School Days and ABC's!

School has officially started down here and Florida, which means my boy is officially grown up. Well, kinda. ;)

Owen started preschool today at the most precious, loving, sweet little faith based preschool. He is going twice a week, for 3 hours. And he lasted the whole 3 hours on his first day! Owen has never been apart from me (while awake) for more than an hour or two. He has only attended the church nursery a handful of times and he doesn't like busy crowds.

So why send him to preschool? We are really hoping this will improve Owen's speech and socialization skills. Due to germs Owen has been very isolated his entire life. So it's time to start making some friends! His teacher, Ms. Cynthia and Ms. Carol are so very sweet and were willing to meet privately with me last week to go over Owen's extra needs. Although he doesn't need anything medically while at school, he is developmentally delayed, mainly with speech. So he requires a little extra attention....which they are more than happy to supply! :)

This sweet school is such an answered prayer. Tears did not flow as I dropped Owen off this morning. Instead, my heart was just flowing with gratitude and pride in how far this sweet boy has come. Of course, we cannot forget to acknowledge Carrie, and her gift for Owen. Without her, this would not be happening. I am just blown away by how much Owen is growing and changing and how quickly it is happening before my eyes!

Of course I wanted a "First Day of School Photoshoot" and about two seconds in to said photoshoot I was quickly reminded I am the mom of two busy, busy boys. No time for pictures!!

I was told Owen did great, and only cried for a few minutes after he realized I was gone. He is learning about the color red and made a sweet little apple craft. :) What precious days these are!

One thing is for sure...he was one worn out boy!

We've been "touring" around town on the weekends and have had some fun family adventures, including the local children's museum. The boys had fun, but Owen was most impressed by the run-through spray fountains at the nearby park!

Lastly, I wanted to share a sweet little video of my smarty pants. :) For those that know Owen well, you know that his absolute most favorite thing in the world are letters and numbers. He has been able to name each letter and number (1-10) for a while now. Recently, he began naming letters by their phonetic sound as well. This morning, Owen participated in back and forth communication with me by going through the alphabet. This is the first time I have seen him participate in conversation, other than "labeling" words or sounds. I must say...I'm one proud Mama!

Turn your volume up, and listen closely! :)

 

Thanks for checking in on our sweet family. The (little) boys and I are bravely flying back home in a couple weeks to visit family and have a urology appointment in Cincinnati. Please pray for safe travels and patient passengers on the airplane... 1 Mommy and 2 busy boys....uh oh! :)

Psalm 69:30
"Then I will praise God's name with singing, and I will honor him with thanksgiving."

We're Still Here!

Hello fellow blog followers (if there's any of you left!)! Sorry we've been a little absent from blog land lately...we've been busy!

Busy Doing what? Well mainly moving, but also getting older! Both boys celebrated birthdays. Twice. :) Yep, we like to do it up right in the Daugherty family!

We had the boys' party back home in Kentucky before our move. This was in June. A little early. :) So we celebrated again, on their real birthdays as well. And sweet little Abel James couldn't be happier! It's possible he inherited his Mama's ginormous sweet tooth. :)

The party back home was great. It's so wonderful to get together with family and friends and celebrate these two boys that we love so very, very much!

It's a little hard for me to accept the fact I now have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Time is so cruel in the way that it flies by. As much as I wish I could just stop time and hold these sweet babies like this forever, I have to be thankful for how amazing this life has turned out to be. Yes, we've weathered our storms, but God has been so gracious in gifting us with these two amazingly wonderful, precious, HEALTHY boys. While I wish I could freeze these moments, I am amazed at how the Lord is working, specifically in Owen's life. He is making amazing strides and accomplishing so much, I am just in awe of how the Lord continues to work in his life.

As if Owen turning another year older didn't break my heart enough, he will be starting preschool in 20 days. This has been a complete blessing fully guided by the Lord. We were apprehensive about sending Owen to school, but we have been prayerfully considering it, knowing it would be so beneficial for his social delays. The most precious, perfect little private preschool has agreed to take on Owen, allowing him to start in the 2 year old room and move up at our desecration. The school is just perfect beyond words and little Owen will be there with his sweet little puppy dog backpack two days a week for 3 hours. :) As of right now, I can talk about school without tears. I am just so excited for this opportunity for him I haven't been overwhelmingly sad. It's something I honestly didn't know if Owen we be able to do. And it's just so very normal. And normal is a great thing in this house!

We are adjusting to our new Florida residence quite well and I'm just so excited for what this new season will bring for our family. We are definitely moving away from our laid back, slow days to having a full schedule! In addition to school twice a week Owen is attending an Intensive Speech and Feeding Therapy Clinic twice a week. On top of that I've decided to join a MOPS group to get to know some ladies around here!

Abel is an absolute ham and is in to everything. Toilet Paper? Yep. The toilet, oh yeah. Cabinets, drawers, the fridge...you name it- he's explored it! He isn't walking just yet but has taken a few steps. He, like his older brother prefers the speed crawl. And he's lightening fast! He does have a quick big brother he has to keep up with! Between the two of them my days are busy, messy, crazy and full of laughter!

Thanks for all who continue to follow our little blog and who diligently pray for Owen. Please continue to pray for his doctors as we are essentially starting over down here. We will be doing a routine ultrasound soon for a bladder check and the results will be sent to his urologist in Cincinnati. I would be lieing if I said this part of our move has been easy. I miss our precious doctors so much and can't wait to visit them again! We are blessed to be in good hands down here and met Owen's new nephrologist a couple weeks ago. Other than difficulty getting labs, things went very smoothly!

I'll leave you with a "photo dump" as I'm sure that's why you're here...picture of cute boys, yes please! :)

 

"I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26

We are so thankful for these showers of blessings!