THREE!!!!!!!!!!!

The babies have turned 3 October 28th. I can't believe it. I feel like I have been waiting for their 3rd birthday since they were born and now it has come and gone. But I know I have a lot of catching up to do so let me rewind a little bit. I am going to start with July b/c that is as far back as I can remember. Brandon started his OT camp (where he wears the cast) the beginning of July and went for 3 weeks everyday 9-1. He made tremendous progress, and they worked on so many goals with him. He learned to pull his pants up with 2 hands, take off his shoes with 2 hands, hold the paper with lefty and draw with his right hand, take off his shoes with 2 hands, push his left hand through his shirt, and push food onto his fork and bring it to his mouth with his left hand. Brandon did so well and worked so hard. He also learned to climb the steps of the playground holding onto the railing with 2 hands. The camp was in Westfield, NJ which is about 1/2 hour away which means poor David and I spent a lot of time in the car. Also in July, we went to Cinnamon Breach, FL. We visited Caroline and family and had an amazing time. We stayed in a condo with 3 bedrooms, so the babies had their own room which was great. Nonna also came with us, but unfortunately she was sick for the first 4 days. The babies loved being with their cousins and of course loved the beach and the pool. The beach was so nice and wide that the babies could go off on their own and we didn't have to chase after them. And most of the time the beach was empty which also made keeping track of them a lot easier. Weekends were spent at Nonna's pool. The babies love Nonna's pool and they both learned to swim with their floats on without holding on to anybody. David pretty much did it immediately. As soon as we put the float on him he took off. Brandon would cry if we let go of him for second, but then one day Uncle G took Brandon and the next thing I knew Brandon was swimming by himself with his float. (We call him the Brandon whisperer.) It was so nice just to be able to watch them swim and sometimes not even have to go in the water with them. The babies also spent a lot of time with their cousin Olivia at Nonna's pool. It was so cute to see the 3 of them swimming and playing together. They also got a new cousin in July, Harrison who is Olivia's brother (Tania's children). And every time Harrison would come over. they would both run to Harrison, point at him and say baby. Moving on to August, Brandon continued to do his camp, but only a couple of times a week b/c the driving was starting to get to me (and I think David too). Nico finished up Camp Riverbend and then started football, and I was looking forward to September when they would start Little Footprints. They went there 2 days a week 9-12 Also in Sept. we had all their evaluations for the special-ed pre-school program at Mount Prospect school. They both had to be evaluated by the PT, OT, and Speech therapists, the psychologist and social worker. We were at the school for 2 weeks straight. And then I had to wait to find out if they would qualify. In the meantime, we finished up with our therapists from Early Intervention b/c once the babies turn 3, they "age out" of EI. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to the therapists. They became such a part of our lives, but at the same time I was definitely ready for them to leave b/c our entire lives revolved around when the therapists would be coming. On Oct. 28, we had the meeting with the school and found out that both babies qualified for the program. David received PT and OT once a week and is in a classroom where the speech therapist is in the classroom the entire time, and Brandon received PT, OT twice a week and the speech therapist is in the classroom most of the time. They started Nov. 2nd. The only drawback is that David is in the morning session from 9:30 to 12 and Brandon is in the afternoon session from 1-3:30. In the beginning I was driving them and we were literally in the car all day. I would drop off David at 9:30, go to the gym for a 10:30 class, go back to p/u David at 12, wait in the parking lot until 1, feed them lunch in the car, drop off Brandon, go home, give David a nap, wake him up from the nap, and p/u Brandon at 3:30 It was awful. However, bus service started this past Tuesday and it has helped tremendously. The first day David was so excited. When he saw the bus, he started screaming, yeah, yeah, and went right on. When it was Brandon's turn, he started crying hysterically. But now they have both settled into the routine of the bus, and everyday David says "I want to go to school" and starts crying if that is not where we are going. I still send Brandon to Little Footprints on Tues. and Thurs. in the morning since he goes to school in the afternoon. But it is still to stressful having them separated, and I have asked the school to switch Brandon into a morning session (the time Brandon gets off the bus also interferes with Nico's afterschool activities). They want to keep them separated b/c they want them to "grow independently of each other", but that is not good enough for me. I need them together for my sanity! So I am waiting to hear from the school. They had one meeting already and now they said they need to have another one. We'll see... Now onto their birthday. We were so excited for their birthday party. We decided to have a Halloween birthday party at our house complete with costumes. I had been shopping for a month, we decorated the whole house inside and out, I ordered food, and Nonna and Zia Madia were making food, ordered entertainment, and then the day of the party, the storm hits. Nicky and I thought it would be nothing (I think we were in denial). I continued to prepare everything, many phone calls back and forth to people should they come or not come, finally when Nicky went to pick up the food, he called me and told me to officially cancel that the roads were horrible. We were so disappointed. Zia and Uncle G came anyway, and just as they arrived (with Nonna's 2 huge trays of baked ziti) we lost power - for 12 hours, so it was a good thing we cancelled. Total torture by the way, losing power with toddlers, thank goodness for the ipad and computers. So the next day, we debated having the party again, but it ended up that there were so many down power lines (including one right in front of our house) that no one could get to us. We ended up having the neighbors over so all the food wouldn't go to waste and it turned out to be a nice day. Definitely a birthday we will never forget. Trick or Treating was very cute,especially with the snow on the ground. The babies were bats and Nico was a blow up ostrich with little legs that looked like he was riding. It was very funny. But the babies, especially David, loved going up to the houses with the bigger kids to get their candy and sampled a lot of it along the way, especially the lollipops. Nonna, complete in her queen of hearts costume that she was supposed to wear for the party, and Aunt Geri surprised us for trick or treating. It was so nice. November has been our sick month. It started with Nico with a fever and cough for 4 days, then on to Brandon with a fever and cough for 10 days! He was on an antibiotic and then had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic 5 days in. He broke out in hives all over his entire body. It was so scary. And the entire time he had a fever. In between, he also has been throwing up b/c he is coughing so much. He is on a new antibiotic and has been fever free the past 2 days. Yesterday, David developed a fever, and we were off to the dr. again (I think in the past 2 weeks I went to the dr. 5 times),but he said he didn't see anything and he wants to wait it out. I hope I don't have a repeat of Brandon with David. And tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we are off to my brother's house in Peekskill, NY. In between all this, Brandon is a chatty kathy doll. He now says and repeats everything in full and entire sentences. It is so cute to hear him talk. Today he told me "I want to go to Friendly's." (I think we may go there a little too often.)And David is speaking so much more and also repeating mostly everything. He is just not as clear as Brandon. Looking ahead, we have a trip to the Bahamas coming up, Dec 10-17th. We can't wait!