Sometime in September, my mother drove over 2 hours to our house for the day (about 5 hours round trip) just to help create Ashlyn’s Halloween costume. Ashlyn had a picture in her head of a pirate princess. It became our job to bring that picture to life. When the day was done and the costume complete, we liked it so much that I told Ash I’d walk with her in our town’s Halloween parade and let her throw candy out to kids if she wanted to. Hey, after all that work and money, I wanted her to get some use out of this costume! So, we signed her up and bought 14 lbs of candy at Costco. And, Mark did his magic on our wagon to make it look like a pirate ship. Ash was so excited to be a part of the parade and be judged in the costume contest. So, my mom came up again the day of the parade (this past Tuesday). The parade itself wasn’t all that grand. But, boy, did Ash have fun. Mom and I had to keep our mouths shut as we walked with her–she didn’t want us pointing kids out to her to throw candy to. She was in complete control of the situation…as always. So, last night, we went to a Halloween party where the winners for all the age groups were announced. Each time the announcer would call out a name, Ashlyn would look back at us and sort of sigh like she was thinking in an eeyore-like way, “oh, they didn’t call my name.” But, eventually,…drum roll please…Ashlyn won first prize! She…and Evan as you can tell from the video…were thrilled. She got a crisp $20 bill for her prize, and she already has picked out some panda toy from the Toys R Us catalog that she wants to buy with it. What a fun experience for all of us…and we haven’t even trick or treated yet!

Introducing Casey. Uncle Brian gave the young thing to us. The kids are crazy about her (yes, it’s a “her.” Girl turtles have brown eyes and thin tails. Boy turtles have red eyes and wide tails.). Nearly everyday, we measure Casey’s shell and weigh her on my postage scale and write down in the cool notebook the info and any “observations” such as how much she ate (she likes worms) and where she liked to hang out in her terrarium. It’s educational. And, turtles are pretty cool.

This time, Drewzy took a tumble off his bike…or got into a bar fight. You choose.

Well, I’m now back to the world of those who verbally communicate…mostly. I am now on moderate vocal rest as opposed to strict vocal rest which means I can talk for 5-6 minutes per hour. So, I’m back to being able to function, meaning I can go to the store without an escort and/or dry erase board. But, I’m still not able to sustain long conversations or normal parenting! I return to the doctor next week to find out what’s next.