Our Lives Loudly

 Wow - already time to say goodbye to 2020, although it feels like this year was SO long in the middle, the holidays made the end fly by. Here are some of our highlights from this year (and lowlights - let’s be real!)  January - Tom turned 33! Everyone but Elliott got the stomach flu at the same time. It was awful. I ended up at the ER for fluids.. I was so miserable. Should have known that 2020 was going to be a crappy year the way it started ;) February - Elliott Samuel and Molly turn ONE! We had a small family party at my parents house with just the closest people to us. It was a great day... till Molly threw up all over my dad after the party and a few days later we found out she had Influenza B! Poor girl was so sick! We went to the mall of America for their birthday (prior to them getting sick - that’s probably how she got it!)  and each of them got a build  bear.  March - ahhhh the beginning of covid. Weird time as we weren’t really sure what was happenin...

22 months... and 10 days till Christmas! Can't hardly believe that it's coming up so fast. We are settled back at home after an eventful week last week with Samuel's kidney removal surgery. Thank goodness all is well and he seems to be recovering pretty well now.  Elliott-   He is starting speech therapy this afternoon, via zoom. I am looking forward to seeing how it can help him communicate with us. He is also enrolled in a program at Fraser, which is a big children's mental health clinic in MN, called "early beginnings" We meet with a therapist weekly on Monday afternoons (also via zoom) who helps guide me through play therapy to increase Elliott's social and play skills. There are a few things that he seems to need some additional help on and we have seen some progress. He is so different from his siblings- they love being the center of attention and are loud and proud, whereas Elliott prefers to be in the background. He does really well playing one on ...