The Summers Just Begun!

My amazing parents let us spend the fourth with them again this year…3 years in a row, they might be regretting this open invitation, ha-ha. The fourth was super fun and a great transition from the stress of June, but now I’m ready to organize the house and move towards my following goals in life. DCFS comes next week and I think I’ll officially up my license to 5. It’s gone back and forth but I finally feel ready to provide respite to kids who may need it for a weekend. I’m also trying to plan a few things for our home and family so looking to have people come to us (once I feel more organized) than our continued adventures out and about.

Last month had more ups than downs, but we’re in the first week of July, so it’s done!

We all started gymnastics last month! It has been such a positive way to start our Saturday mornings and I feel the kids are making new friends through their class which is nice to see. We’ve had playdates at the park and gotten to connect with friends from daycare outside of daycare! The weather finally feels like summer so we’ve been enjoying lots of outside time with one another.

I got accepted into my next master's program. I will begin in August for a master's as a reading specialist. It’s a 2-year program so I look forward to bringing back Type A Dana to allow for the best work/life/school balance. I know I’ll be saying goodbye to my social life a bit, but that’s been difficult to keep up with anyways - so I’m not stressing that anymore.

Personally, I’ve been working on the areas of control and boundaries. I am not the best when it comes to these different areas, however, I have made progress and am continuing to work through these struggles for me. I also am feeling better after my tonsillectomy. It was definitely as rough as the doctor told me it would be. I’m so grateful that my parents have supported both me and the kids through my knee surgery and then this. I’m hoping next spring to not have surgery and give them a break from us moving in for part of June.

I am thrilled to say we finally had some positive changes for Cookie Monster’s case.

We have been assigned a CASA. A CASA is a Court Appointed Special Advocate to support the best interest of the children. This person is more available to talk with me and Cookie Monster to support any issues that arise. The CASA works alongside the GAL. This is huge news as so many people recommended trying to see about a CASA and we were lucky enough to have one assigned to us. We also are working towards a consistent visitation time and location, with a new supervisor. This will allow all parties to engage in a successful visit and work towards the current goal.

This takes a lot of the stress and anxiety of not being heard away. It means the judge saw our concerns as valid. I want to support successful visitations for Mom and Cookie, however, they need to be safe and consistent with his expectations. This is a wonderful step in allowing that to happen.

Mister Man is doing well! No big changes for him, but he’s LOVING the pool and being outside as much as possible. He continues always to want to snuggle and his ability to talk back is way past the age of 3. He is working on potty training but we shall see how that goes for him. Hoping that in July we find some success! He also has more attitude than I was hoping, but it’s got its funny moments.

Peanut was fitted for her AFOs. I’m so excited to go back and get them in a few weeks. I truly think it will help her become more mobile and we’ll see many new skills from her. She has been talking TONS and in lots of 2 to 3-word sentences. She had her re-evaluation last month so it’s been great to discuss the different areas of growth she’s had and where we still need to work a bit. Her team is really great so I appreciate how much they work together and stay in communication. She’ll begin with a feeding specialist soon too!

I am so excited to have off this July! The kids and I will be home all of July together. We have quite a few appointments but they’re spaced out enough that we can still enjoy our days! We plan on keeping it low-key: lots of backyard time, trips to the zoo, and swimming with my parents. We’re happy to plan playdates with anyone who wants! Our weekends are already pretty packed but a morning or afternoon activity during the week is perfect. We’re also heading to Disney at the end of July and it will be absolutely amazing!

Hope everyone has a great summer! Please feel free to reach out for a playdate or to catch up! I know we'll already be back to school before we know it!