!

It's hard to believe Phoebe is 2 months old! She must be going through a growth spurt because she has slept a ton the last couple of days. She is smiling quite a bit now and loving her toy dragonfly. She is also sleeping 7-9 hours just about every night, which is great for us!! She is cooing quite a bit, but still doesn't like laying on her own (to play) so she has spent a lot of time in her bouncy seat the last week or so. She has rolled a couple more times, but only when propped on a pillow, so she needs a bit of gravity to help her, which is age appropriate. :)

It has been fun trying some of her little dresses on her now that she is fitting into more of her 3 month clothes. She has a doctor's appointment this week, so we will have an update of her stats soon.

Just the girls!

summer times

So while Phoebe has been sitting around growing (she's 8 weeks already!), the boys have been out playing quite a bit around town at the various parks Bowling Green has to offer. Aunt Beth took a two week trip to Chicago which gave Justin and I a chance to get out with the kids in the evenings to insure their extreme tiredness at bedtime. It's been working pretty well. Owen even opted to push Lewis on the swings some on this trip.





They are so happy there that the pictures turn out better than usual! It was hard to pick which ones to post, but you can stare longer at the ones you like best. :)