Fall and Stuff

Day 2 of preschool was a field trip to the pumpkin patch. We started it off strong with a fall in the mud...

Followed by an alpaca sneezing in Evan's face and making him cry.

There was quite a bit of, "Wait in line," "Get in line," "Stay in line" kind of stuff for this 3-year old. Also quite a bit of walking. By the end of the day, this was a common sight:

But he was a trooper and kept up with everyone and loved the hayride and maybe even learned a thing or two about farm animals while we were there. We actually went back to the pumpkin patch a few weeks later to enjoy the activities at our own pace, without any lining up stuff, and he loved it.

Our next adventure was a day trip to Apple Hill with some friends. Apple Hill is a community of farms in the foothills where there are a variety of apple/farm related things to do/eat/see. We also started this trip with a fall in the mud, but carried on bravely and were able to enjoy apple rings (peeled, cored, sliced, and put on your thumb), a corn maze, farm animals, and apple doughnuts. 

For Halloween, Evan was...a firefighter! Let's all act surprised about that one. I tried to coordinate our car for trunk-or-treat to match his costume. We had "burning buildings" and the bowl of candy was inside the flames for the kids to reach into. Between trunk-or-treating and two trick-or-treating experiences on Halloween, Evan actually started to learn the whole "Trick-or-Treat!" and "Thank you!" concept. He had no problem walking around the block, knowing that more candy was waiting at the next house. 

We will now be changing Evan's middle name to Monet. Or Claude. This kid will do art projects for HOURS every day. Chalk outside. Chalk inside. White boards, paper, water colors, paints, stickers, crayons, markers. You name it. And no need to ask what he's drawing. It's a temple. Every time. With a "huge, huge, fantastic, big steeple" and Angel Moroni on top.

He also loves reading books (pronounced "bokes") all the time. He's fully convinced that book I'm reading him (On the Way to Kindergarten) is called On the way to Preschool. Nobody better tell him otherwise.

Evan's 3rd Birthday

I don't know that 3rd birthdays are usually that big of a deal for most kids, but in the world of therapy services, turning 3 actually changes a lot of things. For Evan's whole life he's qualified for early intervention services which cover kids' therapy needs from birth to age 3. Now that he's 3 his services transfer to the school system. No more in-home therapy.

Evan had an extensive assessment with the school district to see if he qualified for therapy under the school system's requirements for "disability." He was observed and questioned by a school psychologist, a speech-language pathologist, special education teacher, an occupational therapist, physical therapist, and an adaptive p.e. teacher. We had a lovely meeting with all of them about a month after the assessment where they went through their findings:

Pre-Academic/Learning Skills and Fine Motor: Evan has mild delays in fine motor and academic skills. Not enough to qualify for OT or academic therapy at school.

Speech: Evan is a speech genius. He talks a lot. He makes lots of typical 3-year old articulation errors but is understandable enough that he doesn't qualify for speech at school.

Gross Motor: On a physical assessment where the standard scores are between 8-12, Evan scored a 3. This shouldn't be a surprising finding for anyone who knows Evan. This is the area that qualifies Evan to start attending preschool where he will be able to continue receiving physical therapy as well as adaptive p.e. sessions.

Cognitive: This area was super interesting for me. We know that spina bifida is primarily a physical disability, NOT a cognitive one. In fact, it kinda bugs me when people act surprised when Evan does "smart" things. It sometimes seems that people assume an intellectual disability accompanies a physical disability. But anyway, we do know that spina bifida is often associated with learning delays--typically math and executive functioning kind of stuff. So Evan's cognitive assessment showed a wide discrepancy between his ability to process verbal and nonverbal tasks. (Verbal task meaning responding to oral instructions to identify objects and pictures. Nonverbal task meaning matching pictures by visual concept or constructing blocks to imitate a model.) His assessor said they don't usually see such a wide range between the two areas, and that this kind of a gap tends to signify a learning disability. While I've known this could be something we experience, I was surprised to see that a learning disability can manifest itself at such a young age and through an assessment like this. Since he's still so young they won't formally diagnose anything yet, but he will be monitored closely in his preschool program to see how he's progressing. It's possible that by kindergarten or 1st grade they will be able to better identify or label his cognitive needs at school.

So preschool started Monday.

I wish I had been a mother of a preschooler prior to being a preschool teacher. Now I "get it." It was tough to walk away. The report at the end of the day was that it was a rough start but after circle time he was fine and became really chatty. His former speech teachers would probably be in disbelief that "chatty" was the descriptor used for Evan. I was proud.

Evan's class runs Monday-Friday from 7:30-9:30 am. Evan's class is all 3-year olds. One special education teacher and two para-educators. Mon/Wed/Fri will have 7 students who all qualify for preschool based on some sort of disability. There are speech and occupational therapists who regularly visit the class to help these other students and they will continue to monitor Evan. Tues/Thurs will have an additional 7 students who are "typically developing." I love that Evan will have this kind of mix of friends to learn with.

On another note, Evan chose a fire truck birthday this year. He also chose his cake. Eating cake and blowing out candles is basically all he understands about birthdays. All I understood was that Evan LOVES fire trucks, so his party was tailored accordingly. We invited a few friends for pizza and cake at the park and then went to a nearby fire station for a tour. It was Evan-style. Simple, and FIRE TRUCKS.

The 90+ degree weather was not anticipated for his October birthday, as evidenced by the melting frosting on the front of the cake.

Lounging at the fire house

For Evan's actual birthday--the day after his party--I kept asking him what he wanted to do. All he said was "eat fire truck cake." He said no to most restaurant choices as well as the carousel at the mall, but finally agreed on Costa Vida and a trip to walk around the temple. We closed out the night at home with the requested cake and candles in the new ninja turtle pajamas.

October 1, 2015

We bought a house and moved. (That'll probably be a full blog post in the future)

Mama and Uncle Josh's b-day dinner at Pizza Bell

Evan turns 3 next week and starts preschool the week after. (This may also become a full blog post...once I've accepted it)

We put our Halloween decorations out today and we've got Evan's Halloween costume ready. It rained yesterday for the first time in forever and it finally feels like fall in Sacramento, including the bags and bags of leaves we've raked from the backyard. We're making final preparations for Evan turning 3. Presents bought, party planned, updating immunizations for preschool...

Baby Hudson #2 is fighting to be just as spoiled as Evan was. He is getting a full nursery make-over by Mama and Dada. Our overly-generous friends are making sure he has all the toys a baby could ever want. We've already been given his first pack of diapers.

Baby also seems to want to follow the Hudson trend of abnormality. When I met with my doctor a few weeks after our gender ultrasound she asked, "Has anyone called you about your ultrasound results?" "No." "Well, first of all, it's nothing major..."

Oh boy. This is starting to feel familiar.

To make a long story short, there were two not-so-interesting findings from the ultrasound that resulted in a Level II ultrasound which confirmed there was nothing very interesting going on. For now Baby just has a big head, which obviously is nothing new for us. It's not hydrocephalus big, just Hudson big. We'll count it a blessing that I'm required to have a c-section. We're 2 months from little man and his big head joining our family. If you want to know his name, try asking Evan. He's got some good ideas.

August 9, 2015

I have the cutest kid ever.

And now I'm gonna have the TWO cutest kids ever!

I'm 20 weeks pregnant.
The baby is a boy.*
My due date is December 26.
Because of my fetal surgery incision I will have a scheduled c-section around 36 weeks, which puts the baby coming on Thanksgiving weekend.
I still intend (cautiously optimistically) to attend the Packard family reunion.
The baby does not appear to have spina bifida.**
We will not be naming this child.
Ever...
...Unless it's cool to name him Evan, which is the only boy name we can agree on.
Morning sickness is still going strong, but it's well-managed under medication so I feel good.

*Everyone knows I wanted a girl, God included. So although I shed a few tears when the ultrasound tech said, "Boy," I know that this baby is definitely supposed to be a boy. And now all I can think of are the many reasons why he will fit just perfectly in our family.

**Even though the cause of spina bifida is unknown (with possible links to genetics and possible links to folic acid), I was advised to take a mega-dose of folic acid prior to, and throughout, my pregnancy to lower the risk of having another child with spina bifida. When people asked my thoughts about having another child I always said something like--"Sure, I don't want another child to have spina bifida, but if it does have it we won't be that crushed. It would be a totally different ball game since fetal surgery would be out of the question, but we already know so much about spina bifida that we'd be able to handle it." Even though this is what I told people, I wasn't sure if I actually meant it. Would I actually melt down if I was given this diagnosis again? I did a slightly more detailed set of blood tests to find out our chances. When the nurse told me the blood work came back negative, I felt happy, but not really relieved or like a burden was lifted. I really wasn't too concerned about spina bifida. That feeling kind of told me that my words were true, and I stand by what I said for babies in the future.

Going through some of Evan's old clothes and toys today made me so happy we're having another boy. Not only are there lots of nice memories of Evan as a baby, but I'm also reminded of the generosity of so many people who gave us things. It was a CRAZY time, but it brought out so much goodness in people. I'm excited for myself to have a baby and excited for Evan to have a baby brother. He is already proving to be the sweetest big brother. He seems to understand what's going on pretty well. "Baby is tiny." "Baby is in Mama's tummy." "Baby is growing." "Be soft to the baby."

Me: Evan, what should we call the baby?
Evan: Tiny baby

Tahoe 2015

For this summer's family campout Isaiah scored us a boat-in campground at Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe. Although Emerald Bay is a super touristy place, you have to boat in to the actual campsites, and there are only 20 of them, so it clears out in the evening and things are quiet. Our intent was to have all of Isaiah's family come but we ended up with just his parents and Maya. And we tried to keep food and equipment simple, but, truth be told, we're comfort campers. We like our mattress pads, pillows, extra blankets, and real food. Between the 6 of us and our stuff, it took two trips in the boat to get to the campsite. From the cars to the campsite was about 20 minutes over the bluest water I've ever seen. When we arrived there were a few tricky logistical things to work out. Example 1-carrying all of our supplies from the dock to the campsite. We were glad the campsite had wheelbarrows to help with this process. Example 2-leaving the boat at a marked buoy and then getting back to shore. Isaiah made a strategic friendship with a fellow camper who had a kayak and offered to help retrieve Isaiah after the boat was parked. Finally we set up tents and got to the real fun.

While the kids built sand pies at our "private" beach, Grandpa barbecued hamburgers. A little while later we all sat around the campfire while the dutch oven peach cobbler cooked, and then we put the kiddos to bed once it started to get dark. Evan sang "I am a Child of God" to himself before falling asleep.

We had an early morning (it was hard to stay asleep once the sun was up) but it was relaxed with a nice morning campfire and hot chocolate with cinnamon rolls.

A Few Things of which I'm Proud

1. California does this "May is Bike Month" thing where people are encouraged to save the planet by biking around rather than driving. You can sign up online and log your miles and see how you rank among other bikers. I guess it's a big thing in the work place where different companies compete to have the most miles per employee. We live about 25 minutes (driving time) from Isaiah's workplace, but he is an awesome cyclist and was determined to find a way to bike to work in May. A few days each week in May he woke up early and drove to a place where he could hop on the American River bike trail and take the trail into work, where he could shower and get ready. He also had some extra rides after work or on the weekends. In total, he logged 1,069 miles of biking in May. Isn't he awesome?! His office won 1st place in logged miles in Yolo County.

2. My son is learning to ride a bike. Bike riding is a three-year old skill, you know.

Truth be told, he still kinda stinks at it. BUT--we didn't really think he'd be able to do it at all, and he can actually reach the pedals on his own and even pedal a few times in a row, so I see potential. It looks like Isaiah will have some competition.

3. Isaiah was also in charge of planning our ward Pioneer Day party for July 24. With his co-planners, they decided to make it a "Pie"-oneer Day event, complete with a pie bake-off.

Now I participate in a recipe group each month. I strategically suggested "Pies" to be the theme for July's recipe night (July 9) so I could really practice my pie-making skills and have a chance at winning the ward bake-off.

So I don't really like pies. I'm not a big fan of the slimy pie filling texture or the dry crusts. But I remember my Grandma Garrett making a yummy strawberry rhubarb pie each summer with rhubarb from her garden. It wasn't your typical gelatinous filling and had the perfect combination of sweet and tangy. I emailed her for the recipe and set out to make my first ever pie for the recipe exchange.

It was like a soup. Each "piece" of pie was a scoop of liquidy filling and soggy crust and, needless to say, it did not win any sort of award amongst my recipe enthusiasts. (Though I thought it tasted good and the crumb topping was TO-DIE-FOR)

Not ready to give up on Grandma's strawberry rhubarb pie, I did a little pie research and made a few small adjustments to the recipe (mainly adding instant tapioca to firm up the filling). And I, Jenna Hudson, won 1st place for "Best Pie" in the Judges' Choice category at our ward Pioneer Day pie bake-off!! I've never in my life won anything that requires a talent or skill, so I was completely shocked, though I shouldn't be. It was really Grandma Garrett who won it for me.

4. We just started a Family Home Evening series that aligns with the Primary song, "Follow the Prophet." (http://fhein5.webs.com/followtheprophet.htm) Just two weeks ago we learned about Adam, the first prophet, and how he helped things to grow. Then we planted a little "garden."

Among my list of NOT-talents is gardening. I have the un-greenest thumb of anyone I know. I kill every plant I'm given. So this "garden" is a true test of faith and I'm counting on Evan to help it grow. (AND...I researched the most fool-proof plants.) The first week I sorta didn't water the plants at all and put it in direct sunlight almost all day. Nothing happened. I thought I killed the seeds. But then I moved it to shade and kept watering the dirt and a couple days ago I found some little sprouts! We've got some radishes and beets and maybe the tomatoes will even sprout someday. For Evan's sake I hope these little babies keep growing!!

Speech Graduation

When Evan was about 1, and still not babbling or saying any consonants, we started baby sign, which was SUPER helpful for getting his basic needs met and understanding what he was thinking.

One year ago Evan could still say approximately 0 words. Unless you count "aaah" and "dadadadada," which would make a potential two words that represented most every thought in his brain.

Today Evan graduated from speech therapy!

Last week he was assessed and was deemed age appropriate in his speech. Sure, he still has some articulation errors, but until age 3 those are all developmentally appropriate--"normal," if you will. Really, his vocabulary is off the charts and he has always had great receptive language skills. So, for the first time in his life, Evan actually DOESN'T qualify for a therapy service. 

Evan's speech teacher brought over a graduation certificate and present along with some donuts to celebrate. I feel a little nervous about not having this therapy anymore, but I also feel grateful. We've prayed regularly for Evan's speech to develop so we can communicate well with each other. It's definitely been easier to work with him through physical and occupational therapy since he's been able to talk. Congratulations Evan!!

The first two videos are from last summer-ish and are examples of his signs and lack of talking. The last two videos are current examples of how Evan talk-sings. His words are crystal clear to me. Kudos to you if you can identify the songs.