Last Day of Pre-k 3, End of Year Bash and School Birthday!

All of the kids that have Summer birthdays are able to celebrate their bday during the last month of school.  I think it's sweet and considerate since kids can't pick when their bday is.  BUT this momma was really concerned about how to explain the whole thing to you.  You are very aware that your birthday is July 29th, so when I told you we were having a party for you at school it was just a little bit confusing! I worded it ok and you seemed to do ok with it.  Each time a child has a bday, they get to wear a crown on the way to chapel all the way through snack time.  They also get to be the leader on the way to chapel and carry the flag.  Once we are at chapel, you get to stand on the platform and say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing God Bless America.  As you can tell you were a bit shocked with the whole thing.  It's alot to handle because every class in the school goes to chapel!  Anyway, parents and grandparents are invited for the birthday celebration.  We also are in charge for snack time.  I made your favorite- chocolate cupcakes!  Now that I look back on it, it wasn't the best decision in the world!  They were super messy and everyone has on such nice outfits!  Oh well.  They were yummy!

Hanging out with us waiting for Chapel to start.  See Melody in the background?  She loves coming to your school functions!

Cupcake time!  I think you were being a little shy that day:)

Hanging out with Mrs. Blanchard.  Oh you just loved her!  I could NEVER have asked for a better teacher for you this year.  She was just who you needed.  The right amount of patience, understanding and silliness to help you learn to love school.  We loved her too- I dreaded the last day saying goodbye to her.  We talked about it and it was just so emotional.  She made these amazing binder/scrapbooks of each kid throughout the year.  It was so personal and I was just speechless at all the hard work put into them.  I have tucked that binder away and will cherish it forever!  The last day was filled with hugs and tears but I will say Addison made the end easier.  She was having a tantrum and was ready to leave which made it all go by alot faster thank goodness!  

Melody is pretty used to her and I hope and pray she will have her next year!

This was the morning of the End of Year Bash.  I wish I had taken more pics cause you had such a great time.  They had a jumpy house set up outside and of course lots of popsicles.  Matt was able to come and we all had a picnic at the end.  The picnic was a little stressful for me cause I was having to chase Melody around and keep things happy.  I think the other families had babysitters for the siblings.  The only babysitter y'all have ever had are grandparents!  I'm just not there yet with the whole babysitting thing- don't know if I ever will be!

Y'all looked precious in your matching outfits!

This is pretty typical.  Addison is all lovey dovey with Melody and Melody will get super upset and want nothing to do with it.  I think it's just her age.  I hope so- it would make Addison so happy if Melody returned the love!

Everyone took their shoes off and went to jump in the jumpy house.  You really loved it and I'm thinking I will get Papa to bring one over for your birthday party!  You were all about the popsicles- you definitely had more than 1.  We tried to give one to Melody and she was freaked out by them.  I figured she would love them!  Didn't want it near her!

Here y'all are the very last day of Pre-K 3.  Pretty emotional day.  There was an End of Year program that was pretty cute.  Y'all had been working on it for a long time in music class.  It was basically all the nursery rhymes acted out in a play/musical format.  Every child had a role which was so neat.  You had 2 parts- Little Miss Muffet and the Moon in "Hey Diddle Diddle."

Melody came along for the ride- of course!  She doesn't miss school functions.  I'm telling you, she will be ready to start school next year.  The problem is, I won't:(

We had about 5 minutes to spare so I decided to try for some pretty outdoor pics in front of the house. 

There are some sweet memories of you that I need to write down so I won't forget!  When you go to bed at night you always expect me to tell you a story and sing you 1 song.  I think at some point I had to limit it all cause you kept wanting more and more stories and lots of songs.  So now you know it is 1 story and 1 song.  The story of choice is "Dora goes to Mary's house."  It's not a real story, just something we made up one day.  Mary is the one from "Mary had a little lamb."  It goes like this......Dora is walking in the forest one day and she falls and scrapes her knee and needs a bandaid and some cream.  She figures she will go to Mary's house to see if Mary can help her.  She knocks on Mary's door and Mary is happy to help her and fix her bo bo.  Obviously, we draw the story out alot more than that but that is the summary.  We also substitute characters.  Sometimes Diego goes to Mary's house or Baby Jaguar.  She loves it!  The song is either Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or our Good morning, Good morning, Good morning song.  Sometime around the end of school you learned how to talk like a robot.  You learned this from the boys at school when playing super heroes and robots with them!  It's actually pretty funny.  You teach me all kinds of things:)   You have this amazing ability to light up any room you walk into and command the attention of everyone.  Anyone that spends any time with you talks about how bright your personality is and how super smart you are.  We've always thought you were smart, but you never know as a parent if you just think that about your child.  One of the good things about different therapy's is the evaluations they do on the kids every once in awhile to see where they stand.  Your speech and occupational therapists are floored at your smarts and have shown us on the charts that you are performing way above your age level.  You are still in speech for oral motor skills and strength.  This helps with the drooling that you use to have so very often.  In OT y'all work on alot of core strength and strengthening your right side. Again, we are just so very blessed that the accident did not affect you mentally.  God is so GOOD!  You have been really interested in marriage lately and talk about it a good bit.  I love telling you everything about everything.  I think that's one of the reasons you are so smart!  You are a sponge and soak in everything we teach you.  Anyway, you told me one day that you are going to get married when you are 5.  Just straight up told me that out of the blue.  I always tell you that you can do things when you are 5.  They are typically things that I don't want you doing right now.  Like climbing our rock wall on the play set outside- get the idea?  So, I said, "Oh really?"  You said, "Yeah, but I have alot of things I need to do first.  I need to go to the grocery store, then to Starbucks, then school."  I was shocked.  She's also into the whole pregnant thing.  I always tell her stories of when I was pregnant with her.. Ha, I could write a novel on that pregnancy!  Anyway, she put a ball under her shirt one day and said, "Look, I'm pregnant!  But she followed it up with "but I can't have a baby until I get married!"  Too cute and right on!  Your smarts can be challenging sometimes.  You are constantly learning and those wheels are always turning and trying to figure everything out.  You just LOVE to learn and that is your form of play.  You are ALWAYS quizzing us on things and what everything is and what it does and why.  If we try to change the subject cause we are doing something else or we just might be too tired to answer, you get sooo frustrated and a tantrum begins.  It can be tricky but we have to be careful on how we change the subject.  It has to be something you find really interesting in order to make you forget about the original thought.  At night we still "walk for skittles."  This is where you make a conscious effort to walk with your heels down.  Well, as you're walking you always hum a song.  It can be any song.  It's just funny cause the humming makes it seem like it is so easy for you to keep your heels down.  You've gotten to where you draw out your stories.  You will take a marker and just go to town on a sheet of paper.  You will be sooo proud of your picture and will run to the kitchen to show it off to me and describe it in detail.  I am always very impressed!  Diego or Dora somehow makes their way in the picture everytime.  You are also really into writing your letters.  You've got all kinds of toys to help you and you just love to practice them!  The other day you decided not to take a nap.  If this happens, I just let you stay in your room until Melody wakes up.  This is happening more and more.  You don't mind and you just sit in bed until I come to get you.  You KNOW not to get out of that bed.  You won't even let your feet touch the floor!  Matt and I just laugh at that while watching you on the monitor!  If you don't take a nap you know that you don't get any smarties.  You LOVE smarties.  Anyway, you didn't get any that day but Melody did.  A few minutes later I could tell you had been in deep thought.  You came up to me and said, "Mommy, I think I am too old to take a nap."  I just said, "Oh really."  I was not about to explore that subject.  We LOVE naptime and we need it to make it through the day!

Posing by the sign in front of the school.  Thought it was quite appropriate.  Ugh, the emotions were starting to get out of control.  All I could think about is how fast the time has gone this year and how much bigger you're going to look this time next year. 

Here y'all are coming out at the beginning of the program finding your seats. 

Check out this beautiful cross reflection!  It's from the stained glass cross at the front and it reflects onto the ground.  Really cool.

Setting up for Little Miss Muffett.  I was told that you claimed this part from the VERY beginning!  You were always very dramatic with the role and just loved the whole thing.  You would come home from school and we would play out the entire thing in the backyard.  It would make you sooo happy!  You would always let me know who I should be- the spider or little miss muffett.

Here you are "Eating your curds and whey."

"Along came a spider, who sat down beside her"

"And frightened Miss Muffett away!"  So, you ran away like you were suppose to but then you turned around and started to run the other way and off the stage!  Mrs. Blanchard basically leaped forwards and caught you mid fall.  You can hear a collective gasp in the video.  You were totally fine with it and it didn't seem to faze you one bit.  Kendal, however, skinned up her knee pretty bad! 

Being the Moon (notice the moon hat).  It was "Hey Diddle Diddle" and the cow just ran across the stage and leaped right in front of you.

Acting out "I'm a Little Teapot."  You really got into it!

Taking a class photo at the end of the program.  It was so funny cause all the parents were trying to get the kids to all smile and it just wasn't happening all at once.  Poor Mrs. Blanchard just kept smiling. 

Posing with Caroline.  She was such a sweet girl and would always talk to me when I dropped you off at class. 

Another Baylor Checkup, an Asthma Attack and more!!

Here's miss priss at therapy with Riley.  Riley had just finished IMOT and at the end of IMOT they throw each kid a party with their family.  Well, Addison happen to be there during that time and they invited her in on the fun.  She kinda thought the party was for the both of them so she got to wear a crown too.  They love each other and get super excited when they get to see each other up there.  Riley always yells out, "Addie Cat, Addie Cat!"  It somehow became Addison's nickname up there and there is even a stretch that they have titled the Addie Cat stretch.  It's a stretch that benefits Addison the most and is very important. 

Here you are enjoying your favorite treat- Krispy Kreme donuts!

Thought this was hilarious!  You did this set up all by yourself.  Just lounging in the backyard.  You got it figured out little lady:)

The time had come for another Baylor checkup and we decided we would do things a little bit different this time around.  We have learned that we have to keep anything really exciting a big top secret from you right up until we are ready to show you.  In the past we would let you watch us pack your bags and help us load the car, etc.  You tend to get really anxious/excited about packing and it just gets to be too much.  You always knew where we were going and it would be like that commercial, "Are we there yet, Are we there yet?"  AND we would barely be out of Shreveport!  Then it would be, "Where's Dallas, are we in Dallas?  Is this Dallas?  Over and over and over.  Oh, and there are always terrible meltdowns in between all of that because you can barely handle the anticipation of it all.  Sooo, we really wanted to try Great Wolf again cause you had been talking about it alot.  BUT we had a strategy this time.  The night before we had your bags packed and in the car and you had no idea where we were staying.  You did know that it was time to go see Dr. Raji though.  So as soon as we woke up that morning, we just got you ready and off we went.  There was no prep work and no time for any tantrums!  If we move quick and don't say much then things move so much smoother!  So, these are out of order but here we are in the room about to head down to swim.  You are so pumped at this point!

Hanging out with your mouse.  There are a bunch of different rooms you can get there and not all of them have "the mouse" in them.  We have to make a point to get the same kind of room each time just so you can feed the mouse:)  I think you would be devastated if we stayed in a different kind of room! 

This trip was the best one yet.  Everything about it was great.  I think one of the reasons is you're just getting older and moving out of the massive tantrum stage.  Oh praise the Lord!  Another thing that made it better was the location of the room.  Once you get off the elevators to find your room, you will see a hall that is literally never ending.  It could go on forever.  Like to the other end of Texas.  So, that has been an issue with Addison just getting up and down those long halls while you are screaming and freaking out.  It just gets exhausting having to haul all of your stuff too.  So, this time Matt requested a room closer to the elevator and thank goodness they had one.  We literally stepped off the elevator and walked a few feet to our room! 

You LOVE trying on all the medical gear and pretending you are a doctor.  I have no doubt that one day you will be.  When we are at Baylor, you just own that place.  You know everybody and just work your charm everywhere you go.  You are just so comfortable there. 

Hangin' with Dr. Raji!  We had great news this time!! This was the appointment we had been dreading cause Dr. Raji told us last time that she would more than likely want to do botox this time around.  We had strongly considered it and then quickly changed our minds and were curious to see what she would say.  We just never really know what she's thinking!  She was so happy with her progress and said that Addison could dorsiflex (flex) both feet this time.  She couldn't do any of that as of last time!  She said there was no need for botox as long as she could do this!  Now for the next appointment she wants to see even more improvement.  She wants there to be even more range of motion.  So we've been doing lots of exercises and doing the e-stem machine alot at therapy.  This has really helped her.  She is also finishing another round of IMOT as we speak.  She got fitted for some new braces this week and hopefully will be finished soon.  It's time for some new ones and you are so excited about getting them!  I love that you look at them that way- they are just an accessory to your outfits:)  You seriously love them.  The new ones will be bigger since your feet are obviously growing but they will be a tad bit taller in order to keep your heels down better.

I have mentioned before that you LOVE Dr. Raji's "sticker" on her forehead.  You are obsessed with it and insist on touching it.  Makes it very awkward for us!  She doesn't mind thank goodness!  Well, this time you told her you wanted one.  I was just freaking out inside.  But Dr. Raji just went with it and said, "Ok, I'll go get you some out of my office, be right back."  No Way!!  She totally came back with a small sticker book of red dots.  Then, she put it on you and you wore that dot with pride the rest of the day!  I think you had about 5 of them on your face at one point.  I think you are going to expect a book of red dots every time we see her!

This picture comes with a story.  This was sometime in May after a few hours at therapy.  That morning I was getting you dressed and ready for therapy when I heard some wheezing.  I kept listening for it and we were so late that morning that I figured we would just do a breathing treatment when you got home.  I mean, you were playful, silly and acting like your same ole self.  So Matt loaded you up and off you went.  I had mentioned it to him but he didn't think much of it either.  The night before you were breathing just fine.  So, I get a call from Matt saying your therapist had called and wanted us to bring you to the doctor.  Matt had told them about it that morning and to watch out for anything and to take it easy.  Well, apparently it got worse and real fast.  They had you hooked up to the pulse/ox machine at therapy checking your oxygen and it was dropping.  Matt rushed you to the doc and I met you there and y'all didn't even wait in the waiting room.  It was that serious.  They set you up in the break room and started you on treatments immediately.  You had your blood taken to see what was going on.  The doc said she thinks it was the start of bronchitis since your white blood count was up.  It just happened so very fast and really worried me what could have triggered such an asthma attack.  You were in distress as the doc says.  She loaded us up on prescriptions and as I was scanning them all (all 6 I believe) I noticed Prednisolone.  I begged her to give us something else cause you have been on that before (when you had your first peanut reaction) and the results are not pretty.  It makes you nuts!  She said you had to take that drug cause we have to be very aggressive with this since it was so bad.  So, you took about half your doses and we called and begged for us to stop.  You were just not the same child for those few days.  It was really scary and as soon as they approved us to stop, we got the old Addison back!  Hallelujah!    This pic was on the way home from the doctor that day.  We were all just done.  Do you see how pale you are? 

We had to do so many breathing treatments it was not even funny.  We used two different kinds of medicines with the nebulizer and did them forever.  Any time we travel, we have to pack the nebulizer just in case. 

Poor baby.  You were sooo emotional and would scream/cry over anything.  You ate lunch in our bed that day.  That was the ONLY way to get you happy.  You were watching Dora of course.

Daddy doing a bedtime breathing treatment while telling you a story. 

I had to take this cause it is so typical of you.  You just LOVE accessories and will rock as many as you can!  Lets see, you have on a stethescope, bunny ear glasses, valentine and mardi gras bracelets and holding some more toys.  You're just keeping it interesting!

This pic was right when we pulled up to Great Wolf.  You were so surprised and so happy!  You had no idea! We had so much fun telling you!

We woke up early the next morning and had breakfast downstairs.  You love eating down there.

Checking out that morning and saying goodbye to the lodge.  No tantrums I might add:)

All ready for our doctor appointments!  Check out that mature pose?!  Oh my.