2024 has been a year of growth, change, learning, and fun.
Growth and Change
Cassie is still growing like a weed. As a 2-and-a-half-year-old, she currently wears 4T, with some of it being too small. Cassie went from being in a crib at the start of the year, to outgrowing that, to outgrowing the smallest setting of her toddler bed. Her current bed is just around six inches short from a full twin.
Kate (5) passed down her toddler bed to Cassie, and graduated to a low loft. We created a cozy play space underneath with lights, a tumbling mat, a bean bag chair, blankets, and pillows.
Kate got glasses this summer. Her kindergarten special ed screening showed that her eyes are a lot like mine. We got her fun rainbow glasses that she wears pretty well.
Cassie has turned into our little fashionista. She picks out her own clothes and sometimes wants to change clothes several times in a day. Kate is cute and likes to match Cassie, when she can.
Learning
Kate learned to ride a bike with no training wheels. Yes, it took help from her physical therapist, but she can ride along with us while we run. Not to be out done, Cassie learned how to ride a tricycle and a scooter.
They are both getting more comfortable in the water. The water wings that are officially a USCG certified life jacket are amazing. It certainly helps when I take the kids to the pool by myself. We are still working on being okay jumping into the water with a life jacket on. That is Dave’s and my personal requirement before we feel comfortable taking them on bigger canoe trips. We tried the YMCA swim lessons in January, but it didn’t advance either of their skills. The lessons just weren’t right for our kids.
Kate started full day kindergarten in the fall. With that, Kate doesn’t have time for her private therapies at Fraser anymore. Luckily, she made amazing progress in the three years that she had been receiving occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, and food therapy at Fraser. We decided to just take a break, and see how that goes.
Holy cow, has kindergarten gotten academic. They are learning to read, write, and do basic addition and subtraction. Kate is in a standard general ed class with occupational therapy and speech provided by the school. Between conferences and her first report card, it seems like Kate is just your middle of the road kindergarten student. She has things to work on, but they are pretty standard kindergarten things. What a wonderful change from where she came from. She has pretty much caught up with her peers.
Kate still thinks eating is overrated. She is still g-tube dependent, with most of her nutrition through her g-tube. Every day at school, she goes to the school nurse to get her lunch feed. We had hoped that lunch with her peers would provide positive peer pressure, but Kate’s eating increase was short lived. We have a feeding appointment at Gillette Children’s coming up. We’ll see what they say.
Cassie attends Early Childhood Family Education classes twice a week. She has gotten much better at separating at the parent meeting time and participating in class. In the spring, Cassie qualified for early intervention services through the school district due to her extreme shyness in social situations. She has a teacher that she sees once a week, typically somewhere social. We are currently in process to see if Cassie qualifies for special ed preschool through the district.
This summer, we had her tested for autism because it tends to run in families. We were not surprised when she received a formal medical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, just like Kate. With both of them having rigid thoughts and big emotions, life can get fun at times.
Fun
The kids often play together. They both have incredible imaginations and role play fantastic stories that roam all over the house. Another favorite is to run back and forth and around in circles. They do have the typical sibling fights, amplified by their autistic rigidity and big emotions.
We’ve been able to have a lot of fun at home. Dave worked with Kate on Lego creations such as the succulents and a dozen roses. For joint birthday party time, we bought a bouncy house for the same price as renting one. We really appreciated having this first full year with our new deck. And we did silly things like building a snowman on Halloween.
This year we were able to see family through two last minute-ish trips. I got to see all of my family when we decided to fly to Michigan in August. Before that trip, we got to do an awesome program called Navigating MSP. We got to go through security and board a flight to “Funsville.” We did everything at the airport except take-off. Kate even got to sit in the co-pilot seat wearing the Captain’s hat. She wants to be a pilot now. Then for Thanksgiving, Dave’s brother decided to fly in with his family, getting all of Dave’s side together. It was really nice.
We did some other trips, too. In June, we went to Duluth. In July, we went camping for two nights forty minutes away at a Three Rivers Park District campground. The trip was a success. In August, we spent three nights at Grand View Lodge. Now, the kids like pretending to be on a “hotel trip.”
We do a lot of local activities. Looking through our pictures, I think I’ll just make a bulleted list:
- Snowless, Ice-free Luminary Loppett
- Sensory friendly showing of the Broadway show The Lion King. We had aisle main floor seats. The actors walked right next to Kate.
- Running Races: Get in Gear, Hope Kids HopeK with massive after event, Race for the Kids, Halloween. 5K or 3 mile events are alll we have time for.
- Fulton Gran Fondo (Piccolo – 25 mi) bike ride with pizza party in the middle
- Bouncy houses at breweries – Father’s day at Forgotten Star, Halloween at Arbeiter, and Halloween at Nine Mile
- Puppets in the Park
- Eagan 4th of July Funfest with bike parade, pony rides, and amusement park
- State Fair. We left the house at 9am and didn’t get home until 8pm.
- Sever’s Fall Festival
- Twins game
- Apple picking
- Carving pumpkins with power tools at Blackstack Brewery
- Nickelodeon Universe where Kate rode her first real roller coaster
- Birthday party at a Ninja gym
- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the Musical
As they get older, Dave and I have been able to do more and more of what we did pre-kids. We’ve enjoyed family hikes, family bike rides, and nights around the fire table. A special thing to me was to get back to being able to go someplace pretty for a run on the weekend, and then hit a taproom after. It’s been kind of nice.
We’ve done a few things just for Dave and myself, too. This spring, Dave got a new pellet grill/smoker. In the same week, I used the excuse of my wedding ring breaking to add Kate and Cassie’s birthstones (diamond) to my ring. My ring already had my and Dave’s birthstones (ruby), so now I have the whole family on my hand. I really enjoy both the ring and the grill, especially getting ribs on a weeknight. In November, after I had to use Dave’s car for a weekend class, we decided it needed replacing. We now have a new Subaru Forester.
Future
We hope to potty train Cassie soon. That would be wonderful to be done with diapers. We hope to put bunk beds in Kate’s room, and have them share a room. That would get our office back, letting the downstairs be entirely play space. But first, Cassie has to be potty trained.
We hope to take some bigger trips next year, like flying out to San Francisco to visit family. We also want to try car camping outside the Boundary Waters with day trips in.
Required Heart Update
Kate is currently four years past heart transplant. That is going great. The quarterly follow-ups and twice daily meds that she’s been on for years and forever will be are just the background of life.
In Conclusion
As always, we would love to get together with more people. We even have a regular babysitter. Drop us a line and we’ll figure something out.
As promised, here are many more pictures from our year. I am thankful for digital pictures. Google said I took 199 rolls of film this year.
Finally, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and may your life be filled with joy and peace.
