Zoo/Metro Visit

October 21, 2012

On Sunday the four of us went to the zoo. We have been to the zoo many times before but this time we decided to treat the boys to a “choo choo ride” on the Metro light rail. None of us have ever been on the Metro before so it was a nice treat. The tickets were free because it was Texans game day. It did take a lot more walking to get to and from the zoo but it was worth it.

The boys loved their adventure (or most of it). We also enjoyed many features at the zoo—especially the piranha tunnel and African Forest (Matthew likes the drums even more than the monkeys and other animals—go figure). Tony asked someone on the Metro on the way home, “Who won the Texans/Raven’s Game?” Everyone within hearing distance laughed in a jovial way. So even though no one announced that the Texans won.. I assumed they did. Tony asked again and someone did tell us that the Texan’s won 43 to 13. That should make Unkie Jude happy. Before we left Houston we had a delicious early dinner-- Greek food at the Niko Niko outdoor kiosk in a Downtown park. This is our 2^nd time there but it is becoming a favorite of ours, especially in the beautiful fall weather.

My Meeting with Matthew’s PreK Teacher

October 18, 2012

On Thursday evening I met with Matthew’s teacher, Mrs. Beard. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Matthew has been attending PreK classes for the Hearing Impaired since his 3^rd birthday. Mrs. Beard has been his teacher for both of those years and now he is attending afternoon “mainstream” Kindergarten classes with Mrs. Beard assisting. For Matthew and the other hearing impaired kids they use an FM system that allows the teacher to be heard directly in the hearing aids. This year the class is especially full. There are more than 25 kids in the class and I was a little worried that Matthew might not get the attention he needs. From my conversation with Mrs. Beard I learned that Matthew is branching out, developing friends with new kids. Not only that but when Mrs. Beard asked Matthew to count as far as he could he very slowly and deliberately counted to 100. The standard is for kids to be able to count to 30 by then end of Kindergarten and Matthew hasn’t started Kindergarten yet because his birthday missed the cut off date by 5 days. Matthew also answered correctly many addition and subtraction questions with the use of props (ie. you have 15 toy monkeys here if I take these 2 away how many are left) and without props. Lastly, he knows all of his letters upper case and lower case. Mrs. Beard said that Matthew would be ready to start Kindergarten this year and will definitely be more than ready to attend mainstream classes next year.

2012 Italian Festival and Pumpkin Patch

October 14, 2012

On Sunday we went to the Italian Festival at the St. Thomas University Campus in Houston. We attended last year and had a great time. However, this year the festival started out with a BIG disappointment. They ran out of cannolis before we got a chance to get one. We settled for tiramisu. The Italian Festival redeemed itself by having the Soccer Collies visit. We watched a demonstration of these rescued dogs that learned to play soccer. The boys enjoyed playing goalie against them and then posing for these photos.

When the festival got rained out and the dogs got spooked by the thunder we went home and then went to the pumpkin patch for these photo ops.

Jacob's arm is healed!

Last Tuesday (Oct 16th), Jacob and Daddy went for his 6 week checkup since his break. Jacob was good as always. Traffic was lighter than usual so we had plenty of time for breakfast at the deli shop in the building. Everyone was commenting on how cute Jacob was.

As you can see from my cell phone picture of the x-ray, Jacob's arm is all better.

After the doctor's appointment and before going home, we went in the walkway between two wings of the hospital. The reason why we did this is explained in the following picture.