You go girl!!!!!!!!!

Just found out today that Brooke was selected for National Junior Honor Society!! She worked very hard for this. B-Dogg also had 2 soccer games on Sunday and played awesome!

Memorial Day by Brooke Gustafson

OH ABBY ABBY.............

Well, there are so many things to report about Miss Abigail. There have been so many changes since my last post. Let's start with.......SHE IS WALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hard to believe that day has come. Her PT was able to see heer get up and walk unassisted right before her 3rd birthday. Abby was involved in a program called Birth to Three and I cannot sing their praises enough. Since Abby was 6 months old she had PT, OT, Speech and a Special Education teacher coming to our home and working with her and our family then at day care whn I returned to work. Since March, Abbby has attended preschool to get her services. She goes on the bus and loves the bus ride. She has been ill quite a bit lately so she has only been going 1-2 days a week. The transition is still hard for her and takes such a toll on her body. She tends to take much longer naps in school days.

We still no not have any diagnosis for Abby but even if we did nothing would change how we provide care or services she would receive. She is still non-verbal but understands simple directions and signs. We actually just got back from an inpatient stay at CCMC once again. I had to call 9-1-1 for her on Wed. am. I wonder why Eric and I have gray hairs!!!

Everyday we can see her doing more and more and she is the luckiest girl in the world to have a brother, sister and daddy like she has!!!!

Her specialists these days are: Neurology, ENT, ophthalmologist, cardiologist, urologist, pulmonologist, orthopedic, Shriner's hospital, nutritionist. pt, ot, and speech at school and private OT and craniosacral. Need to give a shout out to Noreen Wallace and her son Jeff at Therapeutic Enterprises in Woodstock, CT!!!! She is on a gluten casein free diet.

Abby has overcome many sensory issues recently. She LOVES music, reading, watching Yo Gabba Gabba, building blocks and she is awesome with puzzles.

So What Is Logan Up To Now?????

Logan is now in the 4th grade and loving school. He is an honor roll student and really does well in all subjects. He is an avid reader these days and does a lot of journaling. He is still involved in The Young Marines. He was promoted to Private First Class Gustafson and just received Young Marine of the quarter. He has earned numerous ribbons (they are worn on the uniform) for various activities and community service. Above pics are him being promoted and the tin foil is food he had to cook at a cold weather encampment in March. It got down to 17 degrees that night. All food had to be cooked in the fire. Logan had hamburger for lunch and dinner was Fillet wrapped in bacon and corn that he had put lime and butter on. He had to tend to fire watch that night and construct a shelter. He is playing baseball this year. He broke his collar bone last June playing soccer so he has decided to try something else for now. He is into classical music and loves to take pictures on his MP3 player. He would like to do an act in his school's talent show this year so he is learning magic!!

It Has Been Way Too Long.....Brooke Update

So time flies bye so fast and so many things have happened. First let's Brooke.....

Brooke is now in 6th grade and an honor student. She just submitted an application to NJHS (national junior honor society). You must be selected just to fill out the application. She had a 300 word essay to write and we will know in June if she has made it or not. She is still playing oboe and singing. She was selected to sing a solo for jazz ensemble. She has made the QVSA travel soccer team. She was selected in the fall as a B player but had been brought up on a few occasions to play with the A team. She continued to play soccer during the winter indoors. Spring soccer has proven to be great so far. She is now a member of the A and B team. She is playing in the CT State Cup and has been playing so hard. She will be playing 5 games over Memorial Day weekend. She also played basketball for the school team this past fall, she was so excited to have made the team! She is also an avid archer. Eric's dad has gotten her completly addicted to archery and we have been told by many people that she is a natural. She has won medals and trophies and often beats the men!! She has learned to sign and can sing and sign many of Abby's favorite songs. She sews, knits and makes cakes. Abby's 3rd b-day cake is above.

VACATION '09

Vacation officially started at 7:20am on Tues. July 14, 2009. Renee wanted to leave by 4:30 but got out voted. Just for the record......I WAS up at 4am and making pancakes at 4:15am!

Once we got the family loaded up it was time to head to New Hampshire. We made one pit stop and arrived in North Conway by 11am. We stayed in Bartlett, NH at the North Colony Motel. The place was immaculate and very accommodating. The have a nice pool and a great play area for the kids. While in NH we went to Story Land, hit the outlets, went for a ride on the HOBO RAILROAD, took a walk to the Old Man in the Mountain, walked to the Basin, and Clark's Trading Post gift shop. The kids were very good and Abby was amazing. She still managed to nap on schedule and sleep through the night. At Story Land she went on several rides and played in the sand box.

On Friday it was time to head to Queensbury, NY to the Great Escape Lodge. We set the GPS to avoid freeways so we could take a nice scenic ride through NH and VT. It took about 4 hours to get there. The kids had no idea what we were going there for. When they ever saw the indoor water park, they flipped out!!!!! Once we checked into the rooms the kids went to the water park. We finally talked them into having dinner. They were such fish while we were there. There was also an arcade and other activities that you could pay for. On Sat. night, the kids did s'mores with Scooby Doo (Brooke's favorite character).

We went mini golfing one day, the guys went and played lazer tag and rode go carts while the girls hung out and rented a movie. One day I went into Lake George Village to scope things out. There were so many little shops (Eric still thinks I did not buy anything, lol...just kidding). I did get something small for all the kids.

We were having such a great time that we ended up staying one extra night. On Monday the kids went back to the lazy river (in the water park) for one last hurrah. We pack up the van and left about 10:45am and got home about 2:15pm.

Now we are tired, broke, hungry, and in a mess. Thinking about posting for a housekeeper on Craig's list because we got so spoiled on vacation...HA HA.

GO, ABBY, GO

OK, I know it has been months since the last post but it is worth the wait!!!!!! Abigail has exploded in the last month. She started sensory integration therapy and crainosacral therapy.
The sensory therapy has been SO awesome for her. They do a lot of swinging, bouncing, brushing and vibrations on her. It seemed to us that right after her first appointment she was a different baby.

She is now getting into a sit by herself. She is still trying hard to get out of a sit the correct way. She is commando crawling and knows exactly where she wants to go and what she wants when she gets there! She is now eating many different textures and self feeding herself "finger foods". She is finally using a sippy cup and off the bottle!!!! WOO HOO!!!! She is doing great touching grass, sand and other textures and just starting to mouth objects.

And the best of all.......she is communicating! She now raises her arms to be picked up, reaches out for you, waves, blows kisses, gives high fives and is recognizing basic sign language and even doing the "more" sign herself.