Summer 2013 (Beware: LONG post!)

So, summer is coming to a close... Those are the words that no teacher likes to hear or say.  We've had a pretty good summer!  It went really fast, and we didn't accomplish even 50% of our planned activities, but we made our summer count!

We worked all through the summer on lessons I had put together from Pinterest on The Fruits of the Spirit.  The boys really enjoyed it and loved talking about all of the different "fruits".  This year we will work on "catching" each other demonstrating the different fruits.  They colored pictures for each one and we have them proudly displayed on our art boards.

Summer, Week 1: Josh breaks his arm.  Not much we can say about that, except we insisted on a waterproof cast. Please and thank you.  Josh desperately wanted a purple cast, and his mom talked him out of it. We arrived home with a lovely baby blue cast.  Which he pulled off 2 days later... So, we had to recast it, and Josh wore a lovely purple cast the remainder of the summer. He will always keep me on my toes.

Cast #1.

Cast #2. Josh wins.

Jackson traveled away from his mom and dad for the first time this summer and flew to Florida with Grandpa Glick!  He attended the summer camp there, which included magic shows, kite-building, and MOST importantly, BUG CAMP!  He received a rather large (about 4 inches long) grasshopper at camp and Hopper was with us for a few weeks before we sent him off in search of his family. ;-)

We built Hopper a vacation home...

The rest of us joined Jackson in Florida and had a blast relaxing, hanging with alligators, golf cart cruising, duck and bird feeding and visiting with our favorite Mouse...

Building his race car at the Lego store.

Our old neighbors that moved away last summer

I can always count on these two to ride the tea cups with me!

Who doesn't love 3 sweet sleeping angels on a long drive?

From there, we joined the DeVito crew in Orange Beach, Alabama.  What a beautiful place!  We got our fill of sand, beach, swimming, castle-building, fishing, and even dolphin-spotting!  It was a busy week, and we loved it!

My morning view...

Deep conversation...

                                               

We headed home from there and have been hanging at The Glick House ever since. Home sweet home.

What a summer!  Is it Fall yet??

Where have we been?

So, fast forward four years, three kids, and 8 years of marriage later... where are we now?

The Glick House is still rockin' and rollin'!  In March of 2010, we added Joshua to our family.  He is a rough and tumble little boy.  He is currently on his second broken arm - the first was from falling out of a golf cart, and this most recent one was from running into a wall... literally.

In February of 2012, we added James to our family.  He is a sweet little baby - loves his brothers! He is getting to the age where he is starting to dish out the sass to his older brothers instead of just taking it.  He likes to pick on Josh the most.  He LOVES Miss Stoops - he follows her around the house and looks for her constantly.

Jackson has grown up too!  He loves sports, is obsessed with bugs and enjoys playing with his friends.  He will start Kindergarten this year! Where did that time go?  It is amazing to look at the pictures in the last post I put on here to see how much he has grown.  He is so intuitive, and he really doesn't miss a beat of the world around him. He is a question-asking machine! He wants to know all about the things he sees in he world. 

Andy and I celebrated 8 years of marriage in March - not too shabby!  We're still having fun and trying to navigate this crazy group of boys that we have been blessed with. 

I continued to work as the Autism Specialist in my school district until February of 2012, when I moved into the District BCBA position.  On my first day of acting as the District BCBA, I went into labor with James. I started with a bang!   This past year was a tough one, but I love the job and love working with the kids again!  I'm truly looking forward to this upcoming school year and what it might be like with a second BCBA to work with on the caseload.  I think it's going to be great.

Take a look at some pictures of what we've been up to over the last FOUR years. :-)

Continuing to Grow...

Jackson is getting bigger and bigger everyday! He is so independent yet still my little baby. He has so many words, and I love that he can communicate with me and tell me what he wants. He's working hard at two-word phrases right now, but we lose a little of the clarity when he puts words together. My favorite word is still "Mommy" - sweetest thing I've ever heard! He makes up his own words a lot and speaks in "Jackson sentences", but I just have to guess what he's talking about when he does this. :-)

The Glicks have been fighting a bit of the flu in our house. I had it first for about a week and a half, then Jackson got it. We were so blessed that he started treatment quickly and his flu only lasted about two days. He had his full energy back and was ready to go by the end of the weekend. I sure did enjoy a full week of Spring Break with him, even though we had to take it easy.

Jackson has been walking for some time now and is now running all over the house, including into furniture. He is great at climbing up onto the couches and chairs and can go up and down the stairs by himself now. Let's just say the we've had to step up the baby-proofing a bit. We've done pretty well, short of padding the walls. Jackson also has a new cousin, Samuel. Sam was born last Friday, and we're looking forward to meeting him soon!

Here are some pictures of what Jackson has been up to lately...

Playing in the backyard...

Sitting at his picnic table for lunch...
Wet hair after our bath - as curly as this looks... it dries completely straight!

It has been over a month since I've updated the blog, so I'll fill you in on what the Glicks have been up to!

We had our last Little Gym session for the Fall. Jackson received his medal and loved it! He thought it tasted super yummy!

We helped Grandpa celebrate his 60th birthday with 10 laps around the race track at 152 miles per hour! He had a great time, and it was our first Nascar experience. Jackson really enjoyed watching the cars and even the open air limo that Mommy and Daddy took a ride in.

Grandpa really enjoyed the experience, even thought they put him in the #14 NAVY car...Jackson enjoyed spending time outside while the weather was nice. He and Mommy took lots of runs outside - he still loves his jogging stroller!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving, and Jackson enjoyed his 'friendship feast' at school...

We put up the Christmas tree, and Jackson loves to look at the lights. He quickly found the switch to turn on the tree, and loves to "make it blink". It's his job every evening to go turn the tree on - he does a great job!

Mom and I celebrated our birthdays together. It was the first year that we had a combo cake!

It has been a busy month!!

Halloween

Jackson had a lot of fun for Halloween! He and Maddox dressed up like safari animals and went trick-or-treating! Everyone loved the wagon, all decorated like the jungle. The boys did really well. Jackson walked a little and really enjoyed putting candy in the bowls instead of taking it out... Maddox had a little nap but rejoined us for some Halloween fun!

Jackson also had a Halloween party at his gym. He was very overwhelmed with the other 49 children dressed in costumes but managed to play a few games. He tried to eat a plastic bowling ball and ended up injuring his two front teeth. There was more blood than his mommy knew what to do with, but it looks like his teeth will survive, and everything healed nicely.

Jackson's Big Day

Okay, so it has been a month since I've last posted. I suppose we have been a little busy with party planning and lots of family visiting! We had a great time seeing everyone, and Jackson had a wonderful birthday surrounded by friends and family!

I can't believe how much he has grown - he changes every week. There are several words that he says all of the time now - Mommy (finally!), Dada, boo boo (for binky boo), bubbles, side (outside), bite, ball, and balloon. He will try to repeat almost anything that you ask him to. It's very cute! He's now in the toddler class and is doing all sorts of art projects and even eating off of a plate with a fork!! Oh my, how he has grown!

Enjoy these pictures of Jackson's birthday and his birthday party...