How the heck is it almost FEBRUARY!!!???

end of January 2011- really?  We have almost been in Arizona for 6 months now. insane. I feel like we just got here. I suppose it's because we are still far from settled. Nate is still having issues with his school and programming. Nate's funding from the State STILL isn't completely finalized- and let me tell you how draining that is on ANYONE'S finances. ugh. The house is still mostly a disaster. The 3 car garage still is so full of boxes that we can't park even one car in it yet. Niiiiice. Oh and the decor change is barely inching along from the previous owners which is highlighted by the palm tree drapes in the eating area that we have just been "living with"...but you know the longer they stay they will just end up being a permanent fixture in our lives which IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. lol.

The Holidays were mad busy around here. I flew home to Columbus for a weekend, then My mom and I took Neve on an overnight trip to the Polar Express, then Neve turned 3 and we threw her a big party, then Christmas and everything that goes along with it.

Neve is doing great, as usual. We are really proud of her. She is still loving school so much and talks about her classmates constantly. She is learning so much and can almost write her name by herself. GO NEVE! She is still at the Little Gym for her gymnastics/social skills class, but has now transitioned up to the BIG KID class where Mommy no longer goes in. I get to watch from the window and it's so much fun to see how well she does with the other kids.

Nate is finally starting to come around a little bit here as well. It helps that we can spend pretty much all day everyday outside here in AZ. Bike rides, park trips, wagon rides, you name it- the kid just wants to be outside. He is doing ok in his programs, we just feel the overall programming is lacking so much. This is mostly due to the fact that we haven't been able to self pay for ALL the therapies we feel he needs to have a complete program. Hopefully we will get things wrapped up with the DDD here and be in a much better place within the next few months. Nate is definitely using more words..unfortunately it is MAINLY scripting. If you aren't familiar with "scripting", it's where he repeats an episode of a tv show or movie WORD FOR WORD. If it wasn't so freaky it would be kind of amazing. :) Nate's words are still very unclear so you have to know which show it is and then you can pick it up. Nate's show of choice is Backyardigans right now and last month it was Blue's Clues. Aaron and I always try to pick up on which episode it is- and when we do and repeat some lines back to Nate he gets so tickled and looks us dead straight in the eyes while smiling. It's crazy. It's like, "wow! You guys know this too?!". He loves when we understand him. He lights up like a Christmas tree.

I took a couple videos of Nate this morning (that's why he is in PJ's). I haven't taken any videos of him lately so I thought I would document some things. The first is Nate singing the Backyardigans theme song. I think it's so cute. If you have ever watched the show you should be able o recognize the melody I think. It's so cute as Nate has never really "sung" a song before. I love how he tries to hit the high notes. :)I left the tape rolling a bit after wards to show his "air writing". He does this all day. It's where he is writing out words in the air. It's so common for us we don't even notice anymore when he does it because it is constant.

The next video is Nate on his magnadoodle. He loves it and spends a ton of time with it. He writes on it while watching Blue's Clues and calls it his "Handy Dandy Notebook". They had an episode recently of the Cow jumped over the moon" (Nate picked up a lot from that one).

Anyway- we are super proud of our little guy too. His progress hasn't been leaps and bounds, but it is there! I hope the new year brings lots of great changes for him. He is with a new biomed doctor here in AZ so maybe we can shake things up a little and see what happens. Count me in.