Playing Catch Up after the Whirlwind!

Well hello from our new home in Gainesville!

It's been a long while since I did this, because we had so much going on in our lives I didn't have time to post often. First, we went on vacation, a family reunion of sorts in Maryland where Tom's Aunt Jane had her 80th birthday party. I discovered that Sophie has definitely got some Howard family traits in her on that trip. Her great grandmother's chin and her Grand Aunt Jane's lips. Pretty neat all around. She kind of looks like her Great-Uncle Van at times, too. It was a really neat trip and we got to be beachy people. Sophie thought her cousin Amanda was the best thing since sliced bread and asked for her for days after we returned home.

We got home and went house shopping again and ran across this brilliant rental in Gainesville and decided we really wanted it. But the only way to get it was to move by July 1st! With a whole lot of help and very quick packing we were able to do it. I met a group of like-minded parents almost immediately and established a playgroup at our house every monday. The new house is fantastic, with a fenced in yard and a playset already here. The children are thrilled to have a yard they can go out in anytime they want. We also had room for a playroom/guestroom which is really terrific for containing toys. It's not a big house, but it's so cozy and lovely. Thanks to my Stepfather Paul, who is now only an hour away from us, we have a formal dining room too..he had the 1 peice of furniture I needed to make the room beautiful. My mom would have loved it.

RDI proceeds apace, and Eli is making such good progress with it. We just threw in some twists in the exercises we've been doing with him, and he is making a lot of facial reference contact and just doing so well. The whole thing feels like a dream at times, but it's so wonderful to have this way to have fun with our son and help him learn the things he missed with his autism. He goes to school again in August, so we'll see how that works. His Pre-K class is all day (7:45-1:45) every weekday so that's a lot of school. This time, he'll get a bus, which picks him up insanely early. (6:24am!!!).
Jake will be coming soon to visit, and I'm so excited. I can't believe I have not seen him for a whole year!

In other news, Sophie is right in the thick of potty learning and while there are still lots of accidents, there are also lots of successes. Hopefully she'll be fully trained by her 3rd birthday in November. We hope to have Thanksgiving here at our house with lots of family this year. I have to remember to invite them all very soon before other plans are made!

Thats it for now, I have to go clean up for playgroup and get the kids awake!