James had a busy year. In February he aged out of the early intervention program he was in for speech and started attending the local elementary school twice a week for speech. Initially this did NOT go well. After some more testing a social/developmental delay was discovered as well. While it was likely caused by the speech delay, it had one huge advantage. 2 diagnosed delays qualified him to attend the 5 morning a week preschool through the public school both this school year and next year. He is making progress in leaps and bounds. His speech is progressing and we're starting to see him play WITH his friends, instead of just next to them. He can't wait to get out the door to school in the mornings to go see his teachers and friends. He loves playing with legos, although he could still spend most of the day playing James's clues, his own version of Blues Clues! He also is discovering a love of cooking and needs to be right at Mommy's side almost every night as she cooks dinner, wanting to know every step of the meal-making process!
Lilli finished kindergarten at Southwest Chicago Christian and started 1st grade this fall. She was thrilled that her 4 very best friends were all in her class and they've been having a wonderful year so far. In October she broke her arm on the playground but after 7 long weeks she has finally been cleared to play on the playground and in gym again! Her teacher is joining mommy and daddy in being beyond thrilled about this as the lack of an outlet for Lilli's energy was very evident in every day life. Lilli is turning out to be quite the reader (wonder where she gets that from!) and some of the American Girl books, Little House on the Prairie and Rainbow Magic books are her current favorites. This summer Lillian discovered a new talent, tennis. She took lessons for 3 weeks while we stayed with Mema and Bapa and absolutely fell in love. She won the most improved award for her class and is already talking about taking lessons again next summer. She also loves to draw and paint and cut and color and is always gifting her friends and family with her craft work.
Jason put an interesting year under his belt at work as the stock market did it's best to make his job a challenge! It's been such a treat to have his office less than 2 miles from home, we're really discovering that more and more as the snow piles up here! Jason was asked this year to serve on the search committee as our church looks for a new senior pastor. While the meetings seemed to be just one more thing to add to our already busy schedule, he has really enjoyed it and the committee is currently on a hiatus while we work with a specialized transitional pastor.
Salli continues to work a few nights a week at the Dinner Club. She also started work as a Taste of Home (soon to be Entertaining at Home) consultant again after taking a few years off from that. And because she wasn't busy enough she also started babysitting for 2 little girls 1 day a week. In addition to the 3 paying gigs, she is the Coordinator for our church's MOPS group and continues to sing on the worship team and in choir. This fall she was able to travel to Dallas to attend the MOPS Int'l Convention and came back refreshed and renewed in all areas of her life!
The past 6 months saw our extended family grow as well as Jason and Salli became Uncle and Auntie for the first time with the addition of 2 nieces born to Jason's brother and his wife and Jason's sister and her husband.
We hope that you all have had a wonderful year and that this Christmas season finds you all healthy and enjoying the love of your families. We'd love to hear from you all soon!
