And the saga continues!

Just in case you were worried, we're still here and cruising along. Life just keeps slipping more and more into a routine and a sense of normal. We keep busy and try to keep Acer's brain learning and growing or is it he who keeps our brains learning and growing? Between my class " Learning Through Play" and a book my cousin John sent me "The brain that changes itself" I have been learning a lot about learning.
We've had a busy paperwork & phone call week, making appointments for Acer's evaluation thru the intermediate school district, making sure we had the Dr's diagnosis for this, getting his social security number, and getting ahold of the city department for signs to get a warning sign up for our street. The signs went up today and I'm actually quite happy with them. They say " Blind child at play" I thought they'd say "Blind child in area" but "At Play" sounds much happier doesn't it?
Acer's been doing much better at keeping his "Dry Pants" dry. I think he calls them that because he'd hear "Oh, you need dry pants!" We made it most of the day yesterday, including a trip to Costco with Vicki. Vicki & I discovered that Costco had 2 packs of Nutella so we decided to split one. Then we went on the search for the perfect bread. We decided on Ciabatta, in small squares, individual lovely sandwiches, a perfect combination of crunchy bread with crannies to hold the Nutella - delicious!
Acer's also starting to speak in sentences of more than three words. We knew he could do it in Mandarin, we'd heard him, we were just waiting until he got enough English words to start doing it again.
We've now developed our own method of traveling down the sidewalks on walks. It's slow, but Acer's so very happy to have independence and not have to hold a hand (except in parking lots and streets).We use sound, either snapping or clapping a hand against my leg, and he follows. "Follow Mama" excites him so much that he's frequently doing the full body dance/run of glee down the sidewalk or thru the store. We've done it enough that last night we tried 'Follow Baba' with an equal amount of sucess. Generally we only go short distances before I let him "find" me and we continue, but using this method we have made it all the way around the block, a distance of about 40 houses.

The week In review...
Two Fridays ago (8/10) we went to visit one of Bill's Customer sites, a township office very near his work. They were very nice and had gotten Acer gifts and a huge card after we came back from China, so we thought we'd go let them meet the little man in person. Bill met us there and carried Acer around like the proud Baba he is. Bill and Acer have a variety of flips and twists they do while Bill carries him. It's quite amusing to the both of them while many others watch and worry. Acer is a great climber and quite fearless, Bill makes sure he has a good grip before he starts flinging him around so they're quite the combination.

Saturday (8/11) We finally heard from babies R Us - Acer's Halloween costume was in! I was so pleased because I had a coupon and gift cards and was worried that it wouldn't be back in stock before the coupon expired. Now I know that store bought isn't quite as good as homemade, but in my case, it was sewn much better than I would be able to. PLUS it's so dern Cute! Check out our Halloween preview below. Don't you just want to pick him up and snuggle on him! I can't wait to go trick or treating this year, although I think I'll have him collect money for unicef instead of candy.



Monday (8/13) we went walking again, this time with the Ergo carrier. It was much more comfortable for me and I think Acer liked it better too. The only part I didn't like was going down the stairs with him in the carrier, hard on my knees. Acer on the other hand found all the swinging back and forth as we went down to be quite fun.
Thursday, (8/16) Mum had her second eye operation and for the first time in my life, Mum doesn't have to wear glasses! We have a few more trips to make with her to the Dr's and then her eyes should be stable and not need weekly appointments
Last Friday (8/17)we went to the park with Kristen and Kiera. We were there for several hours, we had planned to go to a spray park, but it was just too windy for the little ones to be wet. That may have been our last outing for a while because Kristen's going back to work with the start of the new school year.
Saturday (8/18) I surprised Bill with a day long visit with his best friend and family. I had been emailing Ric's wife Steph to arrange this and we decided that just having them show up was far better than letting him know ahead of time. I was even at work until 4, so he had no idea. They just showed up on the doorstep, from two hours away, with their 4 kids and then chaos reigned! They wagon trained to the park, where there was a fundraiser for Ronald Mcdonald houses going on (unbeknownst to them before they got there). After I got home, Bill grilled burgers and we ate & then went to Erma's for custard. It was really great to see them and I appreciated their making the trip down both to meet Acer and to see Bill. While I really enjoy their company, I didn't mind being the least important one (so to speak because they came to meet Acer and celebrate Bill's birthday).
Acer gave Bill his first card and gift this year, the gift was a frame that said "dad" in many fonts with a picture of Acer & Alex in it. The card said something like , of the millions of dads & gazillions of kids how did God know to put us together. Alex sent Bill a really really nice card in the mail, with a sentiment good enough to make you want to tear up (sniff).
Sunday (8/19) really was Bill's birthday and we had our usual gaming group over, but added cake and ice cream to celebrate.
Monday (8/20)Acer and I went to the mall to let him play out of the rain. He actually asked to go to the playplace so we got ready & off we went. He has only asked to see Bill's parents before, so this was something new.
Today (8/21) we finally went swimming again, it's been too cold or too rainy to be in, but today, Acer actually swam a few feet without holding on to anything (but still wearing his swimvest). He was in for a goof 45 minutes before his lips started turning blue & we had to get out. After we went in the house we had to call Baba on the speaker phone to let him know that Acer was actually swimming. I was so proud of him!
That's all for now, I really should try to do this more frequently so I don't have to type so much at once.
Take care and let us know how you're doing!
Heather