New picture alert - check out Holden's blog for some new shots of him at school.

Avery is adjusting well, falling asleep on her own now (yes!) and getting into a more regular nap pattern. It is making life much, much easier even though she still does not seem to love the car, she is improving in this regard. She particularly loves to laugh with her brothers and giggles when they play with her.

Tomorrow we have her 4 month appointment and Quinn will get his DTaP shot....happy 3rd birthday, Quinn! He is enjoying being the center of attention today, eating cookies of his choosing, selecting his cake for Saturday and being proud to be three. I promise to take lots of pictures at his party this weekend to share with everyone.

The kids all seem to be recovering well from their colds – but now I have a scratchy throat. Hopefully it will go away without much incident – I just don’t have time to feel crappy right now.

Holden is still in a stim-fest of sorts – not completely back to his semi-normal self.

Today we are going to be hanging out with some friends, perhaps at the local lake down the street or at their swimming pool up the hill. Hopefully it will be a good time for the kids to relax and have some fun together.

We have absolutely NO plans tomorrow – which is nice. We have put the RV purchase temporarily on hold while we decide what we want to do. Last week T.J. went to the place where we saw the model we believe we want and he made an offer that they refused (and not politely, I might add). I wonder if perhaps we were being a bit stodgy and lost out but really, I think the guy was a bit rude on the other end regardless. The one other dealership that sells this model in this state is near my Dad’s house so I had him go tire kick there yesterday to see if he thought it would be worthwhile for T.J. to make an offer there the next time he’s in Northern CA. If T.J. is in Sacramento within the next two weeks, which he does plan to be, he might stop by and make an offer and see what they say there.

The weather has really turned nice and feels like Autumn is in the air. Crisp nights and mild days make this my second favorite season…Spring is my favorite. Time for apples and Halloween – fun stuff.

Getting Sick of Cold Showers

Well, our hot water heater is supposed to be replaced today…and not a moment too soon. Cold showers are literally painful, especially when it’s early in the morning. I don’t feel very clean but certainly I’m cleaner than if I didn’t shower at all! The kids have been swimming in the pool so they’ll get a nice, hot bath tonight as well. If this isn’t fixed soon, T.J. has threatened to get a hotel room! How funny is that?

Holden’s school bus broke down on his way home Tuesday and he thought it most interesting and entertaining. He shared this with me a few times – telling me the bus was broken. He loved that yellow school bus but the white van with a/c is welcome in my opinion. They made it home only about 20 minute later than usual.

This weekend we might be buying an RV – we are checking out two other models and if they look good we may make an offer. If they don’t look good, we’ll be making a final decision and hoping to make an offer somewhere within the week. It’s a big decision and I’m researching the heck outta everything. There is a lot to consider and I’ve got the equivalent to Consumer Reports for RV’s – although the guy that compiles the information is really strict beyond belief, it’s good to have this information.

I am strongly considering enrolling Quinn in preschool, although I fear more exposure to viruses, it’s just going to be a fact of life, I guess. He seems interested in attending so I’ve got some research to do. If I do send him, it will most likely only be twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The cost is minimal (under $200/month). I have heard that most of the private preschools will allow unvaccinated kids – and Quinn is close to being as fully inoculated as he’s ever going to be so hopefully that won’t pose an issue.

See Holden’s blog for some more stuff on him.

Yep – we’re alive and well out here in hot, humid Southern California. The blog has fallen by the wayside as of late but rest assured, we’re busy, busy, busy around here. I actually had something long typed up and I cannot locate where I saved the damn thing so I’ll try to attempt and re-cap the last month or so and give you an idea of what we’ve been doing.

Our trip to Northern California camping was a blast. Although Holden had some difficult times adjusting to being in a new place, we had a good time visiting family and hanging out in the rented motorhome. We came to the revelation that we are indeed going to buy an RV and have since been doing research, shopping for new and used trailers that will fit our lifestyle and pocketbook. We’ve narrowed it down to two models (or floorplans – we are still going to be doing a little bit more research this week) and perhaps we’ll have something before the month end. We’re hoping to get away once a month for a weekend and do a long trip each summer too.

Holden returned back to school last Monday and fell right back into a good routine. His therapist Karen moved and so we’re working with his other therapist Sheila full time (9 hours per week) now. Nicole has two more days to work here before she leaves too so it’s a big time of change and upheaval for him but he is rolling with the punches quite nicely. We may hire someone else to work with him once per week starting in October or we just may use the hours to let someone babysit – we shall see. We’ve let biomedical stuff fall by wayside and he has been a bit more stimmy – looking back I’m wondering if we should go back to the things that we were doing including the mild chelation. I feel like I’m not doing enough right now and not in the loop with the latest and greatest thing.

We had an RDA, an assessment for Holden’s RDI skills and he is doing remarkably well there. We need to focus more to get him through stage 3 so we can move him along to stage 4. We notice a difference in him when we continue to do RDI activities on a daily basis. Unfortunately it’s difficult for me when T.J. travels – especially because the baby is being a bit high-needs these days. She is not a good day napper at all but sleeps amazingly well through the night which is a godsend (and I’m not complaining)….it just makes the days a bit difficult, particularly when the boys need my assistance. We are meeting with the RDI consultant this week to figure out where we’re at and what we need to be doing with Holden.

Quinn is 100 percent potty trained (okay - besides at night) and doing awesome in that regard. It took about 2 weeks for him to completely get it and now he’s a big boy! I must say, I love having only one child in diapers and her poop doesn’t stink yet so I am loving life! Avery has a hard time settling down though, prefers to be held and is a catnapping queen. She doesn’t stay in a good mood for long, mainly because she’s too tired during the day. She also can cry for one hour plus in the car, especially when she’s exhausted. This makes for a frazzled carload once we arrive anywhere (except for Quinn – he has been known to sleep right next to Avery when she’s screaming her little head off).

This month we don’t have much brewing besides Quinn’s birthday party on Sept. 30th. We are having a campout sleepover that night which should be a ton of fun! S’mores are a featured menu item and I have already bought out the Disney store in Buzz Lightyear regalia. He is going to be thrilled with the goodies I got him! I really can’t believe he’ll be three years old…wow! Time sure flies having three little ones, no doubt about it. I promise to post some photos soon of our vacation and other recent adventures.