Amazeballs

First off, I'd like to apologize for the length of time passing between each post. I sincerely hope in the next few weeks we get settled into our new house and routine, then updating my blog will be easier to do on a more frequent basis.

I have nothing but pride and amazement at Mr N lately. He is truly astonishing and mind blowing. We haven't began services here yet, we still need to do a full evaluation for him to see what areas he needs help. It was scheduled for yesterday but sickness forced us to reschedule.

Recently Mr N's vocabulary has been expanding rapidly, using 3-4 word sentences, using words like me, mine, my, and I. Yesterday he said "help me" and even when he says "thank you" it's much clearer. I'm quite sure that every day I say to Daddy "omg do you see how much more he is talking" it's really quite astounding.

I couldn't be more proud of my little man, he has really flourished. We still have our struggles, but seeing his obvious progress is so encouraging and reassuring.

On Friday May 17 we went to Glendo Reservoir to camp with two of my brothers, their wives and kids. My mom accompanied my eldest brother to surprise the rest of us. I was curious to see how Mr N warmed up to the family, he did remarkable. Playing with his cousins, riding in the bike trailer, playing in the lake, etc he did great.

Our camping trip ended a day early when we got rained out, so we headed for a hotel in Loveland, CO. We stayed there one night before dropping Daddy off at the airport (he spent the week in the office) then started our road trip to Kansas, with Grandma in tow. We arrived at Grandma's house on Monday evening, Tuesday we did some preaching with Grandma then spent the afternoon playing at the park. Wednesday we went to visit my Grandma, my friend Jessica, then to visit my brother, sister-in-law and their two kiddos. Aside from a small freakout at Great Grandma's Mr N did quite well with the eventful day, which included lunch at a restaurant, a quick shopping trip to get toys for his cousins, and a couple of hours at the park with Jessica.

Thursday we headed to meet my friend Chelsey and her gorgeous 3 y/o Jaxon for coffee at the park. It took a bit for the boys to warm up to each other, but once they did they played well together. Meanwhile, Grandma spoiled E by taking her on the train ride. We had lunch then met some more friends with kids at the Topeka Zoo. It was Mr N's first trip to the zoo and E had only been once when she was 6 weeks old. Again, Mr N did quite well considering all of the friends we met up with hadn't met him before. He immediately became friends with Ezra, Cai and Trager peering in at the sleeping tigers was the highlight of his day. Grandma got the kids food to feed the animal in the petting zoo and pulled them around in a wagon, probably exhausting herself beyond belief. We ended the afternoon with more playing in the park with more friends whom I hadn't seen in years. That evening we had meeting at my mom's congregation, Mr N did quite well with a little talking the first 30 or so minutes before I had to head outside with him. After meeting we hit up Sonic for ice cream cones with some more friends and the kids played with their newly acquired cars on the patio area.

Friday morning we packed up and headed back to Denver to get Daddy from the airport. We ended up leaving a bit earlier than scheduled which left us with a few hours to kill before Daddy's flight arrived. We stopped in Russell, KS to peruse Alco, it's been 11 years since I lived there, so it was kind of fun to show the kids the town. Another stop was in Colby, KS where they have a great little gas station with Starbucks, Qdoba, souvenirs, and a great fenced playground. We spent an hour there eating lunch, drinking coffee and playing in the wind. We continued our journey to the airport arriving just as Daddy was exiting. Then we headed to Pueblo, CO to spend the weekend with my dear friend Susie.

At this point, I figured if Mr N was starting to fall apart we could always end our trip early to head back home. But he did amazing with all of the traveling, visiting, meeting new people, and staying in various places. We stayed at Susie's until Monday morning then began our trek home. Mr N loved Susie's dogs and cats which he expressed by laying on them at any given opportunity. E surprised me a bit, too. Last year when we visited Susie, E barely played with Addison, she got along better with Noah. But this time E and Addison were the most inseparable five year old's ever. Leaving was quite hard, especially for E. When she realized she didn't want to stay there by herself, she begged to take Addison home with us. Knowing Addison would be sad without her family, she soon gave up that notion and resigned to begging us to take her to see her cousins in Sheridan.

The drive home was mostly uneventful, we stopped back in Loveland, CO to retrieve the keys I inadvertently left at the hotel, grabbed food for the crew and sinus rinse for mommy and daddy.

In ten days of traveling, staying at four different places and Daddy being away, I think we only had one major meltdown from Mr N. We have spent the week recovering from illness, dealing with craptacular weather and cranky Mommy, but Mr N has taken it all in stride.

I have to admit, I thought I might be biting off more than I could chew by cramming so much into ten days, worried that Mr N would have multiple meltdowns, concerned that he'd regress, feared his progress would stall; however, just the opposite, he has progressed tremendously over the last 2 weeks. Seeing him grow so much so quickly is truly amazeballs (it's a real word)!